# US 10,872,616 B2 · Ear-worn electronic device incorporating annoyance model driven selective active noise control > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,872,616 B2 - Document ID: US10872616B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/773,417 - Filed: 2020-01-27 - Published: 2020-05-21 - Granted: 2020-12-22 - Earliest claimed: 2017-10-30 - Assignees: Starkey Laboratories, Inc. - Applicants: Starkey Laboratories, Inc. - Inventors: Ritwik Giri; Karim Helwani; Tao Zhang - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10872616B2 ## CPC - G10L 21/0216: characterised by the method used for estimating noise - G10L 17/02: Preprocessing operations, e.g. segment selection; Pattern representation or modelling, e.g. based on linear discriminant analysis [LDA] or principal components; Feature selection or extraction - G10L 21/0208: Noise filtering - H04R 1/1083: {Reduction of ambient noise (active noise reduction per se G10K11/175; protective devices for the ear, e.g. providing acoustic protection A61F11/06)} - H04R 3/002: {Damping circuit arrangements for transducers, e.g. motional feedback circuits} - H04R 5/04: Circuit arrangements, {e.g. for selective connection of amplifier inputs/outputs to loudspeakers, for loudspeaker detection, or for adaptation of settings to personal preferences or hearing impairments (combinations of amplifiers H03F3/68; stereophonic systems H04S)} - H04R 25/505: {using digital signal processing} - G10L 2021/02087: {the noise being separate speech, e.g. cocktail party} - G10L 2021/02163: {Only one microphone} - H04R 5/033: Headphones for stereophonic communication {(details thereof, e.g. relating to batteries, cables or control elements H04R1/10)} - H04R 2460/01: Hearing devices using active noise cancellation - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING - H04R: LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS (producing sounds with frequency not determined by supply frequency G10K) ## Abstract A system comprises an ear-worn electronic device configured to be worn by a wearer. The ear-worn electronic device comprises a processor and memory coupled to the processor. The memory is configured to store an annoying sound dictionary representative of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer. A microphone is coupled to the processor and configured to monitor an acoustic environment of the wearer. A speaker or a receiver is coupled to the processor. The processor is configured to identify different background noises present in the acoustic environment, determine which of the background noises correspond to one or more of the plurality of annoying sounds, and attenuate the one or more annoying sounds in an output signal provided to the speaker or receiver. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A method implemented by an ear-worn electronic device comprising a housing configured to be worn at, in or on an ear of a wearer, the method comprising: storing, in a memory within the housing of the device, an annoying sound dictionary representative of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer and an annoyance score associated with each of a plurality of the pre-identified annoying sounds; monitoring, using a microphone within or supported by the housing of the device, an acoustic environment of the wearer; identifying, by a processor within the housing of the device, different background noises present in the acoustic environment; determining, by the processor using the annoying sound dictionary, which of the background noises are annoying background noises; and attenuating, by the processor, one or more of the annoying background noises based on a magnitude of the annoyance score associated with the one or more annoying background noises. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the annoyance scores comprise one or more annoyance scores established by the wearer. ### Claim 3 (depends on 2) The method of claim 2, wherein at least some of the annoyance scores established by the wearer comprise pre-computed annoyance scores adjusted in response to wearer input. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein the annoyance scores comprise one or more psychoacoustical annoyance scores. ### Claim 5 (depends on 4) The method of claim 4, wherein at least some of the psychoacoustical annoyance scores comprise psychoacoustical annoyance scores adjusted in response to wearer input. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein attenuating comprises attenuating at least some of the annoying background noises by a degree of attenuation pre-identified by the wearer. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein attenuating comprises attenuating at least some of the annoying background noises having an associated annoyance score greater than or equal to a threshold pre-identified by the wearer. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising: sorting, by the processor, the annoying background noises using the associated annoyance scores; presenting, by the processor and a speaker or a receiver of the device, the sorted annoying background noises to the wearer; identifying, in response to wearer input, which one or more of the annoying background noises are to be attenuated; and attenuating, by the processor, the one or more identified annoying background noises. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, comprising adding or deleting an annoying sound respectively to or from the annoying sound dictionary in response to wearer input. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The method of claim 1, wherein attenuating comprises applying attenuation to specified subbands of the one or more annoying background noises. ### Claim 11 A method implemented by an ear-worn electronic device comprising a housing configured to be worn at, in or on an ear of a wearer, the method comprising: storing, in a memory within the housing of the device, an annoying sound dictionary representative of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer; storing an annoyance score for each of the plurality of annoying sounds in the memory of the device; monitoring, using a microphone within or supported by the housing of the device, an acoustic environment of the wearer; identifying, by a processor within the housing of the device, different background noises present in the acoustic environment; assigning, by the processor, a soft membership score to each of the background noises; determining, by the processor using the annoying sound dictionary, which of the background noises are annoying background noises; and attenuating, by the processor using the annoyance scores and the soft membership scores, one or more of the annoying background noises in an output signal provided to a speaker or a receiver within or supported by the housing of the device. ### Claim 12 An ear-worn electronic device configured to be worn by a wearer, comprising: a housing configured to be supported by, at, in or on an ear of the wearer and to contain or support: a processor; a memory operably coupled to the processor, the memory configured to store an annoying sound dictionary representative of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer and an annoyance score associated with each of a plurality of the pre-identified annoying sounds; a microphone operably coupled to the processor and configured to monitor an acoustic environment of the wearer; and a speaker or a receiver operably coupled to the processor; wherein the processor is configured to identify different background noises present in the acoustic environment, determine which of the background noises are annoying background noises using the annoying sound dictionary, and attenuate one or more of the annoying background noises based on a magnitude of the annoyance score associated with the one or more annoying background noises. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the annoyance scores comprise one or more annoyance scores established by the wearer. ### Claim 14 (depends on 13) The device of claim 13, wherein at least some of the annoyance scores established by the wearer comprise pre-computed annoyance scores adjusted in response to wearer input. ### Claim 15 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the annoyance scores comprise one or more psychoacoustical annoyance scores. ### Claim 16 (depends on 15) The device of claim 15, wherein at least some of the psychoacoustical annoyance scores comprise psychoacoustical annoyance scores adjusted in response to wearer input. ### Claim 17 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to attenuate at least some of the annoying background noises by a degree of attenuation pre-identified by the wearer. ### Claim 18 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to attenuate at least some of the annoying background noises having an associated annoyance score greater than or equal to a threshold pre-identified by the wearer. ### Claim 19 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to: sort the annoying background noises using the associated annoyance scores; present the sorted annoying background noises to the wearer via the speaker or the receiver; identify, in response to wearer input, which one or more of the annoying background noises are to be attenuated; and attenuate the one or more identified annoying background noises. ### Claim 20 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to add or delete an annoying sound respectively to or from the annoying sound dictionary in response to wearer input. ### Claim 21 (depends on 12) The device of claim 12, wherein the processor is configured to apply attenuation to specified subbands of the one or more annoying background noises.