Adaptive ambient listening for audio systems

1 . An apparatus comprising:

at least one audio device configured to detect sound;

a wireless communication interface and transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry coupled to the at least one audio device and the transceiver circuitry, the processing circuitry configured to:

determine presence of a relevant sound relevant to a user of the apparatus based on a user preference or an audio device parameter; and

responsive to detecting the presence of the relevant sound, encode a control command for providing over the wireless communication interface to a user listening device separate from the apparatus to command the user listening device to provide the relevant sound to a microphone of the user listening device, and activate a hear-through microphone of the user listening device to provide the relevant sound through the hear-through microphone to the user.

2 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the relevant sound includes ambient noise of an environment around the apparatus, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide sound other than the ambient noise to the user listening device until determining presence of the relevant sound.

3 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the control command includes a command to activate a hear-through microphone of the user listening device.

4 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is further configured to encode a second control command for providing over the wireless communication interface to de-activate the hear-through microphone.

5 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the second control command to de-activate is provided after a timeout period.

6 . The apparatus of claim 4 , wherein the second control command to de-activate is provided based upon a user request.

7 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to learn the relevant sound or a plurality of relevant sounds relevant to a user using a machine learning algorithm.

8 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine whether a sound is a relevant sound based on a direction of arrival (DOA) of the sound.

9 . The apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the wireless communication interface comprises a Bluetooth connection.

10 . A system comprising:

memory;

at least one audio device configured to detect sound;

a wireless communication interface and transceiver circuitry; and

processing circuitry coupled to the at least one audio device and the transceiver circuitry, the processing circuitry configured to:

determine presence of a relevant sound relevant to a user of the system based on a user preference or an audio device parameter; and

responsive to detecting presence of the relevant sound, encode a control command for providing over the wireless communication interface to a user listening device separate from the system to command the user listening device to provide the relevant sound to a microphone of the user listening device, and activate a hear-through microphone of the user listening device to provide the relevant sound through the hear-through microphone to the user.

11 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising a display and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to provide an indication to the display indicating presence of the relevant sound.

12 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the control command includes a command to activate the hear-through microphone of the user listening device.

13 . The system of claim 10 , further comprising a user input device, and wherein the processing circuitry is configured to receive input from the user input device indicating a user preference to ignore the relevant sound.

14 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the processing circuitry is configured to determine whether a sound is a relevant sound based on a direction of arrival (DOA) of the sound.

15 . The system of claim 10 , wherein the wireless communication interface comprises a Bluetooth connection.

16 . A non-transitory machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions that, when implemented on a machine, cause the machine to perform operations including:

determining presence of a relevant sound relevant to a user of the machine based on a user preference or an audio device parameter; and

responsive to detecting the presence of the relevant sound, encoding a control command for providing over a wireless communication interface to a user listening device separate from the machine to command the user listening device to provide the relevant sound to a microphone of the user listening device, and activate a hear-through microphone of the user listening device to provide the relevant sound through the hear-through microphone to the user.

17 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the relevant sound includes ambient noise of an environment around the machine, and wherein the operations further include providing sound other than the ambient noise to the user listening device until determining the presence of the relevant sound.

18 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the control command includes a command to activate the hear-through microphone of the user listening device.

19 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations further include learning the relevant sound or a plurality of relevant sounds relevant to a user using a machine learning algorithm.

20 . The non-transitory machine-readable medium of claim 16 , wherein the operations include determining whether a sound is a relevant sound based on a direction of arrival (DOA) of the sound.