Ear-worn electronic device incorporating annoyance model driven selective active noise control

An ear-worn electronic device, comprising:

• a housing configured to be supported by, at, in or on an ear of a wearer and to contain or support:
• a microphone configured to monitor an acoustic environment of the wearer;
• an acoustic transducer;
• and
• an active noise control (ANC) system operatively coupled to a processor, the microphone, and the acoustic transducer, the ANC system configured to be driven by an annoyance model and to selectively attenuate one or more of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer.

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:

• monitoring an acoustic environment of the wearer using a microphone;
• identifying, by an active noise control (ANC) system driven by an annoyance model, different annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer that are present in the acoustic environment;
• and
• selectively attenuating, by the ANC system, one or more of the different annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer.

An ear-worn electronic device, comprising:

• a housing configured to be supported by, at, in or on an ear of a wearer and to contain or support:
• a microphone configured to monitor an acoustic environment of the wearer;
• an acoustic transducer;
• and
• an active noise control (ANC) system operatively coupled to a processor, the microphone, and the acoustic transducer, the ANC system configured to be driven by an annoyance model and to:
• selectively attenuate one or more of a plurality of annoying sounds pre-identified by the wearer by a degree of attenuation pre-identified by the wearer;
• and
• apply attenuation to specified subbands of one or more of the plurality of annoying sounds.