Hearing enhancement and wearable systems with localized feedback

Abstract

Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques, including devices and systems implementing the techniques, for providing event feedback to a user while the user is wearing a wearable device. For example, the wearable device may provide the user with high-quality noise-canceling audio playback, which may reduce the user's situational awareness. The techniques include measuring ambient sound using two or more microphones on the wearable device. The measured ambient sound is used to determine relevant events worth relaying to the user. Based on location attributes and sound characteristics, the nature and / or class of the event can be ascertained using a pattern recognition algorithm with user threshold settings. Unimportant events that the user prefers to ignore are filtered out by the algorithm. Upon determining an event worth the user's attention, the wearable device provides the user with feedback indicating the nature and location of the event.