Hands0n
9th January 2010, 08:33 PM
There is a little discussed, rather under-played, aspect to the Google Nexus One handset that I think is so very important that it shocks me that it is largely ignored. That is the built-in noise cancellation technology that I have not seen in any other mobile handset to date. It really should be mandatory equipment in my opinion.
Here's why I think this - mobile phones have very sensitive microphones that are capable of picking up the sound of the feet of an ant walking across the lounge carpet. In most cases they are ridiculously sensitive. So when trying to make a phone call in a moderately noisy environment the result is usually the typical finger-in-ear-shouting-down-mic situation.
No more, not with the Nexus One. Its built-in noise cancellation is a superb rendition of the technology which, incidentally, has been around for simply decades. Typical of the practical use of noise cancellation is Autocom (http://www.autocom.co.uk/Systems/) as used by motorcyclists for bike-to-bike, bike-to-mobile and rider-to-pillion communications. If you've ever received a call from a biker travelling at 70mph (officer) to your mobile you may be quite shocked. The effect is as if the biker were calling you from their armchair in their lounge! It really is that good.
I first came across digital noise cancellation quite a few years back when the technology took up an entire shelf in a 19" rack. This was then reduced to a single card in the same 19" shelf, and eventually ended up miniaturised in the mid-90's by the likes of Autocom.
Very basically, the way digital noise cancellation works is that a DSP (digital signal processor) receives the input of two microphones. It then compares the received signals and clamps or completely eliminates any that are identical from both microphones. It gives priority to the signal coming in from one of the two microphones. All very obvious in 2010 but a real challenge in the 1990s :)
And so HTC have [finally for any manufacturer] done the "bleedin obvious" by incorporating digital noise cancellation into the Nexus One by way of a pair of microphones. One is in the usual place at the bottom of the handset, near the mini-USB port. The other microphone is on the back of the handset on the left-hand side below the camera lens.
As a practical test tonight I made a call to a willing punter - my eldest lad - armed with the Nexus One handset and a Black and Decker hand jigsaw tool. I started the call as normal, speaking to the lad for a minute or so to allow his ear to acclimatise to the specific conditions (mine and his environment). This is a good control to ensure that there is no confusion as the test commences.
After a short while I started up the Black and Decker, the tiny tool is very noisy, probably well in excess of the 80Db safe levels (it does make the ears ring after a while). All the while I was continuing to speak in my normal voice and volume. He reported to me that he could hear the jigsaw but that it faded back as my voice took priority each time I started to speak again. When I stopped the jigsaw noise came back to its painfully loud level. Again, when I started speaking it rapidly faded into the background where my voice was heard by him completely clearly and plainly, no distortion or overpowering by the ambient noise. This is excellent.
As a final control I made another call to him in exactly the same environmental conditions, this time using my iPhone as typical of any modern day handset. This time the results were profoundly different.
At the start of the second call [using the iPhone] my voice was again heard very clearly. But it was when I started up the jigsaw that everything went completely wrong. He reported to me that my the jigsaw totally dominated the audio and, when I spoke, that my voice was unintelligible, distorted and breaking up such that he could not understand a single word.
Now, I know that this was an extreme test. But there is nothing better than performing such an extreme with this technology because it is designed to cope. It would therefore be up to the specific implementer, in this case HTC, as to whether or not the noise cancellation would be effective.
I am absolutely delighted to say that in the Google Nexus One that HTC have implemented its noise cancellation technology 100% effectively. The average user will probably not realise the benefit behind the technology until they make a call from inside a noisy club, pub, disco, roadside, train station, airport and any number of other situations that we all take for granted.
Well done HTC. Very well done indeed.
Here's why I think this - mobile phones have very sensitive microphones that are capable of picking up the sound of the feet of an ant walking across the lounge carpet. In most cases they are ridiculously sensitive. So when trying to make a phone call in a moderately noisy environment the result is usually the typical finger-in-ear-shouting-down-mic situation.
No more, not with the Nexus One. Its built-in noise cancellation is a superb rendition of the technology which, incidentally, has been around for simply decades. Typical of the practical use of noise cancellation is Autocom (http://www.autocom.co.uk/Systems/) as used by motorcyclists for bike-to-bike, bike-to-mobile and rider-to-pillion communications. If you've ever received a call from a biker travelling at 70mph (officer) to your mobile you may be quite shocked. The effect is as if the biker were calling you from their armchair in their lounge! It really is that good.
I first came across digital noise cancellation quite a few years back when the technology took up an entire shelf in a 19" rack. This was then reduced to a single card in the same 19" shelf, and eventually ended up miniaturised in the mid-90's by the likes of Autocom.
Very basically, the way digital noise cancellation works is that a DSP (digital signal processor) receives the input of two microphones. It then compares the received signals and clamps or completely eliminates any that are identical from both microphones. It gives priority to the signal coming in from one of the two microphones. All very obvious in 2010 but a real challenge in the 1990s :)
And so HTC have [finally for any manufacturer] done the "bleedin obvious" by incorporating digital noise cancellation into the Nexus One by way of a pair of microphones. One is in the usual place at the bottom of the handset, near the mini-USB port. The other microphone is on the back of the handset on the left-hand side below the camera lens.
As a practical test tonight I made a call to a willing punter - my eldest lad - armed with the Nexus One handset and a Black and Decker hand jigsaw tool. I started the call as normal, speaking to the lad for a minute or so to allow his ear to acclimatise to the specific conditions (mine and his environment). This is a good control to ensure that there is no confusion as the test commences.
After a short while I started up the Black and Decker, the tiny tool is very noisy, probably well in excess of the 80Db safe levels (it does make the ears ring after a while). All the while I was continuing to speak in my normal voice and volume. He reported to me that he could hear the jigsaw but that it faded back as my voice took priority each time I started to speak again. When I stopped the jigsaw noise came back to its painfully loud level. Again, when I started speaking it rapidly faded into the background where my voice was heard by him completely clearly and plainly, no distortion or overpowering by the ambient noise. This is excellent.
As a final control I made another call to him in exactly the same environmental conditions, this time using my iPhone as typical of any modern day handset. This time the results were profoundly different.
At the start of the second call [using the iPhone] my voice was again heard very clearly. But it was when I started up the jigsaw that everything went completely wrong. He reported to me that my the jigsaw totally dominated the audio and, when I spoke, that my voice was unintelligible, distorted and breaking up such that he could not understand a single word.
Now, I know that this was an extreme test. But there is nothing better than performing such an extreme with this technology because it is designed to cope. It would therefore be up to the specific implementer, in this case HTC, as to whether or not the noise cancellation would be effective.
I am absolutely delighted to say that in the Google Nexus One that HTC have implemented its noise cancellation technology 100% effectively. The average user will probably not realise the benefit behind the technology until they make a call from inside a noisy club, pub, disco, roadside, train station, airport and any number of other situations that we all take for granted.
Well done HTC. Very well done indeed.