There is provided a mechanism that enables cooperation of a plurality of audio processing devices. An earphone device includes a sensor unit that detects an overlapping state of the earphone device and a headphone device and a wireless communication unit that wirelessly communicates with the headphone device which is worn to overlap an outer side of the earphone device worn by a user.

The invention relates to a method for airborne-sound acoustic monitoring of an exterior and/or an interior of a vehicle, in which at least one microphone (1) is used to convert airborne sound into an electrical signal (S) and to route it for evaluation purposes to a device for voice and/or sound recognition (2). According to the invention, the electrical signal (S) is subjected to a pre-evaluation in a device for trigger detection (3), and detection of a trigger results in the device for voice and/or sound recognition (2) being moved from an inactive or partially active state to a fully active state by means of the device for trigger detection (3). Further, the invention relates to an apparatus for airborne-sound acoustic monitoring of an exterior and/or an interior of a vehicle and to a vehicle having such an apparatus. The subject matter of the invention is also a computer-readable storage medium.

A sound reproducing apparatus includes a speaker, a microphone, and at least one processor. The at least one processor performs a process that includes hear-through processing and noise cancellation processing. The process also includes a storage task and a reading task. When detecting an occurrence of the trigger, the reading task reads control information of the event information of which execution is instructed by the trigger. The reading task also executes the hear-through processing and the noise cancellation processing in the signal processing task.

A road noise cancellation (RNC) system is provided with at least one loudspeaker to project anti-noise sound within a passenger cabin of a vehicle in response to an anti-noise signal; and a controller. The controller is programmed to: determine a coherence value between a noise signal indicative of road induced noise and an error signal indicative of noise and the anti-noise sound within the passenger cabin; estimate a noise reduction value based on the coherence value; filter the noise signal and the error signal based on the estimated noise reduction value; and generate the anti-noise signal based on the filtered noise signal and the filtered error signal.

The disclosed computer-implemented method may include applying, via a sound reproduction system, sound cancellation that reduces an amplitude of various sound signals. The method further includes identifying, among the sound signals, an external sound whose amplitude is to be reduced by the sound cancellation. The method then includes analyzing the identified external sound to determine whether the identified external sound is to be made audible to a user and, upon determining that the external sound is to be made audible to the user, the method includes modifying the sound cancellation so that the identified external sound is made audible to the user. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

A vehicle-implemented, adaptive noise-cancellation system responsive to entertainment audio is provided. The noise-cancellation system uses reference signal from a reference sensor, such as an accelerometer, to generate a noise-cancellation signal to destructively interfere with road noise in the vehicle cabin. A first set of entertainment audio thresholds triggers the system to enable or disable adaptation of an adaptive filter of the noise-cancellation system. A second set of entertainment audio thresholds triggers the system to enable, attenuate, or disable the noise-cancellation signal. As the entertainment audio increases, the system first disables the adaptation of the adaptive filter, then attenuates the noise-cancellation signal, then completely disables the noise-cancellation signal. Conversely, as the entertainment audio decreases, the system first enables the noise-cancellation signal, then reduces the attenuation (thereby increasing the amplitude) of the noise-cancellation signal, and then enables the adaptation of the adaptive filter.

Implementations of the subject technology provide systems and methods for determining whether to interrupt a user of an audio device that is operating in a noise-cancelling mode of operation. For example, the user may desire to be interrupted by one or more pre-designated contacts that are identified at an associated electronic device as interrupt-authorized contacts, or by a person who speaks a designated keyword to the user.

Headphones includes a pair of cups, each housing a speaker to be positioned over an ear of a user, a microphone, a processor, an actuator to move a member of at least one of the cups to uncover at least a portion of the ear of the user to expose the user to ambient sound, a user control to active a training mode of the headphones in which the processor operates the microphone to record relevant sounds occurring when the training mode is activated, the processor to subsequently analyze ambient sounds external to the headphones that are received by the microphone and compare those ambient sounds to the recorded relevant sounds and the processor to selectively activate the actuator to uncover at least a portion of the ear of the user to expose the user to ambient sound in response to determining that the ambient sounds match the relevant sounds.

One embodiment provides a method, including: detecting audio being supplied across an electronic communication medium, wherein the audio comprises at least one noise other than a speaker; minimizing the at least one noise by dynamically adjusting a latency of the audio being supplied to a recipient, wherein the minimizing comprises adjusting the latency to a value allowing for a noise cancelling algorithm to minimize the at least one noise; and providing the audio having the minimized at least one noise to the recipient. Other aspects are described and claimed.

A method performed by a head-mounted wearable audio output device is provided. The audio output device is worn on a head of a user and includes at least one sensor. The device detects a user activity based on motion of the user's body using the at least one sensor. The devices detects an orientation of the head of the user is one of upward or downward using the at least one sensor. The devices controls at least one of: a level of attenuation applied to external noise or audio output based on the detected user activity and the detected orientation of the head of the user.