Patent ID: 8855343

Claim:
A method to control a level of audio reproduction within an occluded ear canal, the method comprising the steps of: measuring an ambient sound level of ambient sound from an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) at an entrance to the occluded ear canal; determining a residual background noise level within the occluded ear canal from at least one of an Ear Canal Microphone (ECM) or the ASM; measuring a level of audio content delivered to the occluded ear canal; mixing the ambient sound with the audio content to form a mixed signal that is reproduced within the occluded ear canal; adjusting, in the mixed signal, a gain of at least one of the audio content or the ambient sound based on the residual background noise level and the level of the audio content such that the level of audio reproduction of the mixed signal is maintained within a predetermined listening level range over time; adjusting a pass-through gain of the ambient sound from the ASM to an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) to decrease a reproduction gain of the ambient sound in the occluded ear canal; measuring a first level of an audio content signal of the audio content using a slow time weighting function to produce a signal AC_RMS; and measuring a second level of the audio content signal using a fast time weighting function to produce a signal Frame-RMS.