KR101198424B1 - Method and apparatus for rendering ambient signals - Google Patents

Abstract

Disclosed are an apparatus and method for communication. The apparatus includes a receiver configured to scale an audio signal, and a transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, the receiver scaling the ambient signal from the transducer circuit, The scaled ambient signal is configured to combine with the scaled audio signal, and the receiver is further configured to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal.

Description

METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RENDERING AMBIENT SIGNALS

This patent application has the application number 61 / 083,449, the name of the invention is "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR RENDERING AMBIENT SIGNALS" and the application date is July 24, 2008 and is assigned to the assignee of the present invention, expressly incorporated herein by reference. Claim priority of provisional application included.

The present invention relates generally to a communication system, and more particularly to receivers for rendering peripheral signals in a communication system.

Peer-to-peer networks are commonly used to connect to wireless devices via ad-hoc connections. These networks differ from the conventional client-server model where communications usually use a central server. Peer-to-peer networks have only equivalent peer devices that communicate directly with each other. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Peer-to-peer networks can be used, for example, as consumer electronic wireline replacement systems for short-range or indoor applications. These networks are sometimes referred to as wireless personal area networks (WPANs) and are useful for efficiently transferring video, audio, voice, text, and other media between wireless devices over short distances. For example, a digital audio player can be used to stream audio to a headset. As another example, the cell phone may establish a connection with the headset to allow hands-free operation by the user.

Headsets that provide conventional hands-free services and / or audio playback capability can be of great interest for short-range communications. These headsets generally provide good isolation from ambient conditions to maintain audio quality. As a result, a user typically needs to take off the headset to listen to broadcasts from different speaker devices or to participate in face-to-face conversations with a person. Thus, there is a need in the art for an improved receiver that allows users of headsets to better interact with ambient sound sources.

In one aspect of the invention, an apparatus for communication includes a receiver configured to scale an audio signal, and a transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, wherein the receiver is configured to provide the signal from the transducer circuit. And scale the peripheral signal and combine the scaled peripheral signal with the scaled audio signal and the receiver is further configured to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the peripheral signal and the audio signal.

In another aspect of the invention, a method for communication includes receiving an audio signal, scaling the audio signal, providing an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, scaling the ambient signal, the ambient signal and Adjusting the scaling applied to at least one of the audio signals, and combining the scaled peripheral signal with the scaled audio signal.

In another aspect of the invention, an apparatus for communication comprises means for receiving an audio signal, means for scaling the audio signal, means for providing an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, means for scaling the ambient signal, Means for adjusting the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal, and means for combining the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal.

In a further aspect of the invention, a communication computer program product receives an audio signal, scales the audio signal, receives an ambient signal generated in response to an ambient condition, scales the ambient signal, the ambient signal and the And a computer-readable medium comprising instructions executable to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the audio signals and to combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal.

In a further aspect of the invention, a headset includes a speaker, a receiver configured to scale an audio signal, a transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, wherein the receiver is configured to provide the ambient signal from the transducer circuit. Scale the signal, combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal, and provide the combined scaled ambient and audio signal to the speaker, the receiver receiving the ambient signal and the first audio signal And to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the.

In another aspect of the invention, a watch includes a user interface, a receiver configured to scale an audio signal, a transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, the receiver being from the transducer circuit. Further configure to scale the peripheral signal, combine the scaled peripheral signal with the scaled first audio signal, and provide the combined scaled peripheral and audio signal to the user interface, wherein the receiver is configured to provide the peripheral signal And adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the first audio signals.

In another aspect of the invention, a sensing device comprises a sensor, a receiver configured to scale an audio signal, and a transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, the receiver from the transducer circuit. The scaled signal is further configured to scale the ambient signal, combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled first audio signal, and provide the combined scaled ambient and audio signal to the sensor; And to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the first audio signals.

Other aspects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description, and it is understood that various aspects of the invention are shown and described by way of example only. As will be embodied, other different aspects are possible in the present invention, and in various other aspects modifications may be made to some details, all of which are without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the drawings and detailed description are to be regarded as illustrative in nature and not as restrictive.

Various aspects of the invention are illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation in the figures of the drawings, wherein like reference numerals may be used to denote like features throughout this specification.

1 is a conceptual diagram illustrating an example of a wireless communication system.
2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of a receiver.
3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating another example of a receiver.
4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the functionality of a receiver.

According to a common implementation, the various features illustrated in the figures may be simplified for simplicity. Thus, the drawings may not depict all of the components of a given apparatus (eg, receiver) or method. In addition, the same reference numerals may be used to denote the same features throughout the specification and drawings.

Various aspects of the invention are described below. It should be clear that the teachings herein may be embodied in a wide variety of forms and that the specific structures, functions, or both disclosed herein, are merely representative. Based on the teachings herein, those skilled in the art should understand that any aspect of the invention disclosed herein may be implemented independently of any other aspects, and that many aspects of the invention may be combined in various ways. . For example, an apparatus may be implemented or a method may be practiced using any number of aspects described herein. In addition, such an apparatus may be implemented or such a method may be practiced using other structure, functionality, or structure and functionality in addition to or other than one or more of the aspects described herein. An aspect can include one or more elements of a claim.

Some aspects of the receiver system will now be described. Such receiver systems may be suitable for integration into headsets (eg, headphones, earphones, etc.), but may include phones (eg, cellular phones), personal digital assistants (PDAs), entertainment devices (eg, Music or video devices), headsets (e.g. headphones, earphones, etc.), microphones, medical sensing devices (e.g. biometric sensors, heart rate monitors, pedometers, EKG devices, smart bandages, etc.), users I / O devices (eg clocks, remote controls, optical switches, keyboards, mice, etc.), medical monitors capable of receiving data from medical sensing devices, environmental sensing devices (eg tire pressure monitors), computers , Point-of-sale devices, entertainment devices, hearing aids, other audio devices such as set-top boxes, or any other device that provides audio to a user. Can be integrated into other devices. The node may include various components as well as the receiver system. For example, the headset may include a transducer configured to provide an audio output to the user, the watch may include a user interface configured to provide an indication to the user, and the sensing device may provide an audio output to the user. It may include a sensor configured to.

In many of the applications described above, the receiver may be part of a node that transmits and receives. Thus, such a node requires a transmitter that can be a separate component or can be integrated with a receiver in a single component known as a "transceiver." As those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, the various concepts described throughout this application are not limited to any suitable receiver functionality, whether the receiver system is a standalone node, integrated into a transceiver, or part of a node in a wireless communication system. Can be applied to

In the detailed description that follows, various aspects of a receiver system may be presented for rendering ambient signals in a headset, but as those skilled in the art will readily appreciate, these aspects are equally applicable to receiver systems for other applications. Returning to FIG. 1, headset 102 is shown in communication with various devices including cellular phone 104, digital audio player 106 (eg, MP3 player), and computer 108. . At any given time, headset 102 may be receiving audio from one or multiple of these devices. The audio received by the headset 102 may be in the form of an audio file stored in the memory of the digital audio player 106 or the computer 108. Alternatively, or in addition, the headset 102 may also receive streamed audio from the computer 108 via a connection to a wide area or local area network. A wide area network is a wireless network that covers a regional, national or global area, such as the Internet. Local area networks are generally networks covering tens to hundreds of meters and are generally found in homes, offices, coffee shops, airports, hotels and other locales. Headset 102 may also receive audio in the form of voice communication from cellular phone 104 during a call on a cellular network that supports CDMA2000 or some other suitable communication standard.

Headset 102 using a wireless connection between various devices is shown in FIG. 1. Ultra-Wideband (UWB) is a suitable wireless technology to support these wireless connections, but one of ordinary skill in the art will readily understand that any other suitable wireless technology (eg, Bluetooth, WiMax, Wi-Fi, etc.) may be used. UWB is a general technique for high speed, short-range communications, and is defined as any radio technique with a spectrum that occupies a bandwidth greater than 20% of the center frequency, or at least 500 MHz. Alternatively, or in addition, the headset 102 may have a wired connection to one or more of the devices (eg, the computer 108). The wired connection may be a network connection, such as an Ethernet connection, or some other suitable connection. Headset 102 may also be configured to access an external storage device (eg, a memory card containing MP3 files through a USB port).

2 is a schematic block diagram illustrating an example of a receiver system. Receiver system 200 is shown with receiver 201. Receiver 201 includes adapter 202, decoder 204, audio amplifier 206, peripheral amplifier 216, ambient sound analyzer 218, combiner 220, and a digital-to-analog converter (DAC) ( 222).

Adapter 202 provides an interface to the receiver system as an audio source. In one configuration of the receiver system, the adapter 202 may be configured to implement a physical (PHY) layer and a medium access control (MAC) layer of the receiver system that may support a wireless or wired connection to a transmission medium. For example, the PHY and MAC layers may be configured to support UWB over a wireless medium. The PHY layer implements all the physical and electrical specifications for interfacing the receiver system 200 to wireless and / or wired media. More specifically, the PHY layer provides various processing functions such as forward error correction (e.g., turbo decoding), digital demodulation (e.g., FSK, PSK, QAM, etc.), and, in the case of wireless transmissions, audio signals It serves to demodulate the RF carrier to recover. The MAC layer manages audio content transmitted over the PHY layer, which allows some devices to communicate with the receiver system 200.

Alternatively, or in addition, the adapter 202 may be configured to interface the receiver system 200 to an external storage device (not shown). Examples of external storage devices are flash disks or drives, flash cards, secure data flash cards, pen drives, compact disks (CD), magnetic disks, multimedia memory cards, secure digital cards, memory sticks. , CompactFlash cards, SecureDigital cards and SmartMedia cards. The external storage device may be connected to the adapter 202 through a USB port (not shown) on the receiver system 200, or by any other suitable means.

The audio signal reconstructed by the adapter 202 may be encoded according to a given audio file format or streaming audio format. In such a case, the decoder 204 may be used to reconstruct the audio signal from the encoded transmission reconstructed by the adapter 202. In one example of a receiver system, decoder 204 may be configured to reconstruct an encoded audio signal using a backward adaptive ranged algorithm, while decoder 204 may be configured to handle other encoding schemes. Can be configured. Those skilled in the art will be able to easily implement an appropriate decoder 204 for any particular application. Decoder 204 may be a stand-alone component as shown in FIG. 2 or may be integrated into an audio codec if the receiver system is part of a headset transmitting and receiving.

The decoded audio signal is provided to an audio amplifier 206. The audio amplifier 206 provides a means for adjusting the gain of the decoded audio signal. In this example, the gain of the audio amplifier 206 can be manually adjusted by the user through the user interface 208 to control the volume of the headset. A button, knob or other means (not shown) may be provided to the user interface 208 to allow the user to manually adjust the gain of the audio amplifier 206. As will be discussed in detail later, the gain of the audio amplifier 206 may also be automatically adjusted based on the ambient signal. As used herein, it will be understood that "ambient signal" includes any signal in the audio band that is not part of the audio signal. It will be understood that an "audio signal" includes any signal received from an audio source. For example, an "audio signal" may be streamed audio from a computer (eg, music), an audio file (eg, an MP3 file) from a computer, a digital audio player (eg, an MP3 player), or Voice from a memory card, or a cellular telephone. The “ambient signal” may be the voice of a person close to the headset, broadcast from different speakers, sirens from an ambulance or device, and the like.

Receiver system 200 further includes a sensor 212 and a signal conditioner / analog-to-digital converter (ADC) 214. In this example, the sensor is an audio transducer (eg a microphone).

The ambient signal may be received by the audio transducer 212 and provided to the signal conditioner / ADC 214. Signal conditioner / ADC 214 processes the ambient signal received by sensor 212 before outputting from transducer circuit 210. Signal conditioner / ADC 214 may include any of a variety of known components such as amplifiers, attenuators, filters, electrical isolators, etc., as well as an ADC for converting the ambient signal into a digital signal.

The peripheral signal output from the transducer circuit 210 may be scaled by the peripheral amplifier 216. Similar to the audio amplifier 206, the peripheral amplifier 216 may be manually adjusted by the user via the user interface 208, or automatically based on the ambient signal, as will be described in greater detail later. Can be adjusted. A second button, knob or other means (not shown) may be provided to the user interface 208 to manually adjust the gain of the peripheral amplifier 216.

The ambient sound analyzer 218 may analyze the ambient signal and may override user gain control settings to automatically control the gain of one or both amplifiers 206, 216 in certain circumstances. The ambient sound analyzer 218 may include a RAM memory, a flash memory, an EPROM memory, etc. in which predetermined peripheral signals are recorded. The ambient sound analyzer 218 may further include a comparator circuit (not shown) for comparing the ambient signal received by the transducer circuit 210 with any programmed audio signals. In this example, when the ambient sound analyzer 218 does not recognize the received ambient signal, each of the gains of the amplifiers 206, 216 are controlled by the user through the user interface 208. When the ambient sound analyzer 218 recognizes the received ambient signal as a pre-programmed signal at, for example, frequency, beat, amplitude, etc., the ambient sound analyzer 218 controls the control of the gains of the amplifiers 206, 216. Assume For example, a user or manufacturer may program the ambient sound analyzer 218 using a fire alarm, a tone broadcast by an emergency broadcast system, or one or more specific ring tones. Then, when any of the programmed signals is received by the transducer circuit 210 as a peripheral signal, the ambient sound analyzer 218 increases the gain of the peripheral amplifier 216 and the gain of the audio amplifier 206. It is possible to notify the user of the ambient signal by reducing the. Thus, the user can be immediately notified of incoming telephone calls or alarm signals.

A combiner 220, such as an adder or other means, can be used to combine the scaled ambient and audio signals. For example, the combined signal is converted into an analog signal via DAC 222 and output through, for example, speaker 224 in the headphones.

Independent, user controlled peripheral and audio signal gain control is a very powerful feature during audio playback. The user may choose to experience noise free audio playback by setting the gain of peripheral amplifier 216 to zero. By setting the gain of the audio amplifier 206 to zero, the user can decide to participate in other tasks in a conversation without taking the headset off. The user can also mix different levels of audio and ambient signals by controlling two independent gain knobs for the amplifiers 206, 216.

Additionally, as discussed above, using additional logic provided for automatic gain control, the gains of the amplifiers 206 and 216 may be automatically changed based on certain known stimuli. For example, in case of a fire-alarm the gain of the peripheral amplifier 216 may be set to full scale and the gain of the audio amplifier 206 may be programmed to zero. This will allow users to quickly respond to emergency signals that may not be audible in conventional in-ear-canal earphone scenarios. Other cases of this mode are possible.

3 is a schematic block diagram illustrating another example of a receiver system. In this example, the receiver system is very similar to the receiver system discussed in connection with FIG. 2, so only the differences will be described.

In this example, sensor 212 is a non-audio sensor that detects one or more ambient conditions. For example, sensor 212 may be a detector (ie, a smoke detector) that provides and generates a signal when sensing ambient conditions such as smoke. The signal is processed by the signal conditioner / ADC 214 and provided to the audio generator 302. The audio generator 302 is configured to generate an ambient signal. As described in more detail above, the peripheral signal may be amplified by the peripheral amplifier 216, combined with the audio signal by the combiner 220, converted into an analog signal, and provided to the speaker 224. The ambient sound analyzer 218 is programmed in this case to set the gain of the audio amplifier 206 to zero to ensure that the user is notified of the ambient condition (ie, smoke). As used herein, “ambient condition” is any peripheral disturbance that is not part of the audio signal including the ambient signals (ie, any signal in the audio band that is not part of the audio signal) and disturbances outside the audio band ( For example, postponement).

4 is a block diagram illustrating an example of the functionality of a receiver. In this example, the apparatus 400 includes a module 402 for receiving an audio signal and a module 404 for scaling the audio signal. These modules may be implemented by the receiver 201 (see FIG. 2) described above or by some other suitable means. Apparatus 400 includes a module 406 for providing an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition, which may be implemented by the transducer circuit 210 described above (see FIG. 2) or in some other manner. The apparatus includes a module 408 for scaling the ambient signal, a module 410 for adjusting the scaling applied to at least one of the peripheral and the first audio signal, and a module for combining the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal. 412 further. These modules may also be implemented by the receiver 201 described above (see FIG. 2) or by some other suitable means.

The components described herein may be implemented in various ways. For example, an apparatus may represent, for example, functions implemented by one or more integrated circuits (eg, ASICs) or as a series of interrelated functional blocks that may be implemented in some other manners taught herein. May appear. As discussed herein, an integrated circuit may include a processor, software, other components, or some combination thereof. Such an apparatus may include one or more modules capable of performing one or more of the functions described above with respect to the various figures.

As noted above, some aspects of the receiver may be implemented through appropriate processor components. These processor components may, in some configurations, be implemented at least in part using a structure as taught herein. In such configurations, the processor may be adapted to implement some or all of the functionality of one or more of these components.

As noted above, the apparatus may include one or more integrated circuits. For example, a single integrated circuit may implement one or more of the illustrated components, while in other configurations of the receiver, two or more integrated circuits may implement one or more of the illustrated components.

In addition, the components and functions described herein may be implemented using any suitable means. The means can also be implemented, at least in part, using corresponding structures as taught herein. For example, the components to be described above may be implemented in “ASIC” and may also correspond to “means for” similarly designated functionality. Thus, one or more of these means may be implemented using one or more of processor components, integrated circuits, or other suitable structure as taught herein.

In addition, it should be understood that any reference to an element herein using a notation such as "first", "second", etc., generally does not limit the quantity or order of the elements. Rather, these notations may be used herein as a convenient way of distinguishing two or more elements or as instances of an element. Thus, reference to the first and second elements does not mean that only two elements are used or in some way the first element must precede the second element. Also, unless expressly stated, a set of elements may include one or more elements. Additionally, the term “at least one of A, B, or C” used in the description or claims means “A or B or C or any combination thereof”.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that information and signals may be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and techniques. For example, data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referenced throughout the above description may include voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optics. It can be represented by a particle, or any combination thereof.

Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the various illustrative logical blocks, processors, means, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with various aspects of the receiver described herein may be implemented in electronic hardware (eg, digital implementation, analog implementation, or Various forms of program or design code, including instructions (which may be referred to herein as " software " or " software modules " for convenience), or combinations of both that can be designed using source coding or some other technique It will be further understood that it can be implemented in a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented in hardware or software depends upon the particular application and design constraints imposed on the overall system. Skilled artisans may implement the described functionality in varying ways for each particular application, but such implementation decisions should not be interpreted as causing a departure from the scope of the present invention.

The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented within or performed by an integrated circuit (“IC”), an access terminal, or an access point. The IC may be a general purpose processor, digital signal processor (DSP), application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, electrical components, optical Components, mechanical components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein, and may execute code or instructions residing within the IC, external to the IC, or both. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. A processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, eg, a combination of a DSP or a microprocessor, a plurality of microprocessors, one or more microprocessors associated with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

It is understood that any specific order or hierarchy of steps in any disclosed process is an example of a sample approach. Based upon design preferences, it is understood that the specific order or hierarchy of steps in the processes may be rearranged while remaining within the scope of the present invention. The accompanying method claims present elements in the various orders of sample order and are not intended to be limited to the specific order or hierarchy presented.

The steps of a method or algorithm described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of the two. Software modules (including, for example, executable instructions or related data) and other data may include RAM memory, flash memory, ROM memory, EPROM memory, EEPROM memory, registers, hard disk, removable disk, CD-ROM, Or may reside in a data memory, such as any other form of computer-readable storage medium known in the art. A sample storage medium may be provided to a machine such as a computer / processor (which may be referred to herein as " processor " for convenience) so that the processor can read information (eg, code) from and write information to the storage medium. Can be coupled. The sample storage medium may be integrated into the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC can reside in user equipment. In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in user equipment. Moreover, in some aspects any suitable computer-program product includes a computer-readable medium comprising code (eg, executable by at least one computer) related to one or more of the aspects of the present invention. can do. In some aspects, the computer program product may include a package.

The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to implement the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects. Accordingly, the claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein but are to be accorded the full scope of the claims in language, where reference to the singular element is "one and only one" unless specifically stated otherwise. Is intended to mean "one or more". All structural and functional equivalents to the elements of the various aspects known or described later throughout this application, which are known to those skilled in the art, are intended to be incorporated herein by reference and incorporated by the claims. Moreover, nothing disclosed herein is intended to be dedicated to the public regardless of whether such disclosure is explicitly recited in the claims. Unless an element is explicitly quoted using the phrase "means for," or if it is a method claim, the element is not quoted using the phrase "steps to ...", under 35 USC§112, paragraph 6 However, no claim element shall be construed.

Claims (34)

As a communication device,
A receiver configured to scale an audio signal; And
A transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition,
The receiver is further configured to scale the peripheral signal from the transducer circuit and combine the scaled peripheral signal with the scaled audio signal,
The receiver is further configured to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The receiver further comprises an amplifier configured to scale at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The receiver further comprising an audio decoder configured to decode the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The receiver further comprises an adapter configured to receive a transmission comprising the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The receiver further comprises an adapter configured to provide an interface to a storage device in which the audio signal is stored;
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The receiver further comprises a digital-to-analog converter configured to provide the combined ambient and audio signal to a speaker;
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
A user interface configured to enable a user to adjust the scaling applied to the at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The receiver further comprising an ambient sound analyzer configured to adjust the scaling applied to the at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal in response to the ambient condition;
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The transducer circuit comprises an audio generator configured to generate the peripheral signal in response to the ambient condition;
Communication device. 10. The method of claim 9,
The transducer circuit further comprises a sensor configured to receive the ambient condition and provide the ambient condition to the audio generator;
Communication device. The method of claim 1,
The ambient condition comprises the ambient signal,
The transducer circuit comprises a microphone configured to receive the ambient signal,
Communication device. As a method for communication,
Receiving an audio signal;
Scaling the audio signal;
Providing an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition;
Scaling the peripheral signal;
Adjusting the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal; And
Combining the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal,
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Further comprising decoding the audio signal;
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Receiving a transmission comprising the audio signal;
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Retrieving the audio signal from a storage device;
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Providing the combined ambient signal and audio signal to a speaker;
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Allowing a user to adjust the scaling applied to the at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Adjusting the scaling applied to the at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal in response to the ambient condition,
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
Generating the peripheral signal in response to the ambient condition;
Method for communication. The method of claim 12,
The ambient condition comprises the ambient signal,
The method further comprises receiving the peripheral signal,
Method for communication. As a communication device,
Means for receiving an audio signal;
Means for scaling the audio signal;
Means for providing an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition;
Means for scaling the peripheral signal;
Means for adjusting the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal; And
Means for combining the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for decoding the audio signal further;
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for receiving a transmission comprising the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for retrieving the audio signal from a storage device,
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for providing the combined ambient signal and audio signal to a speaker;
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for enabling a user to adjust the scaling applied to the at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for adjusting the scaling applied to the at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal in response to the ambient condition;
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
Means for generating the ambient signal in response to the ambient condition;
Communication device. 29. The method of claim 28,
Means for receiving the ambient condition further;
Communication device. The method of claim 21,
The ambient condition comprises the ambient signal,
The apparatus further comprises means for receiving the ambient signal,
Communication device. A computer-readable medium,
The computer-
Receive an audio signal from an electronic source;
Scale the audio signal;
Receive an ambient signal generated in response to an ambient condition;
Scaling the peripheral signal;
Adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal; And
Instructions executable to combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal,
Computer-readable media. As a headset,
speaker;
A receiver configured to scale an audio signal;
A transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition,
The receiver is further configured to scale the ambient signal from the transducer circuit, combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal, and provide the combined scaled ambient and audio signal to the speaker,
The receiver is further configured to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
headset. As a watch,
User interface;
A receiver configured to scale an audio signal;
A transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition,
The receiver is further configured to scale the ambient signal from the transducer circuit, combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal, and provide the combined scaled ambient and audio signal to the user interface; ,
The receiver is further configured to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
clock. As a sensing device,
sensor;
A receiver configured to scale an audio signal;
A transducer circuit configured to provide an ambient signal in response to an ambient condition,
The receiver is further configured to scale the ambient signal from the transducer circuit, combine the scaled ambient signal with the scaled audio signal, and provide the combined scaled ambient and audio signal to the sensor,
The receiver is further configured to adjust the scaling applied to at least one of the ambient signal and the audio signal,
Sensing device.

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