[APP][3.0+] Around Sound - Have your phone pay attention while you enjoy your music

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MarksThinkTank

Senior Member
May 1, 2012
273
254
Update (4/11/2017): Updated the app to use the Superpowered audio library. Performance is greatly improved. Lag is pretty much gone.

This was my first app and recently just overhauled it with a lot of the updates I had been doing to Wave Control. I've decided to take this out of incubation in the device specific forums and put it fully out there. All feedback is appreciated!

Around Sound allows you to listen to music, watch movies, or play games and still be aware of your surroundings. It's meant for when you're using sound isolating earbuds like Shure or others that are basically earplugs so you have no idea what's going on around you.

It uses the mic on your headset or phone to listen around you. You set how loud a noise needs to be to trigger it. When a loud sound is detected, it pauses your music or movie for a timeout period. During this time, it feeds the outside sound through to your headphones so you can hear what's going on. After the timeout period it then resumes playback.

With games, you can use the non-pause mode which will overlay the outside sounds on top of the current audio. Usually the game audio will lower itself during this time. I would really like for games to support the pause feature. I've reached out to some developers but need everyone's help to request the feature be added to their favorite games.

Play Store Link:
Free Version


Some known issues:
1. Audio lag - when the outside sound is fed through there's about a 500ms delay. It's a known issue with Android. It's rumored to have been fixed in Jelly Bean (or there's some low level API's available to fix it) but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Finally fixed! Practically realtime now!

2. Bluetooth Mic Option - Currently only works with mono headsets and not the AD2P kind, adds lag

Some use cases:
- At the office: pause your music automatically when someone is trying to get your attention
- At home: Don't miss door slams, children crying, your dog barking, or other warning signs


- At the airport: Relax at the gate and have your music or movie pause when the gate announcements start


- Anywhere relatively quiet where you want to know if something happens around you

Permissions Needed:
Network Communications: Full Internet Access (For Ad Supported Version)
Phone Calls: Read Phone status (shuts off the audio processing during calls)
Hardware Controls: Audio Settings, Record Audio (to use the microphone, no audio is ever stored)
Coarse Location(Not GPS): For Ad Supported Version
Write External Storage: For Ad Supported Version
Billing: For in app upgrades
Bluetooth: For Bluetooth mic feature
Broadcast Sticky: For Bluetooth mic feature

Limitations:


-For Pause Music Mode: You can't be in a really loud environment otherwise the microphone input will be maxed out and there is no way to detect a louder sound. Use Street Mode instead


Developed on a Samsung Galaxy S7
 
Last edited:

short/y

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2006
658
67
Silly-con Valley
I played with this a bit in a few of its earlier incarnations and I have to compliment you on the app. One thing I've wondered -- instead of muting the underlying app, would it be possible to play what the microphone picks up over the top of whatever being played?
 

vNa5h

Senior Member
Dec 2, 2011
760
132
I played with this a bit in a few of its earlier incarnations and I have to compliment you on the app. One thing I've wondered -- instead of muting the underlying app, would it be possible to play what the microphone picks up over the top of whatever being played?

i guees that is not possible ...hardware limitations
anyway if it is...would be a great addition
 

short/y

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2006
658
67
Silly-con Valley
I hope someone can explain this to me. I'm not doubting it's a hardware limitation, I just can't understand what sort of hardware limitation it might be.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 

MarksThinkTank

Senior Member
May 1, 2012
273
254
I played with this a bit in a few of its earlier incarnations and I have to compliment you on the app. One thing I've wondered -- instead of muting the underlying app, would it be possible to play what the microphone picks up over the top of whatever being played?

Yeah, it's possible. If you uncheck pause mode, it'll play over the other app. The way it's setup now, depending on the playing app, the music/movie might dip in volume. Alternatively there's Street Mode in the Pro Version that will play all sound above the trigger on top of your music/movie.
 
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Reactions: short/y

short/y

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2006
658
67
Silly-con Valley
Yeah, it's possible. If you uncheck pause mode, it'll play over the other app. The way it's setup now, depending on the playing app, the music/movie might dip in volume. Alternatively there's Street Mode in the Pro Version that will play all sound above the trigger on top of your music/movie.
Woo hoo! Cool, thanks! Pro, here I come.

Any idea when you think you might be able to look into that lower latency JB API?


Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk 2
 

short/y

Senior Member
Mar 9, 2006
658
67
Silly-con Valley
I bought Pro this morning and used it on my walk. Worked like a charm!

It was pretty bright out and my screen couldn't brighten enough to let me see the trigger slider. A suggestion: how about adding +5 and -5 buttons so I can adjust the trigger level without having to see the slider? I don't mean remove the slider, I mean add +5 and -5 buttons.
 

daniturn3

Member
Dec 23, 2010
37
2
Worcester UK
giffgaff.com
i saw this while ago and was going to use it but deleted it by accident and than forgot about it this has reignited me to use it now ill download it later.

any news on the bluetooth issue as i have bluetooth headphones and there not mono and was wondering if it work well or not with em?
 

gadjet0

Senior Member
Oct 2, 2007
82
0
Cheshire
I like the sound of this (No pun intended) but I've only got bluetooth stereo headphones with a mic. so I'll have to wait until it supports them.
 

MarksThinkTank

Senior Member
May 1, 2012
273
254
i saw this while ago and was going to use it but deleted it by accident and than forgot about it this has reignited me to use it now ill download it later.

any news on the bluetooth issue as i have bluetooth headphones and there not mono and was wondering if it work well or not with em?

I like the sound of this (No pun intended) but I've only got bluetooth stereo headphones with a mic. so I'll have to wait until it supports them.

I don't have a set to test it with but I've gotten mixed feedback. Some stereo ones do work and some don't. Or.. it may be a particular phone's bluetooth implementation since it seems more like a bug in Android than a headset specific issue.

Please give it a try and let me know if it works!
 

MarksThinkTank

Senior Member
May 1, 2012
273
254
New Angle

So after un-intentionally (really, I swear!) ignoring my girlfriend while playing a game, I realized... I could use Around Sound with games.

So far the non-pause mode works pretty well with the games I play. I'm reaching out to some other developers to include the ability to pause when asked by Around Sound.

I need people's help to request their favorite game dev's to support auto-pause with Around Sound
 

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    Update (4/11/2017): Updated the app to use the Superpowered audio library. Performance is greatly improved. Lag is pretty much gone.

    This was my first app and recently just overhauled it with a lot of the updates I had been doing to Wave Control. I've decided to take this out of incubation in the device specific forums and put it fully out there. All feedback is appreciated!

    Around Sound allows you to listen to music, watch movies, or play games and still be aware of your surroundings. It's meant for when you're using sound isolating earbuds like Shure or others that are basically earplugs so you have no idea what's going on around you.

    It uses the mic on your headset or phone to listen around you. You set how loud a noise needs to be to trigger it. When a loud sound is detected, it pauses your music or movie for a timeout period. During this time, it feeds the outside sound through to your headphones so you can hear what's going on. After the timeout period it then resumes playback.

    With games, you can use the non-pause mode which will overlay the outside sounds on top of the current audio. Usually the game audio will lower itself during this time. I would really like for games to support the pause feature. I've reached out to some developers but need everyone's help to request the feature be added to their favorite games.

    Play Store Link:
    Free Version


    Some known issues:
    1. Audio lag - when the outside sound is fed through there's about a 500ms delay. It's a known issue with Android. It's rumored to have been fixed in Jelly Bean (or there's some low level API's available to fix it) but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet. Finally fixed! Practically realtime now!

    2. Bluetooth Mic Option - Currently only works with mono headsets and not the AD2P kind, adds lag

    Some use cases:
    - At the office: pause your music automatically when someone is trying to get your attention
    - At home: Don't miss door slams, children crying, your dog barking, or other warning signs


    - At the airport: Relax at the gate and have your music or movie pause when the gate announcements start


    - Anywhere relatively quiet where you want to know if something happens around you

    Permissions Needed:
    Network Communications: Full Internet Access (For Ad Supported Version)
    Phone Calls: Read Phone status (shuts off the audio processing during calls)
    Hardware Controls: Audio Settings, Record Audio (to use the microphone, no audio is ever stored)
    Coarse Location(Not GPS): For Ad Supported Version
    Write External Storage: For Ad Supported Version
    Billing: For in app upgrades
    Bluetooth: For Bluetooth mic feature
    Broadcast Sticky: For Bluetooth mic feature

    Limitations:


    -For Pause Music Mode: You can't be in a really loud environment otherwise the microphone input will be maxed out and there is no way to detect a louder sound. Use Street Mode instead


    Developed on a Samsung Galaxy S7
    2
    Been awhile but I'm back actively developing on this app. I added in the Superpowered audio library and the audio performance is waaaaaaay better. No more lag from trigger to playback. Please let me know if any issues crop up.

    Took awhile but it finally performs like I wanted it to originally... only took 5 years

    Thanks!
    1
    I played with this a bit in a few of its earlier incarnations and I have to compliment you on the app. One thing I've wondered -- instead of muting the underlying app, would it be possible to play what the microphone picks up over the top of whatever being played?

    Yeah, it's possible. If you uncheck pause mode, it'll play over the other app. The way it's setup now, depending on the playing app, the music/movie might dip in volume. Alternatively there's Street Mode in the Pro Version that will play all sound above the trigger on top of your music/movie.
    1
    Bit of a bug to report.

    I was just using listening to a podcast in BeyondPod and needed to pause it, so pressed the button on my headphones.

    The microphone is right next to the button, so Around Sound heard it and sent the pause signal as normal but BeyondPod interpreted this as a double press and skipped to the next episode.

    I can turn off the double press in BeyondPod as a work around, but I thought I should report it.

    Sent from my Jelly Bean powered Motorola Defy.

    Hmm.. not much I can do about that right now.

    Later on I do want to dig into the new audio processing of Jelly Bean. So maybe I can add in some filtering for this type of thing.

    Got some other things on my plate at the moment and also waiting for the official JB update for my SGSIII before digging into JB-specific features.