An embodiment of the invention provides a wireless in-ear utility device that rests in the user's ear canal near the user's eardrum. The in-ear utility device may be configured in a variety of ways, including, but in no way limited to a smart in-ear utility device, a flexible personal sound amplification product, a personal music player, a “walkie-talkie” and the like.

Provided is a sound reproduction device including: speakers; light emitting elements provided to a part of each of the speakers, or in a vicinity of each of the speakers; a detecting section configured to detect a beat of an audio signal reproduced by the speakers, and output a detection signal corresponding to the beat; and a light emission control signal outputting section configured to output a light emission control signal for controlling a light emission mode of the light emitting elements according to the detection signal. The light emission control signal outputting section outputs a first light emission control signal according to the detection signal, and outputs a second light emission control signal when a period in which the beat is not detected exceeds a set period, the second light emission control signal being for controlling the light emitting elements to perform a predetermined light emission mode.

An N.sup.th order linear differential microphone array (LDMA) with a steerable beamformer may be constructed by specifying a target beampattern for the LDMA at a steering angle θ. An N.sup.th order polynomial associated with the target beampattern may then be generated. A relationship between the nulls of the polynomial and the steering angle θ is determined and then a value of one of the nulls is determined based on N−1 assigned values for the other nulls and the determined relationship between the nulls of the polynomial and the steering angle θ. The steerable beamformer may be generated based on the determined null value and the N−1 assigned null values. The N−1 assigned null values may be associated with the N−1 nulls of the polynomial that are of less than N.sup.th order and the determined null value may be associated with the null of the polynomial that is of N.sup.th order.

An example method of operation includes performing a plurality of polar pattern permutations based on a function of an inputted magnitude and phase adjustment range, determining a plurality of polar pattern outputs, creating a list of the polar pattern outputs, and creating a set of FIR filters to apply to a loudspeaker based on a selected one of the list of polar patterns.

Specifically programmed, integrated motor vehicle dangerous driving warning and control system and methods comprising at least one specialized communication computer machine including electronic artificial intelligence expert system decision making capability further comprising one or more motor vehicle electronic sensors for monitoring the motor vehicle and for monitoring activities of the driver and/or passengers including activities related to the use of cellular telephones and/or other wireless communication devices and further comprising electronic communications transceiver assemblies for communications with external sensor networks for monitoring dangerous driving situations, weather conditions, roadway conditions, pedestrian congestion and motor vehicle traffic congestion conditions to derive warning and/or control signals for warning the driver of dangerous driving situations and/or for controlling the motor vehicle driver use of a cellular telephone and/or other wireless communication devices.

Various implementations include speaker systems. In one implementation, a self-powered speaker system includes: a first module, having: a processor; an audio signal and control connector coupled with the processor and enabling audio signal and control communication between the processor and another module in the speaker system; a dedicated power supply for the speaker system; a front end backup power supply; and a power connector coupled with the dedicated power supply and the front end backup power supply, the power connector enabling input power to the dedicated power supply and output power from the front end backup power supply.

A wideband signal is enhanced or suppressed to the same extent at each frequency without increasing the size of an overall sensor array. To achieve this, there is provided a signal processing apparatus including a direction estimator that obtains a direction of arrival of a signal for signals received from a plurality of sensors and each containing a target signal and noise, a first gain calculator that calculates a first gain using the direction of arrival of the signal, an integrator that obtains an integrated signal by integrating the signals received from the plurality of sensors, and a multiplier that multiplies the first gain by the integrated signal.

Disclosed herein are microphone arrays for directional reception, along with related system, devices, and techniques. For example, a four-microphone array for directional signal reception may include first, second, and third microphones arranged such that projections of the first, second, and third microphones in a plane provide corners of a triangle in the plane. In some embodiments, a fourth microphone may be arranged such that a projection of the fourth microphone in the plane is disposed in an interior of the triangle. In other embodiments, the fourth microphone may be arranged such that the projection of the fourth microphone in the plane is disposed outside the interior of the triangle, and a distance between the first microphone and the second microphone is different from a distance between the first microphone and the third microphone.

An aerial acoustic acquisition system including: an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV); an acoustic sensing payload attached to the UAV including: at least one SOI microphone configured to detect a first audio signal including a signal of interest; and at least one noise detection microphone configured to detect a second audio signal including sound generated by the UAV, and a processing suite including a processor configured to receive first audio data corresponding to the first audio signal and second audio data corresponding to the second audio signal from the acoustic sensing suite, and process the first audio data using the second audio data to extract the signal of interest from the first audio data.

A digital camera includes an optical assembly and image sensor for capturing still and/or video images and displaying the images on a screen. The camera includes three or more spaced apart microphones aligned with the optical assembly for capturing audio during image capture. At least two pairs of microphones are spaced apart along orthogonal directional axes for capturing left-right stereo sound in any camera orientation.