Sound pick-up device, program, and method

• US 10,085,087 B2
• Filed: 12/19/2017
• Issued: 09/25/2018
• Est. Priority Date: 02/17/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Original Assignee: OKI Electric Industry Company Limited
• Inventors: Katagiri, Kazuhiro
• Primary Examiner(s): TON, DAVID L
• Application Number:
  US15/847,598
• Publication Number:
  US 20180242078A1
• Time in Patent Office: 280 Days
• Field of Search: 381 92
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/038 using band spreading techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/21 the extracted parameters being power information
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/51 for comparison or discrimination
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/403 Linear arrays of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/03 Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/21 Direction finding using differential microphone array [DMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A sound pick-up device of the present disclosure acquires extracted sound as a result of extracting target area sound using non-target area sound present in a target area direction from output of a beam former, divides each of an input signal and the extracted sound into plural bands, computes a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each divided band, determines whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal by employing the power spectrum ratios for each divided band, and outputs the extracted sound as a sound pick-up result in cases in which target area sound has been determined to be present.

Claims

1. A sound pick-up device comprising:

a directionality forming unit that forms directionality in a target area direction from an input signal using a beam former;

a non-target area sound extraction unit that extracts non-target area sound present in the target area direction designated by the directionality formed by the directionality forming unit;

a target area sound extraction unit that outputs extracted sound, the extracted sound obtained by subtracting the non-target area sound present in the target area direction from output of the beam former;

a band dividing unit that divides each of the input signal and the extracted sound into a plurality of bands;

a power spectrum ratio computation unit that computes a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each divided band divided by the band dividing unit;

a determination unit that determines whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal by employing the power spectrum ratio for each divided band computed by the power spectrum ratio computation unit; and

an output unit that outputs the extracted sound as a sound pick-up result in cases in which the determination unit has determined target area sound to be present.

2. The sound pick-up device of claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal according to a comparison result between a maximum value of the power spectrum ratios for each divided band computed by the power spectrum ratio computation unit and a first threshold value.

3. The sound pick-up device of claim 1, further comprising an all-band average power spectrum ratio computation unit that computes all-band average power spectrum ratio, the all-band average power spectrum ratio being an average power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for all bands, wherein:

the determination unit performs first determination processing to determine whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal based on the all-band average power spectrum ratio;

the band dividing unit divides each of the input signal and the extracted sound into a plurality of bands in cases in which the first determination processing is unable to determine whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal;

the power spectrum ratio computation unit computes a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each band in cases in which the first determination processing is unable to determine whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal; and

the determination unit performs second determination processing to determine whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal from the power spectrum ratio computed by the power spectrum ratio computation unit in cases in which the first determination processing is unable to determine whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal.

4. The sound pick-up device of claim 3, wherein:

in the first determination processing, the determination unit performs the followings;

(i) determining target area sound to be present in the input signal in cases in which the all-band average power spectrum ratio exceeds a second threshold value,

(ii) determining target area sound not to be present in the input signal in cases in which the all-band average power spectrum ratio is not larger than a third threshold value that is smaller than the second threshold value, and

(iii) obtaining a result of being unable to determine whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal in cases in which the all-band average power spectrum ratio exceeds the third threshold value and is not larger than the second threshold value.

5. The sound pick-up device of claim 3, wherein in the second determination processing, the determination unit determines whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal according to a comparison result of a maximum value of the power spectrum ratios for each divided band computed by the power spectrum ratio computation unit against a first threshold value.

6. The sound pick-up device of claim 1, wherein the determination unit determines whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal according to a comparison result of an inter-band power spectrum ratio against a fourth threshold value, the inter-band power spectrum ratio expressed as a ratio between a maximum value and a minimum value of the power spectrum ratios for each divided band.

7. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a sound pick-up program that causes a computer to execute processing, the processing comprising:

forming directionality in a target area direction from an input signal using a beam former;

extracting non-target area sound present in the target area direction designated by the formed directionality;

outputting extracted sound, the extracted sound obtained by subtracting the extracted non-target area sound present in the target area direction from output of the beam former;

dividing each of the input signal and the extracted sound into a plurality of bands;

computing a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each divided band;

determining whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal by employing the power spectrum ratio computed for each divided band; and

outputting the extracted sound as a sound pick-up result in cases in which target area sound has been determined to be present.

8. A sound pick-up method comprising:

forming directionality in a target area direction from an input signal using a beam former;

extracting non-target area sound present in the target area direction designated by the formed directionality;

outputting extracted sound, the extracted sound obtained by subtracting the extracted non-target area sound present in the target area direction from output of the beam former;

dividing each of the input signal and the extracted sound into a plurality of bands;

computing a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each divided band;

determining whether or not target area sound is present in the input signal by employing the power spectrum ratio computed for each divided band; and

outputting the extracted sound as a sound pick-up result in cases in which target area sound has been determined to be present.

9. A sound pick-up device comprising:

a directionality forming unit that forms directionality in a target area direction from an input signal using a beam former;

a non-target area sound extraction unit that extracts non-target area sound present in the target area direction designated by the directionality formed by the directionality forming unit;

a target area sound extraction unit that outputs extracted sound, the extracted sound obtained by subtracting the non-target area sound present in the target area direction from output of the beam former;

a power spectrum ratio computation unit that computes a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each frequency component;

a determination unit that determines whether or not target area sound is present in each frequency component by employing the power spectrum ratio computed by the power spectrum ratio computation unit; and

an output unit that outputs a frequency component of the extracted sound for a frequency component in which the determination unit has determined target area sound to be present.

10. The sound pick-up device of claim 9, wherein for each frequency component, the determination unit determines whether or not target area sound is present based on a comparison result between the power spectrum ratio computed by the power spectrum ratio computation unit and a first threshold value.

11. The sound pick-up device of claim 9, wherein the output unit does not output the extracted sound for any frequency components, in cases in which a proportion of frequency components, for which the determination unit has determined that target area sound is not present in the input signal, exceeds a second threshold value.

12. The sound pick-up device of claim 11, wherein the output unit outputs extracted sound for all frequency components, in cases in which the proportion of frequency components, for which the determination unit has determined that target area sound is not present in the input signal, is less than a third threshold value that is smaller than the second threshold value.

13. The sound pick-up device of claim 9, further comprising a mixing level computation unit that computes a volume level of the input signal to be mixed into output sound based on a ratio between the non-target area sound extracted based on the input signal and the extracted sound, and the extracted sound wherein:

for a frequency component in which the determination unit has determined target area sound to be present, the output unit mixes the input signal that has been gain-adjusted based on a volume level computed by the mixing level computation unit and outputs the gain-adjusted input signal.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a sound pick-up program that causes a computer to execute processing, the processing comprising:

forming directionality in a target area direction from an input signal using a beam former;

extracting non-target area sound present in the target area direction designated by the formed directionality;

outputting extracted sound, the extracted sound obtained by subtracting the extracted non-target area sound present in the target area direction from output of the beam former;

computing a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each frequency component;

determining whether or not target area sound is present for each frequency component by employing the computed power spectrum ratios; and

outputting a frequency component of the extracted sound for a frequency component in which target area sound has been determined to be present.

15. A sound pick-up method comprising:

forming directionality in a target area direction from an input signal using a beam former;

extracting non-target area sound present in the target area direction designated by the formed directionality;

outputting extracted sound, the extracted sound obtained by subtracting the extracted non-target area sound present in the target area direction from output of the beam former;

computing a power spectrum ratio between the input signal and the extracted sound for each frequency component;

determining whether or not target area sound is present for each frequency component by employing the computed power spectrum ratios; and

outputting a frequency component of the extracted sound for a frequency component in which target area sound has been determined to be present.