A method may include adaptively generating an anti-noise signal for countering the effects of ambient audio sounds at an acoustic output of the transducer by adapting a response of an adaptive filter that filters a reference microphone signal in conformity with an error microphone signal and the reference microphone signal to minimize the ambient audio sounds in the error microphone, generating a scaled anti-noise signal by applying a scaling factor to the anti-noise signal, further adjusting the response of the adaptive filter independent of a source audio signal by altering an input to the coefficient control block of the adaptive filter to compensate for the scaling factor, and combining the scaled anti-noise signal with the source audio signal to generate an audio signal provided to the transducer.

A filtering device includes a low-pass filter (LPF), a noise estimation circuit and a first combining circuit. The LPF receives and filters a pre-filtering signal to generate an output signal of the filtering device. The noise estimation circuit estimates an estimated noise signal according to the output signal and the pre-filtering signal. The first combining circuit subtracts the estimated noise signal from an input signal of the filtering device to generate the pre-filtering signal.

In-car communication and hands-free talking with good sound quality are realized. An echo cancelation apparatus (4) is for use in a vehicle in which microphones (M1, M2) and loudspeakers (S1, S2) are disposed in acoustic regions (100, 200). A loudspeaker (S1) and a microphone (M1) are disposed in a first acoustic region (100), and a loudspeaker (S2) and a microphone (M2) are disposed in a second acoustic region (200). An acoustic signal picked up by the microphone (M1) disposed in the first acoustic region (100) is emitted from the loudspeaker (S2) disposed in the second acoustic region (200). An acoustic signal picked up by the microphone (M2) disposed in the second acoustic region (200) is emitted from the loudspeaker (S1) disposed in the first acoustic region (100). The microphone (M1) is designed to hardly collect a sound emitted from the loudspeaker (S2).

Apparatuses, systems, devices, and methods for a face mask for facilitating conversations are disclosed. A face mask includes a microphone located on an inside of the face mask, a processor located on the inside of the face mask and connected to the microphone, and a memory located on the inside of the face mask that stores code executable by the processor. The code is executable by the processor to capture, using the microphone, audio spoken by a user wearing the face mask, determine a mode that the face mask is in for transmitting the captured audio to a destination, and transmit the captured audio to the destination based on the determined mode.

A method performed by a wearable audio output device worn by a user is provided for controlling external noise attenuated by wearable audio output device. A speech is detected from a user wearing the wearable audio output device, wherein the audio output device has active noise reduction turned on. It is determined, based on the detecting, that the user desires to speak to a subject in the vicinity of the user. In response to the determining, a level of noise reduction is reduced to enable the user to hear sounds external to the audio output device. It is determined that the user desires to speak to the subject by detecting at least one condition of a plurality of conditions.

A pervasive listening method including steps of inserting at least one forced gap in a playback signal (thus generating a modified playback signal), and during playback of the modified playback signal, monitoring non-playback content (e.g., including by generating an estimate of background noise) in a playback environment using output of a microphone in the playback environment. Optionally, the method includes generation of the playback signal, including by processing of (e.g., performing noise compensation on) an input signal using a result (e.g., a background noise estimate) of the monitoring of non-playback content. Other aspects are systems configured to perform any embodiment of the pervasive listening method.

The disclosure includes a voice isolation system comprising an acoustic echo-cancelation subsystem configured to receive a plurality of input signals, subtract an interference component from the input signals, and provide a plurality of output signals. The system also includes an adaptive beamformer subsystem configured to receive the plurality of output signals from the acoustic echo-cancelation subsystem and compute a signal-to-noise ratio enhanced signal based on the received output signals. The system also includes a residual noise suppressor subsystem configured to attenuate at least one portion of the SNR enhanced signal received from the adaptive beamformer subsystem based on the at least one portion having an SNR below a predetermined SNR threshold. The system also includes an automatic gain control subsystem configured to process a signal outputted from the residual noise suppressor subsystem and transmit a resulting signal as an output signal.

An audio processing system includes: a first microphone configured to output a first signal based on a first audio signal; one or more microphones each of which outputs a microphone signal based on an audio signal; one or more adaptive filters configured to respectively receive the microphone signals from the one or more microphones and output passing signals based on the microphone signals; and a processor configured to: determine whether the microphone signal includes uncorrelated noise; control one or more filter coefficients of the one or more adaptive filters; and subtract a subtraction signal based on the passing signals from the first signal. The one or more microphones include a second microphone that outputs a second signal. When determining that the second signal includes the uncorrelated noise, the processor is configured to set a level of the second signal input to the corresponding adaptive filter to zero.

Systems and methods are provided herein for directing sound through a parametric speaker in connection with interpreting/translating messages in an open forum such that communications may be delivered and understood without the use of headphones. The directed sound may also be directed in connection with detecting auditory areas and targeting sound at the auditory regions of a subject.

A method performed by a wearable audio output device worn by a user is provided for controlling external noise attenuated by wearable audio output device. A speech is detected from a user wearing the wearable audio output device, wherein the audio output device has active noise reduction turned on. It is determined, based on the detecting, that the user desires to speak to a subject in the vicinity of the user. In response to the determining, a level of noise reduction is reduced to enable the user to hear sounds external to the audio output device. It is determined that the user desires to speak to the subject by detecting at least one condition of a plurality of conditions.