Patent Publication Number: US-2009232325-A1

Title: Reactive headphones

Description:
TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION 
     The present invention relates to headphones and more particularly to a method and apparatus for monitoring environmental noise when a user is listening to an audio signal via headphones. 
     DESCRIPTION OF RELATED ART 
     In the past 20 years, MP3 players, IPODS, and mobile phones have made it very easy for people to carry music with them where ever they go. As a result, more and more people are listening to their music as they travel throughout their day. Usually, these people use headphones to listen to their music. As a result, people tend not to be able to hear sounds that are going on around them. Normally, this is not a big problem since most of the surrounding sounds are sounds that the music listener does not want to hear. These surrounding sounds include people talking, children playing, busy street noise and construction noise. There are, however, sounds that are important but are missed because the person is listening to their music. These sounds may be a friend shouting the person&#39;s name or a car honking when the music listener is trying to cross a street. 
     The headphones available on the market today are passive in the sense that they either transmit sound or they do not transmit sound. The user of the headphones decides whether the headphones are on or off. There are also passive and active ear protections available on the market today. The passive system simply block out every sound. The active systems let soft sounds pass while loud and abrupt sounds are blocked out. As a result, these active systems will block out the type of sounds that the music listener may need to hear for safety or convenience. 
     Thus, there is a need for a method and apparatus for monitoring environmental noise when a user is listening to an audio signal via headphones wherein the audio signal is paused to allow the user to hear certain environmental noise. 
     SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION 
     According to some embodiments of the invention, a method for monitoring environmental noise when a user is listening to audio signals via headphones, comprising the steps of: receiving an audio input signal; transmitting the audio input signal to speakers in the headphones; receiving noise input signal from environment around the headphones; analyzing said noise input signal for predetermined sounds; stopping transmission of the audio input signal when predetermined noise characteristics are detected in the noise input signal. 
     According to another embodiment of the invention, an active sound system, comprising: an audio input for receiving an audio input signal; a transmitter for transmitting the audio input signal to speakers in headphones; a microphone for receiving a noise input signal from the environment around the headphone; a computing system for detecting the presence of predetermined noise characteristics in said noise input signal, wherein transmission of the audio input signal is stopped when the predetermined noise characteristics are present. 
     According to another embodiment of the invention, a computer readable medium storing code for monitoring environmental noise when a user is listening to audio signals via headphones, comprising: code for receiving an audio input signal; code for transmitting the audio input signal to speakers in the headphones; code for receiving a noise input signal from environment around the headphones; code for analyzing said noise input signal for predetermined sounds; code for stopping transmission of the audio input signal when predetermined noise characteristics are detected in the noise input signal. 
     Further embodiments of the invention are defined in the dependent claims. 
     It is an advantage of embodiments of the invention that an audio signal will be paused when it is determined that the audio signal listener needs to hear environmental noise. 
    
    
     
       BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS 
       Further objects, features and advantages of embodiments of the invention will appear from the following detailed description of the invention, reference being made to the accompanying drawings, in which: 
         FIG. 1  illustrates an audio system for use by the invention; 
         FIG. 2  illustrates a active sound system according to one embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 3  is a flow chart describing the operation of the active sound system according to one embodiment of the invention; and 
         FIG. 4  is a computer system for implementing one embodiment of the invention. 
     
    
    
     DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS 
     Specific illustrative embodiments of the invention will now be described with reference to the accompanying drawings. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein. Rather, the disclosed embodiments are provided so that this specification will be thorough and complete, and will fully convey the scope of the invention to those skilled in the art. The terminology used in the detailed description of the particular embodiments illustrated in the accompanying drawings is not intended to be limiting of the invention. Furthermore, in the drawings like numbers refer to like elements. 
       FIG. 1  illustrates an audio system  100  within which the invention may operate. The audio system  100  comprises a portable music device  102  such as a MP3 player, IPOD, mobile phone, computer. The audio system  100  also comprises headphones  104 . The headphones  104  comprises at least speakers  106 . The audio system also comprises an active sound system  108 . The active sound system  108  can be located in the headphones  104  or the music device  102 . 
     According to one embodiment of the invention, the active sound system  108  determines if predetermined sounds, e.g., a car horn, someone yelling your name, etc. are detected in the environment around a person using headphones. As will be explained in more detail below, the predetermined sounds can be detected by a filter and/or a noise recognition system and the invention is not limited thereto. 
     As illustrated in  FIG. 2 , the active sound system  108  is comprised of a microphone  203 , a filter  205 , a computer  207 , a noise recognition system  209  and a memory  211  but the invention is not limited thereto. For example, the active sound system  108  may only comprise the microphone  203 , the filter  205  and the computer  207 . Likewise, the active sound system  108  may only comprise the microphone  203 , the noise recognition system  209 , the memory  211  and the computer  207 . 
     The operation of the active sound system  108  will now be explained with reference to  FIG. 3 . As described above, an audio input signal, such as a music signal, is generated by the music device  102  in a known manner. The audio input signal is received by the computer  207  in step  301 . The computer then transmits the audio input signal to the speakers  106  in the headphones  104  for a person to hear in step  303 . While the audio input signal is playing, the microphone  203  generates a noise input signal from sounds detected in the vicinity of the microphone  203  in step  305 . As mentioned above, the microphone  203  can be located in the headphones  104  or the music device  102  and the invention is not limited thereto. 
     The received noise input signal is analyzed by the active sound system  201  in step  307  to determine if the received noise input signal contains a predetermined sound or sounds. The active sound system  201  may analyze the received noise input signal in several ways to determine if the noise input signal contains at least one predetermined sound. First, the received noise input signal may be filtered by the filter  205 . The filter  205  can be designed to let through sounds above a predetermined frequency, above a predetermined volume level, and/or between several predetermined frequency levels and the invention is not limited thereto. If a signal remains after being filtered by the filter  205 , the computer  207  determines that at least one predetermined sound is present in the received noise input signal in step  309 . 
     In addition or alternatively, the active sound system  201  may analyze the received noise input signal using the noise recognition system  209 . In this embodiment, the received noise input signal is compared with predetermined sounds which are stored in the memory  211 . These predetermined sounds comprise names, words, phrases, car horn noises, emergency siren noises, animal noises and the invention is not limited thereto. Furthermore, the predetermined sounds can be user dependent. For example, the user can select which sounds should be stored and then compared to the received noise input signal. This includes the user&#39;s name as well as other noises depending on the user&#39;s preferences. For example, some people might not want to hear a crying baby, but other people, such as new parents, may want to hear the crying baby. By making the stored sounds user dependent, each user can tailor the active noise system  201  to their particular needs. 
     If the computer  207  detects the presence of predetermined sounds in the received noise input signal from either the filter  205  and/or the noise recognition system  209  in step  309 , the computer  207  stops the transmission of the audio input signal to the speakers  106  in step  311 . By stopping the transmission of the audio input signal to the speakers  106 , the audio input signal will now not interfere with the user&#39;s ability to hear the noise in the environment around the user. As a result, the user will now be able to hear warnings or shouts or whatever noise the user has specified that he/she wants to hear. 
     According to another embodiment of the invention, the active sound system  201  can be used to help the user hear preselected sounds when they occur by sending the received preselected sounds to the speakers  106  in the headphones  104 . In this embodiment, when the computer  207  stops the transmission of the audio input signal in step  311 , the computer then sends the part of the received noise input signal containing preselected sounds to the speakers  106  in step  313 . 
     In another embodiment of the invention according to  FIG. 4 , a computer-readable medium  400  is illustrated schematically. The computer-readable medium  400  has embodied thereon a computer program  410  for monitoring environmental noise, for processing by a computer  413 . The computer program comprises a code segment  414  for receiving an audio input signal, a code segment  415  for transmitting the audio input signal to speakers in the headphones, a code segment  416  for receiving a noise input signal from environment around the headphones, a code segment  417  for analyzing said noise input signal for predetermined sounds; and a code segment  418  for stopping transmission of the audio input signal when predetermined noise characteristics are detected in the noise input signal. 
     The present invention has been described above with reference to specific embodiments. However, other embodiments than the above described are equally possible within the scope of the invention. Different method steps than those described above, performing the method by hardware or software or a combination of hardware and software, may be provided within the scope of the invention. It should be appreciated that the different features and steps of the invention may be combined in other combinations than those described. The scope of the invention is only limited by the appended patent claims.