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.

The present disclosure provides an acoustic device including a microphone array, a processor, and at least one speaker. The microphone array may be configured to acquire an environmental noise. The processor may be configured to estimate a sound field at a target spatial position using the microphone array. The target spatial position may be closer to an ear canal of a user than each microphone in the microphone array. The processor may be configured to generate a noise reduction signal based on the environmental noise and the sound field estimation of the target spatial position. The at least one speaker may be configured to output a target signal based on the noise reduction signal. The target signal may be used to reduce the environmental noise. The microphone array may be arranged in a target area to minimize an interference signal from the at least one speaker to the microphone array.

Active noise cancellation systems and methods include a feedforward path configured to receive a reference signal comprising ambient noise and adaptively generate an anti-noise signal to cancel the ambient noise. The adaptive filter is tuned in accordance with at least one parameter, which is set by a logic device configured to determine an ambient noise condition based the reference signal by estimating a fullband power of the reference signal, estimating a low-frequency power of the reference signal, comparing the fullband power and low-frequency power to one or more thresholds, and/or setting one or more ambient noise flags. The ambient noise condition may include a quiet background, a wideband noise condition, and/or a low-frequency dominant noise condition.

An acoustic processing apparatus includes a sensor that detects deformation of an attachment unit attached to an ear portion of a user, and a control unit that switches a mode for noise cancelling in accordance with a detection result of deformation of the attachment unit.

A controlling method of a wearable electronic apparatus includes: receiving, by an IMU sensor, a bone conduction signal corresponding to vibration in the user's face, while the wearable electronic apparatus is operated in an ANC mode; identifying a presence or an absence of the user's voice based on the bone conduction signal, based on the identifying the presence of the user's voice, controlling an operation mode of the wearable electronic apparatus to be a different operation mode from the ANC mode; while the wearable electronic apparatus is operated in the different operation mode, identifying presence or absence of the user's voice based on the bone conduction signal, and based on the absence of the user's voice being identified for a predetermined time while the wearable electronic apparatus is operated in the different operation mode, controlling the different operation mode to return to the ANC mode.

A method performed by an in-ear headphone that includes a speaker and an internal microphone. The method receives a microphone signal from the internal microphone that indicates a current sound pressure level (SPL) in an ear canal of a user. The current SPL is a result of a control leak from the in-ear headphone into an ambient environment that reduces a SPL in the ear canal between 2 dB and 25 dB at a frequency within a frequency range than if otherwise not present. The method determines an active noise cancellation (ANC) filter based on the microphone signal and generates an anti-noise signal using the ANC filter. The method drives the speaker using the anti-noise signal to reduce the current SPL in the ear canal of the user as much as 25 dB at a frequency within the frequency range.

The present invention provides an improved noise separation hybrid type ANC system, which includes a reference audio receiving device, an error audio receiving device, an audio output device, and an audio processing device. The audio processing device includes a feed-forward noise cancellation filter module, a feedback noise cancellation filter module, a mixer, a noise shaper, a first infinite impulse response filter, and a second infinite impulse response filter. When the noise bandwidth detector detects irregular noise, it adjusts the coefficient of the first infinite impulse response filter to set it as a low-pass filter; when regular noise is detected, the coefficient of the second infinite impulse response filter is adjusted to set it as a band-pass filter.

Detecting a divergence in an adaptive system includes the steps of determining a power of a component of an error signal at a first frequency, the component being correlated to a noise-cancellation signal, the noise-cancellation signal being produced by an adaptive filter and being configured to cancel noise within a predetermined volume when transduced into acoustic signal, wherein the error signal represents a magnitude of a residual noise within the predetermined volume; determining a time gradient of the power of the component of the error signal; and comparing a metric to a threshold, wherein the metric is based, at least in part, on a value of the time gradient of the power of the component of the error signal over a period of time.

Adaptive noise cancellation systems and methods comprise a reference sensor operable to sense environmental noise and generate a corresponding reference signal, an error sensor operable to sense noise in a noise cancellation zone and generate a corresponding error signal, a noise cancellation filter operable to receive the reference signal and generate an anti-noise signal to cancel the environmental noise in the cancellation zone, an adaptation module operable to receive the reference signal and the error signal and adaptively adjust the anti-noise signal. The adaptation module includes a noise amplification control module operable to adaptively control noise amplification in at least one hiss region of the anti-noise signal, while achieving cancellation in non-hiss regions of the anti-noise signal.

An active vibratory noise reduction system includes: a first estimation signal generation section configured to generate a vibratory noise estimation signal by processing standard cosine and sine wave signals with correction filters corresponding to signal transfer characteristics from a vibratory noise source to an error signal detector; a second estimation signal generation section configured to generate a canceling vibratory noise estimation signal from the standard cosine and sine wave signals by using first and second adaptive notch control filters; a virtual error signal generation section configured to generate a virtual error signal from the vibratory noise estimation signal and the canceling vibratory noise estimation signal; and a filter coefficient updating section configured to sequentially update filter coefficients of the first and second adaptive notch control filters based on first and second reference signals and the virtual error signal such that the first virtual error signal is minimized.