Improvements in Sound Technology
From: Electronic Design - 01/26/2017
By: William Wong

VocalZoom uses an infrared range finder to measure skin vibration when
speaking to implement a high precision microphone that is essentially
unaffected by ambient noise.

VocalZoom showed off its Human Machine Communications (HMC) sensor at the
Consumer Electroncis Show. This high-precision microphone uses optics instead
of sound vibrations through the air as with conventional audio microphones.
The optical system implements an infrared range finder that detects skin
vibration of a person speaking. This is most apparent around the throat, but
much of the face provides sufficient feedback for the sensor.

The sensor does need to be aimed at the face, but this is easy with many
application scenarios from tracking a car driver's voice to someone using an
automated teller machine (ATM). A head mounted approach could also be used.
The advantage of this approach is that only the voice-related vibrations are
recorded, so noise cancellation is not required. The sensor is not applicable
to all voice command input applications, but the ability to essentially
eliminate ambient noise from the input is hard to overlook.

[obvious application in hearing aids - DJ]

Read the entire article at:
http://electronicdesign.com/blog/improvements-sound-technology

Link:
VocalZoom
http://vocalzoom.com