Amazon Building Headphones That Know When Someone Calls Your Name

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Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has filed a patent for a very unique pair of headphones.

Amazon, HeadphonesAmazon’s patent is for a pair of “smart” headphones that would be able to let wearers hear a certain word. The idea is that the owners of the smart headphones could still enjoy tuning out the world with a noise-cancelling feature, but can hear their names be spoken.

The patent for the headphones details that users could set a keyword that is allowed past the noise-cancelling feature. The most common choice would obviously be a person’s name, but it’s possible that this could be used for other words as well. It could even let certain sounds through, such as sirens from emergency vehicles, reports The Verge.

It’s possible that the smart headphones from Amazon would use the same technology that is found in its Alexa virtual assistant. Alexa is used the company’s Echo device and she was created with the help of Benjamin Scott and Mark Rafn. Both of their names are mentioned in the smart headphones patent, GeekWire notes.

“It could save someone 10, 20 seconds of hearing something right away, versus realizing everyone around you is starting to respond and having no idea what is going on,” Peter Swendsen, a professor of computer music and digital arts at Oberlin, told CNN.

Those that are interested in seeing the full Amazon patent for smart headphones with noise-cancelling technology that pauses itself with the use of certain keywords, phrases or sounds can check it out at this link.

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