A study of bone conduction and its applications for audio signal transmission

• Published in: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America 2006-11, Vol.120 (5_Supplement), p.3331-3331
• Main Authors: Watabe, Yusuke, Yui, Kochi, Watanabe, Yuko, Hamada, Hareo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• ISSN: 0001-4966; 1520-8524
• DOI: 10.1121/1.4781266

Human can perceive a sound in two different ways: one is sound transmission through the ear canal, another is that through the skull. The bone conduction technology has been used mainly for hearing impaired listeners and as communication tools in the military organization. Recently, because of a rapid improvement of the bone conduction device, its technology has spread in the field of audio. However, the relationship between the physical characteristic and the subjective responses of bone conduction are not clearly understood. For example, the effect of attachment position and excitation force of bone conduction loudspeakers has been still under discussion. In addition, since the bone conduction units also generate the airborne sound, listeners can hear the sound composed of both the bone conduction sound and the airborne sound. In our previous work, by using of a loudness curve and a threshold of hearing, a fundamental performance of the bone conduction was discussed. In this paper, further investigation will be carried out in order to establish a transmission system of the bone conduction, and the airborne sound on the eardrum that is caused by the vibration of the bone conduction loudspeaker will be measured.