Feedback-Aware Design of an Occlusion Effect Reduction System Using an Earbud-Mounted Vibration Sensor

Abstract:
Users of earbuds often perceive their own voice as boomy, a phenomenon called the occlusion effect (OE). Active noise cancellation (ANC), available on many modern earbuds, can be used to counteract the OE. We previously showed that a skin-mounted vibration sensor can be used as a reference sensor to reduce the OE. In this publication, we focus on an earbud-mounted vibration sensor, which is an alternative that is better suited for consumer electronics. However, for this case, feedback from the loudspeaker to the vibration sensor can no longer be neglected. In this publication, we characterize this feedback using measurements with a hardware prototype. We design a proof-of-concept OE reduction system and show that the system is able to counteract the OE using simulations as well as measurements with a real-time implementation.