Patent ID: 7778430

Claim:
A microphone apparatus, comprising: a condenser microphone portion having a pair of diaphragm electrodes; and a contact portion having an acoustic impedance matching an acoustic impedance of soft tissues in a body of a speaker, the contact portion being affixed to the condenser microphone portion with no intervening air space and conducting input speech vibrations from a skin surface of the speaker to the condenser microphone portion, wherein the apparatus is adapted for installation on a portion of the skin surface behind an auricle, over a sternocleidomastoid muscle, and below a mastoid of a skull, wherein the microphone samples, as the input speech vibrations, at least one of: a non-audible murmur comprising vibration sounds that are articulated by a variation in resonance filter characteristics associated with motion of a phonatory organ that is not a regular vibration of vocal cords, the vibration sounds being generated when a respiratory sound that is not understandable by persons other than the speaker is transmitted through internal soft tissues; a whisper comprising audible vibration sounds that are generated without regularly vibrating the vocal cords; or audible vibration sounds that are generated by regularly vibrating the vocal cords, and including one or more of a voice having a volume below that which is understandable by persons other than the speaker, an audible murmur, a teeth gnashing sound, and a tongue clucking sound.