White Paper

Acoustics & Sound (rev 1.0)

(prepared by Rohit Khanna for use in World Health Partners project in India, April 2008)

A Microphone and speakers combination is used at the TPC end for the audio. The
microphone currently selected by Neurosynaptics is an omni directional one, hence
it’s sensitivity for peripheral sound is also high.

Because of this, there is a very high likelihood of severe echo & voice feedback
occurring, which is extremely aggravated due to the delay caused by the satellite link.

It is naturally very important to reduce this to an absolute minimum. Some methods

that can be used/ tried out are –

Practical Position & Adjustments

1) by keeping the volume in check. Adjust speaker volume to the lowest level
sufficient for hearing. Setting a lower volume also helps in reducing other
distortions & vibrations & harmonics, and hence leads to a clearer / cleaner
sound which is often MUCH easier to understand. (Note : Loudness does
NOT translate to intelligibility)
2) Try to keep other sounds in the room at a minimum
3) An acoustic isolation partition can be placed between mic & spkr. This could
be a simple cork-board or even hard cardboard, such that it blocks a direct
pickup from the speakers.
4) Ideally the microphone position should be somewhat BEHIND the speakers.
Also, the ‘user’ should talk with a strong and confident voice for better pickup
of speech by the microphone.

Technical Changes/ enhancements

1) Use of DIRECTIONAL mics and speakers, and then by proper orientation of
speakers & mic. These should be pointed AWAY from each other preferably.
2) use of Push-To_talk (PTT) button on the mic. In case of severe problems, this
may become necessary. This button must be pressed time whenever person
has to talk. Otherwise the button automatically reverts the mic to a MUTE
setting, and hence eliminates the echo problem. However, this takes a little
practise, and also means that one hand is always busy with this operation.
3) we can experiment with a “home-brew” cancellation path between spks signal
& mic output – (from speaker cable, take a tapped signal and MIX it directly
into the mic output cable. Use a variable attenuator/ phase shifter/ inversion
electronics in the path. Maybe even a small delay insertion.
4) Echo cancellation s/w included as part of ReMeDi system ? This may not be
feasible, as it would require substantial DSP algorithm implementations,
which are CPU intensive.

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 White Paper

(prepared by Rohit Khanna for use in World Health Partners project in India, April 2008)

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