Patent ID: 8718305

Claim:
An earpiece comprising: an Ambient Sound Microphone (ASM) configured to measure a background noise level of an ambient sound; an Ear Canal Receiver (ECR) configured to deliver audio content to an ear canal; and a processor operatively coupled to the ASM and the ECR, where the processor is configured to: determine a residual background noise level within the ear canal based on at least one of the background noise level of the ambient sound or a measured ear canal background noise level within the ear canal, determine an ear canal signal to noise ratio (SNR) between an audio content level ACL of the audio content and the residual background noise level, determine a mismatch between the ear canal SNR and a target SNR, and adjust a gain applied to at least one of the audio content or the ambient sound based on the mismatch such that an approximately constant SNR ratio is maintained between the ACL and the residual background noise level within the ear canal.