Audio systems and method for perturbing signal compensation

• US 10,388,300 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2018
• Issued: 08/20/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 02/13/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Original Assignee: Bose Corporation
• Inventors: Hera, Cristian M., Vautin, Jeffery R., Bou Daher, Elie, Argyropoulos, Paraskevas, Kathavarayan, Vigneish
• Primary Examiner(s): Huber, Paul W
• Application Number:
  US16/016,976
• Publication Number:
  US 20180308504A1
• Time in Patent Office: 421 Days
• Field of Search: None
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02082 the noise being echo, reverberation of the speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02087 the noise being separate speech, e.g. cocktail party
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0232 Processing in the frequency domain
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0364 for improving intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 5/165 Equalizers; Volume or gain control in limited frequency bands
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/301 Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone

Abstract

Audio systems and methods for providing intelligible audio content within a vehicle cabin. In one example, the audio system includes a first speaker to provide first audio content to a first seating position based on an audio signal received from an audio signal source, a second speaker to provide second audio content to a second seating position, a first microphone assembly positioned to detect speech content originating at the second seating position, leaked second audio content from the second speaker, and road noise, and audio signal processing circuitry configured to determine a perturbing signal based at least in part on a combination of the first speech content, the leaked second audio content, and the road noise, and adjust the audio signal to the first speaker to compensate for an effect of the perturbing signal on the first audio content at the first seating position.

Claims

1. A vehicle cabin audio system comprising:

a first speaker positioned to provide first audio content to a first seating position within a vehicle cabin based on an audio signal received from an audio signal source, the first speaker being positioned in one of a headrest or a seat back of a seat of the first seating position;

a second speaker positioned to provide second audio content to a second seating position within the vehicle cabin;

a first microphone assembly positioned to detect first speech content originating at the second seating position, leaked second audio content from the second speaker, and road noise; and

audio signal processing circuitry coupled to at least the first microphone assembly and configured to filter the leaked second audio content and the road noise to isolate the first speech content in a filtered signal, determine a perturbing signal based at least in part on the filtered signal, and adjust the audio signal to the first speaker based on a frequency of the audio signal to compensate for an effect of the perturbing signal on the first audio content at the first seating position.

2. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 1, further comprising a second microphone assembly positioned to detect at least second speech content originating at a third seating position, the second speech content being different from the first speech content, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is coupled to the second microphone assembly and further configured to determine the perturbing signal based on the second speech content.

3. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 2, wherein the second audio content is different from the first audio content, and wherein the second seating position is in one of a forward facing direction, a rearward facing direction, a first sideways facing direction, or a second sideways facing direction of the first seating position.

4. The vehicle audio system of claim 2, wherein each of the first microphone assembly and the second microphone assembly includes an array of microphones.

5. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 2, wherein the first microphone assembly is further configured to detect the second speech content, and wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to distinguish the first speech content detected by the first microphone assembly from the second speech content detected by the first microphone assembly based on a direction of each of the first speech content and the second speech content relative to the first microphone assembly.

6. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 2, wherein the first microphone assembly is further configured to detect the second speech content, and wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is further configured to select and apply a first beamforming configuration to attenuate the second speech content detected by at least the first microphone assembly.

7. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 6, wherein the beamforming configuration includes at least a set of weight vectors, and wherein in applying the first beamforming configuration the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to apply the set of weight vectors to a combination of the first speech content and the second speech content.

8. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 7, further comprising a data store including a look-up table having a plurality of beamforming configurations, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to reference the look-up table to select the first beamforming configuration from among the plurality of beamforming configurations.

9. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 1, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry includes volume-based equalization circuitry configured to control an attenuation or amplification applied to the audio signal to the first speaker to adjust the audio signal to compensate for the effect of the perturbing signal.

10. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 9, wherein the audio signal includes at least a first frequency band and a second frequency band, and the volume-based equalization circuitry is configured to control a first attenuation or amplification applied to the first frequency band and a second attenuation or amplification applied to the second frequency band, the first attenuation or amplification being different from the second attenuation or amplification.

11. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 9, wherein the volume-based equalization is configured to control an attenuation or amplification applied to the audio signal independently for each frequency of the audio signal.

12. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 1, wherein the first seating position is a driver'"'"'s seat within the vehicle cabin, and wherein the first audio content is a telephone conversation.

13. A vehicle cabin audio system comprising:

a first speaker positioned to provide first audio content to an occupant within a vehicle cabin based on an audio signal received from an audio signal source;

a plurality of microphone assemblies positioned to detect speech content originating at corresponding seating position within the vehicle cabin, other speech content from other seating positions within the vehicle cabin, road noise, and leaked audio content, each of the plurality of microphone assemblies including an array of microphones; and

audio signal processing circuitry coupled to each of the plurality of microphone assemblies and configured to filter the leaked audio content and the road noise to isolate the speech content, to attenuate or reject the other speech content, road noise, and leaked audio content, and to estimate at least one speech signal for the speech content from each of the corresponding seating positions.

14. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 13, wherein the plurality of microphone assemblies includes at least a first microphone assembly and a second microphone assembly, and wherein the speech content from the seating position corresponding to the first microphone assembly includes first speech content and the speech content from the seating position corresponding to the second microphone assembly includes second speech content.

15. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 14, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to select and apply a first beamforming configuration to a combination of the first speech content and the second speech content detected by at least the first microphone assembly.

16. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 15, wherein the first beamforming configuration includes at least a first set of weight vectors, and wherein in applying the first beamforming configuration the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to apply the first set of weight vectors to the combination of the first speech content and the second speech content to reject or attenuate the second speech content.

17. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 16, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to select and apply a second beamforming configuration to a combination of the first speech content and the second speech content detected by at least the second microphone assembly.

18. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 17, wherein the second beamforming configuration includes a second set of weight vectors, and wherein in applying the second beamforming configuration the audio signal processing circuitry is configured to apply the second set of weight vectors to the combination of the first speech content and the second speech content to reject or attenuate the first speech content.

19. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 13, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry is further configured to adjust the audio signal to compensate for an effect of the estimated speech signal for the speech content from each of the corresponding seating positions on the first audio content.

20. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 19, wherein the audio signal processing circuitry includes volume-based equalization circuitry configured to control an attenuation or amplification applied to the audio signal to the first speaker to compensate for the effect of the estimated speech signal.

21. The vehicle cabin audio system of claim 13, wherein the first speaker is positioned in a headrest of the seating position of the occupant.

22. A method of operating a vehicle cabin audio system, the method comprising:

providing first audio content to a first seating position within a vehicle cabin, with a first speaker positioned in one of a headrest or a seat back of a seat of the first seating position, based on an audio signal received from an audio signal source;

providing second audio content to a second seating position within the vehicle cabin with a second speaker, the second audio content being different from the first audio content;

detecting, at a first microphone assembly, first speech content originating at the second seating position, leaked second audio content from the second speaker, and road noise;

filtering the leaked second audio content from the second speaker and the road noise to isolate the first speech content in a filtered signal;

determining a perturbing signal based at least in part on the filtered signal; and

adjusting the audio signal based on a frequency of the audio signal to compensate for an effect of the perturbing signal on the first audio content at the first seating position.

23. The method of claim 22, further comprising:

detecting, at a second microphone assembly, second speech content originating at a third seating position, the second speech content being different from the first speech content; and

determining the perturbing signal based on the second speech content.

24. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

detecting, at the first microphone assembly, the second speech content; and

distinguishing between the first speech content detected by the first microphone assembly and the second speech content detected by the first microphone assembly based on a direction of each of the first speech content and the second speech content relative to the first microphone assembly.

25. The method of claim 23, further comprising:

detecting, at the first microphone assembly, the second speech content; and

selecting and applying a first beamforming configuration to attenuate the second speech content detected by at least the first microphone assembly.

26. The method of claim 25, wherein applying the first beamforming configuration includes applying a set of weight vectors to a combination of the first speech content and the second speech content to reject or attenuate the second speech content.

27. The method of claim 22, wherein the audio signal includes at least a first frequency band and a second frequency band, and wherein adjusting the audio signal includes controlling a first attenuation or amplification applied to the first frequency band and a second attenuation or amplification applied to the second frequency band, the first attenuation or amplification being different from the second attenuation or amplification.

28. The method of claim 22, wherein adjusting the audio signal includes controlling an attenuation or amplification applied to the audio signal independently for each frequency of the audio signal.