Wearable Voice Detection for Ambient Name Alerts During Audio Playback
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Solution Overview
Problem
Wearable audio output devices, such as headphones and earbuds, often isolate users from their surroundings due to noise cancellation and soundproofing, making it difficult for users to be aware of important events, such as someone calling their name, without disrupting their audio experience.
Innovation Solution
A wearable device equipped with sound event detection algorithms that differentiate between important and unimportant sounds, adjusting audio settings like volume and noise cancellation to alert the user to important events while minimizing disruption.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Illumination intensity
If noise cancellation and soundproofing are enhanced to provide immersive audio experience, then audio quality is improved, but user awareness of ambient events deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system segments audio processing into multiple pathways: one for immersive audio delivery and another for ambient sound monitoring. The wearable device separates the audio output function from the environmental awareness function, allowing each to operate independently without interfering with the other.
Solution Approach 2:
The system introduces an intermediary component (ambient sound monitoring and analysis system) that mediates between the noise-cancelling audio output and the user's environmental awareness. This intermediary captures, analyzes, and selectively transmits important ambient sounds to the user while maintaining the immersive audio experience.
2Power
If high volume output is used to mask ambient noises, then audio output quality is improved, but user awareness of important events deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements a feedback mechanism where ambient sounds are continuously monitored and analyzed. When important events are detected through voice activity detection and audio analysis, the system provides feedback to adjust the audio output or alert the user, creating a closed-loop system that balances immersive audio with environmental awareness.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts audio settings based on real-time environmental analysis. When important ambient events are detected, the device can temporarily reduce volume, adjust noise cancellation levels, or provide selective audio alerts, allowing the audio output characteristics to change dynamically rather than remaining static at high volume.
3Object-affected harmful factors
If soundproofing is increased to reduce sound pressure, then audio isolation is improved, but user awareness of vicinity events deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system extracts important ambient sound information from the overall acoustic environment through sophisticated audio analysis. Instead of blocking all external sounds, the device selectively extracts and prioritizes important events such as voice calls, alerts, or significant environmental sounds, separating them from background noise for user awareness.
Data Source
AI summary
Aspects of the present disclosure provide techniques, including devices and systems implementing the techniques, to enabling a wearable device to identify one or more words or phrases selected by a user to facilitate user awareness and interaction. One example technique comprises prompting a user to input one or more words or phrases related to how others refer to the user, generating, using the input, data to detect the one or more words or phrases, and determining, using the data, that sound detected in an environment passes a threshold of including the one or more words or phrases. In aspects, the data is generated in a vector system. When a nearby voice or noise is identified by the wearable device, the voice or noise may then be compared to the data in the vector system to determine whether the voice or noise is the user’s selected words or phrases.