An embodiment of the invention provides a resiliently deformable and flexible in-ear sound device having stretchable electronic circuitry. The in-ear sound device may be configured in a variety of ways, including, but in no way limited to a smart earplug, a flexible personal sound amplification product, a personal music player, a walkie-talkie and the like.

One embodiment provides a method including: receiving, using a microphone of an electronic device, user audio input; detecting, using a processor, at least one factor that impacts quality of the audio input received; and notifying, using an output device of the electronic device, a user of an event associated with the at least one factor. Other aspects are described and claimed.

A method of protecting a speaker from thermal damage includes determining a first load current through a first resistor that is coupled to the speaker. The method also includes converting the first load current to a digital value using a second load current through a second resistor as a reference input. The second resistor is part of a circuit that reduces an effect of a temperature coefficient of resistance of the first resistor. The method also includes comparing the digital value of the first load current to a threshold value. The method further includes, responsive to the first load current being larger than the threshold value, generating an instruction to take an action to protect the speaker.

Various embodiments provide for a dynamically programmable acoustic sensor that can adjust various parameters affecting sensitivity, acoustic overload point, signal to noise ratio and other parametric choices that affect the performance and function of the acoustic sensor. A sound analysis engine can monitor the ambient noise in real time and adjust the parameters in response to changes in the ambient noise. In other embodiments, there can be preset configurations based on various sound profiles, and when the sound analysis engine determines that the ambient noise matches one of the sound profiles, the parameters of the programmable acoustic sensor can be dynamically adjusted to match the preset configuration.

An embodiment of the invention provides a resiliently deformable and flexible in-ear sound device having stretchable electronic circuitry. The in-ear sound device may be configured in a variety of ways, including, but in no way limited to a smart earplug, a flexible personal sound amplification product, a personal music player, a walkie-talkie and the like.

A sound pickup apparatus and method form a bidirectionality and a unidirectionality based on sound signals picked up by microphones arranged at vertices of a triangle. A target sound is extracted by performing a spectral subtraction operation and, with respect to each frequency, a ratio of amplitude spectra of beamformer outputs between outputs is calculated for each microphone array of a directionality forming unit. A mode or median of the calculated ratio of amplitude spectra is set as a correction coefficient which corrects power of beamformer outputs for each of the microphone arrays and a target area sound is extracted.

A solid state relay circuit arrangement for audio signals is described, of the type comprising a first MOSFET and a second MOSFET in a back-to-back configuration, adapted to receive an input signal on the source electrode of the first MOSFET and to take the output signal on the source electrode of the second MOSFET, with a driving voltage being applied to the gate electrodes of said first MOSFET and second MOSFET, apt to change, on the basis of its value, the operational state of said first MOSFET and second MOSFET, According to the invention, each of said first MOSFET and second MOSFET includes a respective bypass capacitor arranged between its source electrode and its gate electrode, having such a capacitance value to determine a bypass path for the input signal from the source electrode to the gate electrode in the operating frequency range of said input signal.

A sound adjustment device including a background sound source, an external sound source receiver, a frequency adjuster, a mixer, and an output port. A background audio signal provided by the background sound source is a mono audio signal. The external sound source receiver is used to receive an external audio signal. The frequency adjuster is used to receive and adjust the background audio signal into a left ear background audio signal and a right ear background audio signal. A first frequency of the left ear background audio signal and a second frequency of the right ear background audio signal have a frequency difference. The mixer is used to mix the external audio signal and the left ear background audio signal into a left ear audio signal, and to mix the external audio signal and the right ear background audio signal into a right ear audio signal.