G10K11/17837

ELECTRONIC DEVICE FOR CONTROLLING AMBIENT SOUND BASED ON AUDIO SCENE AND OPERATING METHOD THEREOF

An electronic device is provided. In order to process an ambient sound according to an audio scene, the electronic device receive an ambient sound, determine an audio scene based on the ambient sound, determine a target signal processing profile corresponding to the audio scene among one or more signal processing profile, and process the ambient sound according to the target signal processing profile.

HEARING PROTECTION APPARATUS WITH CONTEXTUAL AUDIO GENERATION COMMUNICATION DEVICE, AND RELATED METHODS
20220321992 · 2022-10-06 · ·

A communication device, a related method, and a server device is disclosed. The communication device comprises a processing unit, a memory, and an interface connected to the processing unit. The processing unit is configured to: obtain a first input via the interface; determine a presence of an event based on the first input; in accordance with a determination that an event is present; determine a first audio output signal based on first event data indicative of the event; and output the first audio output signal via the interface.

Gain adjustment in ANR system with multiple feedforward microphones

Technology described in this document can be embodied in a method that includes receiving a first input signal representing audio captured by a first sensor disposed in a signal path of an active noise reduction (ANR) device, and receiving a second input signal representing audio captured by a second sensor disposed in the signal path of the ANR device. The method also includes processing, by at least one compensator, the first input signal and the second input signal to generate a drive signal for an acoustic transducer of the ANR device. A gain applied to the signal path is at least 3 dB less relative to an ANR signal path having a single sensor.

Instability mitigation in an active noise reduction (ANR) system having a hear-through mode
11640817 · 2023-05-02 · ·

In one aspect a method that includes receiving an input signal captured by one or more first sensors associated with an active noise reduction (ANR) device, and processing the input signal using a first filter disposed in an ANR signal path to generate a first signal for an acoustic transducer of the ANR device. The input signal is processed in a pass-through signal path disposed in parallel with the ANR signal path to generate a second signal for the acoustic transducer, wherein the pass-through signal path allows a portion of the input signal to pass through to the acoustic transducer in accordance with a variable gain. One or more second sensors detect an existence of a condition likely to cause instability in the pass-through signal path, and in response, the variable gain is adjusted. A driver signal for the acoustic transducer is generated using an output based on the adjusted gain.

SYSTEMS AND METHODS FOR DYNAMIC NOISE REDUCTION
20230145231 · 2023-05-11 · ·

Aspects relate to systems and methods for dynamic active noise reduction including at least a sensor configured to sense a physiological characteristic of a user and transmit a physiological signal correlated to the sensed physiological characteristic, at least an environmental microphone configured to transduce an environmental noise to an environmental noise signal, a processor configured to receive the environmental noise signal, generate a noise-reducing sound signal as a function of the environmental noise signal, and, modify the noise-reducing sound signal as a function of the physiological signal, and a speaker configured to transduce a noise-reducing sound from the modified noise-reducing sound signal.

Headset Noise Processing Method, Apparatus, and Headset

A headset has at least two functions of an active noise control (ANC) function, an ambient sound hear through (HT) function, or an augment hearing (AH) function. The headset includes a first microphone and a second microphone. The first microphone is configured to collect a first signal. The first signal indicates a sound in a current external environment. The second microphone is configured to collect a second signal. The second signal indicates an ambient sound in an ear canal of a user wearing the headset. The headset can be a left earphone or a right earphone. Processing modes or processing strengths of the left earphone and the right earphone may be the same or different. The headset obtains a target mode based on a scene type of the current external environment; and obtains a second audio signal based on the target mode, the first signal, and the second signal.

Active noise control and customized audio system
11689846 · 2023-06-27 · ·

An acoustic customization system to enhance a user's audio environment. One type of enhancement would allow a user to wear headphones and specify what ambient audio and source audio will be transmitted to the headphones. Added enhancements may include the display of an image representing the location of one or more audio sources referenced to a user, an audio source, or other location and/or the ability to select one or more of the sources and to record audio in the direction of the selected source(s). The system may take advantage of an ability to identify the location of an acoustic source or a directionally discriminating acoustic sensor, track an acoustic source, isolate acoustic signals based on location, source and/or nature of the acoustic signal, and identify an acoustic source. In addition, ultrasound may be serve as an acoustic source and communication medium. The audio customization system may be responsive to one or more inputs that enhance aspects of an audio output and one or more inputs that diminish aspects of an audio output. The system may lessen the influence of ambient audio or in some situations enhance ambient audio over source audio. The system may specify aspects of audio to be modified by specification of filtering algorithm, characterization of audio samples, monitored distortion, user selection, location specification or environmental specification.

IN-EAR SPEAKER HYBRID AUDIO TRANSPARENCY SYSTEM
20220386016 · 2022-12-01 ·

A user content audio signal is converted into sound that is delivered into an ear canal of a wearer of an in-ear speaker, while the in-ear speaker is sealing off the ear canal against ambient sound leakage. An acoustic or venting valve in the in-ear speaker is automatically signaled to open, so that sound inside the ear canal is allowed to travel out into an ambient environment through the valve, while activating conversion of an ambient content audio signal into sound for delivery into the ear canal. Both user content and ambient content are heard by the wearer. The ambient content audio signal is digitally processed so that certain frequency components have been gain adjusted, based on an equalization profile, so as to compensate for some of the insertion loss that is due to the in-ear speaker blocking the ear canal. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.

Quiet Toilet Apparatus

A quiet toilet apparatus disclosed. Microphones and circuitry are used to receive and detect one or more virtual point source locations and propagation directions of unwanted toilet noise. Speakers are used to create one or more synthesized wave fronts resulting in cancelation and reduction of unwanted toilet noise. The speakers, microphones and circuitry may be located within a toilet seat of a toilet or at a remote location. A user device or remote device may be connected to the noise reduction toilet apparatus for data recording, collection, reporting, and electronic noise filtering.

Ambient-aware background noise reduction for hearing augmentation
11682376 · 2023-06-20 · ·

An ambient-aware audio system reduces stationary noise and maintains dynamic environmental sound in a received input audio signal. The system includes a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimator that estimates an a priori SNR and an a posteriori SNR, a gain function that uses the estimated SNRs as inputs to compute coefficients of a frequency domain noise reduction filter that uses the computed coefficients to filter a frame of the input audio signal to generate an output audio signal. The SNR estimator, gain function, and filter are configured to iterate over a plurality of frames of the input audio signal. The SNRs are estimated using the input audio signal and the output audio signal associated with one or more of the plurality of frames. The gain function is derived to minimize an expected value of differences between spectral amplitudes of the output audio signal and the input audio signal.