Flexible spatial audio capture apparatus

• US 10,419,712 B2
• Filed: 07/30/2018
• Issued: 09/17/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 04/05/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Arrasvuori, Juha Henrik, Jarvinen, Kari Juhani, Jarvinen, Roope Olavi, Vilermo, Miikka Tapani
• Primary Examiner(s): Patel, Yogeshkumar
• Application Number:
  US16/048,789
• Publication Number:
  US 20180338106A1
• Time in Patent Office: 414 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1684 Constructional details or arrangements related to integrated I/O peripherals not covered by groups G06F1/1635 - G06F1/1675
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/0206 Portable telephones comprising a plurality of mechanically joined movable body parts, e.g. hinged housings
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/035 Improving the acoustic characteristics by means of constructional features of the housing, e.g. ribs, walls, resonating chambers or cavities
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 5/607 for more than one sound signal, e.g. stereo, multilanguages H04N5/602 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/405 Non-uniform arrays of transducers or a plurality of uniform arrays with different transducer spacing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/20 Processing of the output signals of the acoustic transducers of an array for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic H04R2203/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2460/07 Use of position data from wide-area or local-area positioning systems in hearing devices, e.g. program or information selection
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/005 Microphone arrays
• 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 2420/01 Enhancing the perception of the sound image or of the spatial distribution using head related transfer functions [HRTF's] or equivalents thereof, e.g. interaural time difference [ITD] or interaural level difference [ILD]
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/30 Control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field

Abstract

An apparatus comprising: at least one determiner configured to determine at least one characteristic associated with a flexible part of a further apparatus; a signal processor configured to process at least one signal dependent on the at least one characteristic associated with the flexible part of the further apparatus, wherein the signal is at least one of an audio and a video signal; and an user interface generator configured to generate at least one user interface indication dependent on the characteristic associated with a flexible part of the further apparatus.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

at least one processor, and

at least one non-transitory memory including computer code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer code configured to, with the at least one processor, cause the apparatus to perform operations comprising;

receiving at least one audio signal generated from one or more microphones associated with a further apparatus;

determining at least one bend characteristic corresponding to a flexible part of the further apparatus; and

processing the at least one audio signal based on the at least one bend characteristic to define a width of an audio capture field of the one or more microphones.

2. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the at least one bend characteristic is indicative of at least one of:

a bend direction of the flexible part of the further apparatus;

or

a value indicative of an amount the flexible part is bent relative to a flat position of the flexible part of the further apparatus.

3. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

adjusting the width of the audio capture field in response to detecting a change in the at least one bend characteristic.

4. The apparatus as in claim 3, wherein adjusting the width of the audio capture field of the one or more microphones comprises either broadening the audio capture field based on the at least one bend characteristic, or narrowing the audio capture field based on the at least one bend characteristic.

5. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein at least one of the microphones is one of:

physically separate from the further apparatus, or

located within the further apparatus.

6. The apparatus as in claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise:

generating at least one user interface indication indicative of the width of the audio capture field of the one or more microphones.

20. The apparatus as in claim 1, where the further apparatus comprises at least one of:

a device used with a microphone array located within a user headset,

a user headset,

a handheld device,

a device remote from a user,

a controller for a microphone array,

a mobile terminal, or

a microphone array.

7. A method comprising:

receiving at least one audio signal generated from one or more microphones associated with an apparatus;

determining at least one bend characteristic corresponding to a flexible part of the apparatus; and

processing the at least one audio signal based on the at least one bend characteristic to define a width of an audio capture field of the one or more microphones.

8. The method as in claim 7, wherein the at least one bend characteristic is indicative of at least one of:

a bend direction of the flexible part of the apparatus;

or

a value indicative of an amount the flexible part is bent relative to a flat position of the flexible part of the apparatus.

9. The method as in claim 7, further comprising:

adjusting the width of the audio capture field in response to detecting a change in the at least one bend characteristic.

10. The method as in claim 9, wherein adjusting the width of the audio capture field of the one or more microphones comprises either broadening the audio capture field based on the at least one bend characteristic, or narrowing the audio capture field based on the at least one bend characteristic.

11. The method as in claim 7, wherein at least one of the microphones is physically separate from the apparatus.

12. The method as in claim 7, wherein at least one of the microphones is located within the apparatus.

13. The method as in claim 7, further comprising:

generating at least one user interface indication indicative of the width of the audio capture field of the one or more microphones.

14. A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoded with instructions that, when computer-executed, cause the computer to perform operations comprising:

receiving at least one audio signal generated from one or more microphones associated with an apparatus;

determining at least one bend characteristic corresponding to a flexible part of the apparatus; and

processing the at least one audio signal based on the at least one bend characteristic to define a width of an audio capture field of the one or more microphones.

15. The computer-readable medium as in claim 14, wherein the at least one bend characteristic is indicative of at least one of:

a bend direction of the flexible part of the apparatus;

or

a value indicative of an amount the flexible part is bent relative to a flat position of the flexible part of the apparatus.

16. The computer-readable medium as in claim 14, wherein the operations further comprise:

adjusting the width of the audio capture field in response to detecting a change in the at least one bend characteristic.

17. The computer-readable medium as in claim 16, wherein adjusting the width of the audio capture field of the one or more microphones comprises either broadening the audio capture field based on the at least one bend characteristic, or narrowing the audio capture field based on the at least one bend characteristic.

18. The computer-readable medium as in claim 14, wherein at least one of the microphones is physically separate from the apparatus.

19. The computer-readable medium as in claim 14, wherein at least one of the microphones is located within the apparatus.