Headphone playback devices can include a cable assembly including a plurality of conductors extending between a first earpiece and a second earpiece. The cable assembly includes a jacket, a power conductor disposed within the jacket and coupled between a power source in the first earpiece and a wireless transceiver in the second earpiece. The cable assembly further includes a microphone conductor at least partially disposed within the jacket and coupled to a microphone in one of the earpieces. A shield is at least partially disposed between the power conductor and the microphone conductor to reduce electromagnetic interference between the two.

A method for manufacturing a hearing device is disclosed. The hearing device comprises a speaker, a first chamber, and a sound channel arranged between the first chamber and the surroundings of the hearing device or a second chamber. An element of a thermoplastic material being in a solid state is arranged in the sound channel. A laser light is applied to the element to thereby activate the element to change from the solid state to a liquid state. The element then changes from the solid state to the liquid state filling out a cross-section of the sound channel and thereby sealing the sound channel. Finally, cooling of the element is allowed leading to a change of the element from the liquid state to solid state while filling out the cross-section of the sound channel.

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.

A microphone may comprise a microphone element for detecting sound, and a digital signal processor configured to process a first audio signal that is based on the sound in accordance with a selected one of a plurality of digital signal processing (DSP) modes. Each of the DSP modes may be for processing the first audio signal in a different way. For example, the DSP modes may account for distance of the person speaking (e.g., near versus far) and/or desired tone (e.g., darker, neutral, or bright tone). At least some of the modes may have, for example, an automatic level control setting to provide a more consistent volume as the user changes their distance from the microphone or changes their speaking level, and that may be associated with particular default (and/or adjustable) values of the parameters attack, hold, decay, maximum gain, and/or target gain, each depending upon which DSP is being applied.

A hearing device, e.g. a hearing aid or a headset, configured to be worn by a comprises an input unit for providing at least one electric input signal in a time-frequency representation; and a signal processor comprising a target signal estimator for providing an estimate of the target signal; a noise estimator for providing an estimate of the noise; and a gain estimator for providing respective gain values in dependence of said target signal estimate and said noise estimate. The gain estimator comprises a trained neural network, wherein the outputs of the neural network comprise real or complex valued gains, or separate real valued gains and real valued phases. The signal processor is configured—at a given time instance t—to calculate changes Δx(i,t)=x(i,t)−{circumflex over (x)}(i,t−1), and Δh(j,t−1)=h(j,t−1)−ĥ(j,t−2) to an input vector x(t) and to the hidden state vector h(t−1), respectively, from one time instance, t−1, to the next, t, and where {circumflex over (x)}(i,t−1) and ĥ(j,t−2) are estimated values of x(i,t−1) and h(j,t−2), respectively, where indices i, j refers to the i.sup.th input neuron and the j.sup.th neuron of the hidden state, respectively, where 1≤i≤N.sub.ch,x and 1≤j≤N.sub.ch,oh, wherein N.sub.ch,x and N.sub.ch,oh is the number of processing channels of the input vector x and the hidden state vector h, respectively, and wherein the signal processor is further configured to provide that the number of updated channels among said N.sub.ch,x and said N.sub.ch,oh processing channels of the modified gated recurrent unit for said input vector x(t) and said hidden state vector h(t−1), respectively, at said given time instance t is limited to a number of peak values N.sub.p,x, and N.sub.p,oh, respectively, where N.sub.p,x is smaller than N.sub.ch,x, and N.sub.p,oh, is smaller than N.sub.ch,oh.

A speaker system includes a speaker, a processor, and an active noise cancellation (ANC) circuit communicatively coupled with the processor. The ANC is configured to apply ANC on audio signals from outside the speaker system to generate a modified audio signal stream through the speaker. The application of ANC is to include generation of ANC signals to interfere with at least part of the audio signals from outside the speaker system in the modified audio signal stream. The processor is configured to determine of low-frequency energy at the speaker system, the low-frequency energy below a threshold frequency. The ANC circuit is configured to, based on the determination of low-frequency energy at the speaker system, perform a corrective action on application of ANC to the audio signals from outside the speaker system.

An audio device includes one or more earcups, at least one of the earcups including a boom connector port, a connection detector connected to the boom connector port and configured to detect a connection state at the boom connector port, one or more first microphones positioned in the one or more earcups, audio processing circuitry, and a microphone switch controller connected to the connection detector and configured to connect audio processing circuitry to one of the one or more first microphones or the boom connector port based on the detected connection state of the boom connector port.

An auxiliary device charging case is used to facilitate translation features of a mobile computing device or auxiliary device. A first user, who may be a foreign language speaker, holds the charging case and speaks into the charging case. The charging case communicates the received speech to the mobile computing device, either directly or through the auxiliary device, which translates the received speech into a second language for a second user, who is the owner of the mobile computing device and auxiliary device. The second user may provide input in the second language, such as by speaking or typing into the auxiliary or mobile computing device. The mobile computing device may translate this second input to the first language, and transmit the translated input to the charging case either directly or through the auxiliary device. The charging case may output the translated second input to the first user, such as through a speaker or display screen.

A headset with automatic noise reduction mode switching is provided to enable better call experience when conducting a call. The headset comprises at least one or more earphones, one or more microphones, a processor, and an active noise cancellation circuit, connected at least with the processor. The processor is configured to determine whether a call is being conducted using the headset, and if a call is being conducted, to switch the active noise cancellation circuit from a first ANC mode to a second ANC mode.

A face mask is provided. A face mask comprising a decorative skin, having a strap attached to an outer perimeter of the decorative skin, a respirator attached to a connection piece and utilizes a filter, the connection piece being attached to the decorative skin, a speaker and a microphone mounted to an interior of the face mask, an electronic transceiver module attached to the face mask and a power source attached to the face mask. The strap secures the face mask to a head of the user, the filter is connected to the respirator such that an air-tight seal is formed. The power source powers the speaker, the microphone, and the electronic transceiver module. The electronic transceiver module comprises a processor coupled to a computer memory and non-transitory computer readable media, the processor configured to transmit and receive signals from the electronic transceiver module and the speaker or microphone.