The present invention provides an apparatus for protecting dental patient hearing through noise reduction, the apparatus comprising: a main body portion provided in a form that can be mounted on both ears of a user; a microphone module that is provided on one side of the main body portion and collects external sound signals generated from the outside; a noise filter module that is built in the main body portion and filters the external sound signals to block or reduces noise signals included in the external sound signals; and a speaker module that is built in the main body portion and provided on the other side of the main body portion corresponding to the ears of the user, and that outputs sound signals filtered by the noise filter module.

According to one embodiment, a method, computer system, and computer program product for allowing selective sounds within a noise cancellation headset. The embodiment may include receiving a sound from a noise-filled environment. A source of the sound is a machine within the noise-filled environment. The embodiment may include determining that the sound is indicative of a problem within the noise-filled environment. The embodiment may include identifying a severity of the problem. The embodiment may include identifying a user within a boundary range of the problem. The boundary range is based, in part, on the severity of the problem. The user is wearing a noise cancellation headset which is actively cancelling sounds of the noise-filled environment. The embodiment may include allowing the sound to be heard within the noise cancellation headsets of the identified user.

A wearable device is provided and includes a plurality of speakers including a first speaker, a second speaker, and an N.sup.th speaker, a plurality of digital to analog converter (DAC)s including a first DAC connected to the first speaker, a second DAC connected to the second speaker, and an N.sup.th DAC connected to the N.sup.th speaker, an audio signal processing module including N DAC output paths configured to filter an audio signal according to each frequency band and output the audio signal, a memory; and a processor electrically connected to the plurality of DACs, the audio signal processing module, and the memory, wherein the memory includes instructions causing the processor to, when the audio signal is reproduced, analyze a frequency component included in the audio signal, activate the N DAC output paths when the frequency component included in the audio signal has a full band range, activate only a DAC output path for processing a specific frequency band among the N DAC output paths when the frequency component included in the audio signal has only the specific frequency band, and output the audio signal through a speaker connected to the activated DAC output path.

Technology described in this document can be embodied in an earpiece of an active noise reduction (ANR) device. The earpiece includes a plurality of microphones, wherein each of the plurality of microphones is usable for capturing ambient audio to generate input signals for both an ANR mode of operation and a hear-through mode of operation of the ANR device. The earpiece further includes a controller configured to: process a first subset of microphones from the plurality of microphones to generate input signals for the ANR mode of operation, process a second subset of microphones from the plurality of microphones to generate input signals for the hear-through mode of operation, detect that a particular microphone of the second subset is acoustically coupled to an acoustic transducer of the ANR device in the hear-through mode of operation, and in response to the detection, process the input signals from the second subset of microphones without using input signals from the particular microphone.

Systems and methods for mapping noise via a plurality of playback devices within an environment are disclosed herein. In one example, a plurality of playback devices can each output audio and also detect sound within the environment to obtain respective sound data specimens. For each playback device, the respective sound data specimen can be analyzed to obtain a respective noise determination. A spatial map of the noise determinations within the environment can then be constructed. A visual representation of the spatial map can further be presented to a user. In response to the noise determinations and/or a user input, the audio output via at least one of the playback devices can be modified, for example to mask or suppress noise within one or more regions of the environment.

Provided is a signal processing device that performs noise canceling by combining a feedforward method and a feedback method. A signal processing device includes: a correlation calculation unit that calculates a correlation between a first sound pickup signal by a first microphone installed outside a predetermined region and a second sound pickup signal by a second microphone installed in the predetermined region; a determination unit that determines the correlation; and a control unit that performs control based on a result of the determination. The control unit controls execution of signal processing for generating a cancellation signal to be output within the predetermined region from the first sound pickup signal and the second sound pickup signal or output of the cancellation signal.

An audio system for an ear mountable playback device comprises a speaker and an error microphone that is configured to sense sound being output from the speaker and ambient sound. The audio system further comprises a detection engine that is configured to determine a driver response between the speaker and the error microphone, and to estimate a leakage condition from the determined driver response.

In certain aspects, an active noise control (ANC) method and system for a headphone are disclosed. It is determined whether a music signal is played by a speaker of the headphone. Responsive to the music signal not being played by the speaker and a noise level of an ambient noise signal being greater than a noise threshold, a set of noise feedforward (FF) signals is obtained based on a set of FF microphone signals acquired by a set of FF microphones of the headphone. A noise feedback (FB) signal is obtained based on a first FB microphone signal acquired by a FB microphone of the headphone. A set of leakage monitoring parameters is obtained based on the set of noise FF signals and the noise FB signal. A set of FF filter parameters for a set of FF filters is adjusted based on the set of leakage monitoring parameters.

A method of operating a headphone configured to be removed from and placed in close proximity to a user's ear can include generating an input signal by an input signal generating device. The method can also include determining whether an insertion event has occurred based on the generated input signal and causing the headphone to operate in 5 a low power mode responsive to an absence of an insertion event determination after a first period of time. The method can also include causing the headphone to operate in an ultra-low power mode responsive to the absence of an insertion event determination after a second period of time that occurs after the first period of time, the ultra-low power mode having a lower power consumption than the low power mode.

A sound processing apparatus includes a receiving module configured to receive audio signals of one or more sounds acquired by a personal sound device, a processing module configured to use a sound processing model to perform: classification processing in which a type of a scenario where a user of the personal sound device is located is determined based on the audio signals; identification processing in which each of the one or more sounds is determined as a desired sound or an undesired sound based on the determined type of the scenario, and filtering processing in which filtering configuration is performed based on a result of the identification processing. The audio signals are filtered based on the filtering configuration, and an output module is configured to output the filtered audio signals, so as to provide same to the user.