Patent ID: 8041062

Claim:
A personal communication device comprising: an ear-level module including a radio including a transmitter and a receiver which transmits and receives communication signals encoding audio data, an audio transducer; one or more microphones, a user input and control circuitry; wherein the control circuitry includes logic for communication using the radio with a plurality of sources of audio data, memory storing a set of variables for processing audio data; logic operable in a plurality of signal processing modes, including a first signal processing mode for processing sound picked up by one of the one or more microphones using a first subset of said set of variables and playing the processed sound on the audio transducer, a second signal processing mode for processing audio data from a corresponding audio source received using the radio using a second subset of said set of variables, and playing the processed audio data on the audio transducer, a third signal processing mode for processing audio data from another corresponding audio source received using the radio using a third subset of said set of variables, and playing the processed audio data on the audio transducer; and logic to control switching among the first, second and third signal processing modes according to predetermined priority in response to user input and in response to signals from the plurality of sources of audio data.