Disclosed examples generally include methods and apparatuses related to microphone units, such as may be found in implantable medical devices (e.g., cochlear implants). Microphone units generally include a microphone element connected to a chamber having a concave floor with the chamber covered by a membrane. Microphone units can be configured to produce an output based on pressure waves (e.g., sound waves) that reach the membrane. In an example, a microphone unit has a pressurized gas within the chamber below the membrane such that, while in a static state, the membrane deflects away from the chamber floor.

Systems and methods for communicating information related to a wearable device are disclosed. Exemplary information includes audio information.

Systems and methods for dynamic voice accentuation and reinforcement are presented herein. One embodiment comprises one or more audio input sources; one or more audio output sources; one or more band pass filters; and a processing control unit that includes an audio processing unit, and which executes a method: differentiating between audio input sources as vocal sound audio input sources and ambient noise audio input sources; increasing the gain of the vocal sound audio input sources; inverting a polarity of an ambient noise signal received by each of the ambient noise audio input sources; and adding the inverted polarity to either an output signal of at least one of the one or more audio output sources, or to an input signal of at least one of the vocal sound audio input sources, to reduce ambient noise.

This disclosure describes techniques for detecting voice commands from a user of an ear-based device. The ear-based device may include an in-ear facing microphone to capture sound emitted in an ear of the user, and an exterior facing microphone to capture sound emitted in an exterior environment of the user. The in-ear microphone may generate an inner audio signal representing the sound emitted in the ear, and the exterior microphone may generate an outer audio signal representing sound from the exterior environment. The ear-based device may compute a ratio of a power of the inner audio signal to the outer audio signal and may compare this ratio to a threshold. If the ratio is larger than the threshold, the ear-based device may detect the voice of the user. Further, the ear-based device may set a value of the threshold based on a level of acoustic seal of the ear-based device.

Embodiments include a vehicle comprising an audio system configured to create a plurality of audio zones within a vehicle cabin, and at least one display communicatively coupled to the audio system. The display is configured to display a separate user interface for each audio zone. Each user interface comprises an engine sound control and a cabin noise control for adjusting an audio output provided to the corresponding audio zone. Embodiments also include a method of providing user-controlled sound isolation in a plurality of audio zones within a vehicle. The method comprises presenting, for each audio zone, a user interface including an engine sound control and a cabin noise control, and generating an audio output for each audio zone based on a first value received from the engine sound control and a second value received from the cabin noise control of the corresponding user interface.

A computing device with a microphone system is disclosed. The computing device includes a microphone system with an environment microphone and a noise microphone. The environment microphone picks up an environment microphone signal which includes (1) a desired signal component based on desired sound and (2) a noise component based on noise from a noise source. The noise microphone picks up a noise microphone signal based on the noise, and is configured such that contributions to the noise microphone signal from the desired sound, if present, are attenuated relative to the environment microphone. A controller receives and processes time samples from the noise microphone signal to yield a noise estimation of the noise component. The estimation is subtracted from the environment microphone signal to yield and end-user output.

The present disclosure discloses an acoustic output apparatus including at least one acoustic driver, a controller, and a supporting structure. The at least one acoustic driver may be configured to output sounds through at least two sound guiding holes. The at least two sound guiding holes may include a first sound guiding hole and a second sound guiding hole. The controller may be configured to control a phase and an amplitude of the sounds generated by the at least one acoustic driver using a control signal such that the sounds output by the at least one acoustic driver through the first and second sound guiding holes have opposite phases. The supporting structure may be provided with a baffle and configured to support the at least one acoustic driver such that the first and second sound guiding holes are located on both sides of the baffle.

An audio communication system for communication between vehicle occupants in a vehicle, including an image capturing device configured to monitor a first vehicle occupant, a processor configured to receive an image of the first vehicle occupant from the image capturing device and determine whether the first vehicle occupant is attracting attention from a second vehicle occupant, a first microphone associated to the first vehicle occupant configured to receive an audio input from the first vehicle occupant in response to the determination of the first vehicle occupant attracting the second vehicle occupant's attention, and a first speaker associated to the second vehicle occupant configured to activate an audio augmentation of the received audio input in the first speaker and output the augmented audio input.

A system for controlling an electric machine of a vehicle includes, among other things, a controller module configured to attenuate noise from the electric machine by altering a corrective voltage in response to feedback about the noise. The corrective voltage and a fundamental voltage command are supplied to the electric machine as a combined voltage command. The corrective voltage is on a harmonic adjacent to a harmonic of the noise. A method of controlling noise associated with an electric machine of a vehicle includes, among other things, altering a corrective voltage to attenuate noise in response to feedback about the noise. The corrective voltage and a fundamental voltage command are supplied to the electric machine as a combined voltage command. The corrective voltage is on a harmonic adjacent to a harmonic of the noise.

A system and method can provide nose, such as wind noise, mitigation and/or microphone blending. Some methods may include sampling a sound signal from a plurality of microphones to generate a frame comprising a plurality of time-frequency tiles of the sound signal, each time-frequency tile including respective values of at least one feature from the plurality of microphones, comparing the respective values of the at least one feature to determine whether each time-frequency tile satisfies a similarity threshold, and flagging each time-frequency tile as noise if it fails to satisfy the similarity threshold, grouping the plurality of time-frequency tiles into sets of frequency-adjacent time-frequency tiles, and for each set of frequency-adjacent time-frequency tiles in the frame: counting a number of flagged time-frequency tiles, and attenuating all of the time-frequency tiles in the each set if the number exceeds a noise bin count threshold to thereby reduce noise in the sound signal.