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[DF@Work]

Jawbone eliminates background noise
Kansas City Star
10/3/04


Talking on a wireless phone in a bar, at the ballpark or walking outside on a busy street can be a real challenge for those on both ends of the conversation. A headset from a small California company beat its competition in the Sound Off challenge at the DemoMobile trade show last month. The Jawbone uses a digital signal processor designed by the military for use on a battlefield to eliminate background noise without suppressing the speaker's voice. Manufacturer AliphCom showed off the headset at DemoMobile by placing a caller near a weed whacker, boom box and blender. The device filtered out the background noise and left the speaker's voice intact.
(more details to come)

[Ted]

i think this works because it picks up the noise in the background and generates the opposite signal through the headphones, kinda like a cancelling out wave deal.

[NoClones]

Now if they could get speakerphones to do that...

[Ted]

Now if they could get speakerphones to do that...

i don't think that would happen because the sound coming out of the speaker would get cancelled out as well.

[NoClones]

Ya don't think they could cancell out the background noise just going into the speaker ?

[Ted]

i guess it depends on how it's done. if they pick up the noise coming thru the mic and lay the opposite wave over it, it would cancel everything the mic hears, which would include what was coming out of the speaker. it can probably be done by someone who knows a whole lot more than you and me, though.

[NoClones]

Ted, I gotta tell ya... Your picture makes me laugh every time I see it. You've got this kinda "I'm up to no good but trying to look innocent" look on your face (If that's you)... LoL

[Ted]

Ted, I gotta tell ya... Your picture makes me laugh every time I see it. You've got this kinda "I'm up to no good but trying to look innocent" look on your face (If that's you)... LoL

yeah, it's me, and yeah, that's an accurate description of me too. LOL! the pic was taken the day my 3 year old daughter was born

[NoClones]

LoL :D <Filler>

[BeNT]

i guess it depends on how it's done. if they pick up the noise coming thru the mic and lay the opposite wave over it, it would cancel everything the mic hears, which would include what was coming out of the speaker. it can probably be done by someone who knows a whole lot more than you and me, though.
Actually it can and is being done on speakerphones. Not perfectly, but with some really good results. It's primarily done in office enviroments. I don't know if has been tried on mobile phones though. It does work basically like you said. There is a seperate mic that picks up the frequency of the "background" noise, then a seperate speaker generates the same frequency exactly 180 degrees out of phase with the original; thus "cancelling" each other out. There are actually a lot of luxury vehicles with these systems as well for cancelling out road noise. For you car audio fans..........reverse the speaker wires feeding one of your subwoofers. low frequency output disappears. Same principle. 180 + (-180) = 0

[Bryans]

The Bluespoon Digital bluetooth headset already features this technology. http://www.blue-spoon.com/

[danreed]

Jawbone uses also mechanical information: the vibration of the shallow part of the cheek near the hinge between the mandible and the skull. Sadly, though, Jawbone isn't manufactured with a plug that fits my Sanyo RL2500 which has a relatively good microphone. It needs power. Do you know of a conversion plug from a Motorola v60 to a Sanyo RL2500 shape?