Wearable Audio Device Environmental Passthrough Control
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wearable electronic audio devices, such as earbuds and headphones, attenuate environmental sounds due to active noise cancellation and physical design, reducing users' awareness of their surroundings, and existing solutions require explicit user action to enable environmental audio passthrough, which may not be timely or effective.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating circuitry in wearable electronic audio devices to detect specific environmental audio events, such as 'hotwords,' using dedicated processors and co-processors to autonomously switch to an environmental audio passthrough amplification mode without user intervention, by processing audio signals with pre-defined models.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If active noise cancellation and physical design are used to attenuate environmental sounds, then listening quality is improved, but situational awareness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic switching between noise cancellation mode and environmental audio passthrough mode. The system automatically transitions from attenuating environmental sounds to amplifying them based on detected audio events, allowing the device to adapt its noise control characteristics in real-time rather than maintaining a static state
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the audio processing parameters by switching from noise cancellation algorithms to environmental audio amplification modes. When specific audio events are detected, the device modifies gain levels, filtering characteristics, and signal processing parameters to prioritize environmental sound transmission over noise suppression
2Device complexity
If manual mode switching is implemented for environmental audio passthrough, then device complexity is reduced, but responsiveness deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The device performs self-monitoring and automatic mode switching by detecting audio events such as hotwords or emergency signals. The system serves itself by autonomously determining when environmental audio passthrough is needed without requiring user input, thereby maintaining simplicity while achieving rapid responsiveness
Solution Approach 2:
The system continuously monitors the audio environment and uses feedback from detected sound patterns to automatically trigger mode changes. When specific acoustic signatures or keywords are recognized, the device immediately responds by switching to environmental passthrough mode, creating a closed-loop control system
Data Source
AI summary
Subject matter disclosed herein may relate to wearable electronic audio devices and may relate more particularly to enabling environmental audio passthrough amplification for wearable electronic audio devices responsive to detection of particular environmental audio events.