A system for enhanced processing of voice-based signals in a voice-controllable sound-generating system (SGS) is provided. An SGS audio source may communicate electronic SGS audio signals to both (a) one or more speakers, which output corresponding SGS sound waves and (b) an audio countering system. A microphone may detect sound waves and output corresponding audio signals including: (a) distorted SGS audio signals corresponding with SGS sound waves and (b) additional audio signals originated from other sources, e.g., including voice-based commands. The audio countering system may (a) receive the electronic SGS audio signals from the SGS audio source; receive signals from the microphone representing the microphone-detected sound waves, and (c) use the electronic SGS audio signals received to cancel or counter the distorted SGS audio signals included in the microphone-received audio signals, to thereby enhance any voice-based commands included in the received audio signals.

A speech intelligibility system. Embodiments comprise a talker unit, a listener unit and an earpiece. The talker unit includes a microphone to receive audible speech content and to produce electrical signals representative of the speech content, and a transmitter coupled to the microphone to produce wireless transmissions containing the speech content. The listener unit includes a receiver to receive the wireless transmissions and to produce electrical signals representative of the speech content. At least one of the talker unit and the listener unit includes an amplifier to amplify spectral components of the speech content within a frequency range having a lower end between about 800 Hz and 1,700 Hz and an upper end between about 7,000 Hz and 11,000 Hz. The earpiece is coupled to the listener unit and includes a speaker to produce audible speech content having the amplified spectral components and a tube to direct the audible speech content from the speaker toward a user's ear canal.

A piece of audio equipment is provided that includes a first signal path including a first dynamic range expander and a lowpass filter. The piece of audio equipment also includes a second signal path parallel to the first signal path, wherein the second signal path includes a second dynamic range expander and a highpass filter. The piece of audio equipment further includes a summing amplifier configured to receive a first signal from the first signal path, a second signal from the second signal path, and a clear signal from an audio source and output a summed signal.

In one aspect, a first playback device is configured to (i) receive a set of voice signals, (ii) process the set of voice signals using a first set of audio processing algorithms, (iii) identify, from the set of voice signals, at least two voice signals that are to be further processed, (iv) determine that the first playback device does not have a threshold amount of computational power available, (v) receive an indication of an available amount of computational power of a second playback device, (vi) send the at least two voice signals to the second playback device, (vii) cause the second playback device to process the at least two voice signals using a second set of audio processing algorithms, (viii) receive, from the second playback device, the processed at least two voice signals, and (ix) combine the processed at least two voice signals into a combined voice signal.

The invention relates to a hearing aid a cochlear implant comprising a) at least one input transducer for capturing incoming sound and for generating electric audio signals which represent frequency bands of the incoming sound, b) a sound processor which is configured to analyze and to process the electric audio signals, c) a transmitter that sends the processed electric audio signals, d) a receiver/stimulator, which receives the processed electric audio signals from the transmitter and converts the processed electric audio signals into electric pulses, e) an electrode array embedded in the cochlear comprising a number of electrodes for stimulating the cochlear nerve with said electric pulses, and f) a control unit configured to control the distribution of said electric pulses to the number of said electrodes. The control unit is configured to distribute said electric pulses to the number of said electrodes by applying one out of a plurality of different coding schemes, and wherein the applied coding scheme is selected according to characteristics of the incoming sound.

A method of real-time noise reduction including generating spectral data using temporally localized spectral representations of a received audio signal, determining detection of voice by comparing first and second filtered data, and generating noise-reduced audio output by attenuating noise based on the determined detection of voice. The first and second filtered data are formed by attenuating temporal variations of the spectral data based on, respectively, a first timescale and a second timescale. A noise reduction system, comprising processing circuitry configured to execute a method of real-time noise reduction to generate an output that is transmitted via an output port of the noise reduction system. A noise-reduction microphone comprising a housing having a transducer coupled to a processor therein to execute a method of real-time noise reduction, and an output port. A non-transitory computer-readable medium having instructions to cause a processor to perform a method of real-time noise reduction.

In at least one embodiment, a road alert system is provided. The system includes a loudspeaker array and at least one controller. The loudspeaker array transmits an audio output signal to a vehicle traveling on a road. The at least one controller is programmed to receive a message indicative of a warning for the vehicle for transmission on the audio output signal and to apply equalization parameters to the message to increase in-vehicle speech intelligibility of the audio output signal within the vehicle. The at least one controller is further programmed to transmit the audio output signal via the loudspeaker array in a beamforming mode to minimize noise pollution for objects positioned along the road.

A set of signal measures is sent, wherein each signal measure in the set of signal measures corresponds to a respective audio signal received by a playback device in a media playback system and is processed based on a first set of audio processing algorithms. A plurality of signal measures is identified in the set of signal measures. Audio signals corresponding to the identified plurality of signal measures are processed by one or more devices in the media playback system to improve a signal measure of each of the audio signals. The audio signals are processed based on a second set of audio processing algorithms. The processed audio signals are combined into a combined audio signal.

A method and apparatus for spatialized communication of announcements to persons located in structures in at least two different languages simultaneously, in which at least two sound-emittive speakers are spaced-apart and disposed in opposing relation for persons to hear announcements. A storage device stores signals representative of at least one announcement associated with at least two different languages. A communicator simultaneously communicates the signals representative of the announcement for each one of the at least two languages to a respective one of the speakers in the structure. The announcement, being communicated by each one of the at least two speakers in one of the at least two languages, is spatializedly discernable by persons in the structure in each of the communicated languages.

A system and method are provided for enhancing an audio recording which comprises a recording of a sound signal obtained from the play-out of an audio signal via a speaker. The audio signal, and thereby the sound signal, may represent certain audio content, e.g., a radio station or TV audio. To perform the enhancing, the recording of the sound signal is suppressed using the audio signal, thereby obtaining an intermediate audio recording. An original version of the audio content is then added to the intermediate audio recording to obtain an enhanced audio recording. This original version is generally of higher quality as it generally does not represent a background audio component but rather was purposefully recorded or generated.