Separation of target acoustic signals in a multi-transducer arrangement
First Claim
1. A speech separation process, comprising:
- positioning a plurality of microphones with respect to a speech source so that each respective microphone generates a signal having a speech component and a noise component in different mixing ratios;
receiving each of the signals generated by the microphones into a separation process;
separating the received signals into a first channel and a second channel, one of the channels providing a noise signal that is substantially noise components and the other channel providing a combination signal that is a combination of noise components and speech components;
identifying which of the first or second channels has the combination signal;
processing the combination signal with the noise signal; and
generating a speech signal indicative of the speech.
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Accused Products
Abstract
The present invention provides a process for separating a good quality information signal from a noisy acoustic environment. The separation process uses a set of at least two spaced-apart transducers to capture noise and information components. The transducer signals, which have both a noise and information component, are received into a separation process. The separation process generates one channel that is substantially only noise, and another channel that is a combination of noise and information. An identification process is used to identify which channel has the information component. The noise signal is then used to set process characteristics that are applied to the combination signal to efficiently reduce or eliminate the noise component. In this way, the noise is effectively removed from the combination signal to generate a good qualify information signal. The information signal may be, for example, a speech signal, a seismic signal, a sonar signal, or other acoustic signal.
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Citations
59 Claims
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1. A speech separation process, comprising:
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positioning a plurality of microphones with respect to a speech source so that each respective microphone generates a signal having a speech component and a noise component in different mixing ratios;
receiving each of the signals generated by the microphones into a separation process;
separating the received signals into a first channel and a second channel, one of the channels providing a noise signal that is substantially noise components and the other channel providing a combination signal that is a combination of noise components and speech components;
identifying which of the first or second channels has the combination signal;
processing the combination signal with the noise signal; and
generating a speech signal indicative of the speech. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 41, 42)
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7. The speech separation process according to claim 7, further including:
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positioning the plurality of microphones in a second arrangement where the second microphone is closer to the speech source and the first microphone is farther from the speech source; and
rearranging, for the second arrangement, the filter coefficients for the set of filters. - View Dependent Claims (8, 9, 10, 11)
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39. A radio device for wirelessly transmitting a radio signal, comprising:
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a plurality of microphones, each microphone generating a signal having a noise component and a speech component;
a processor operating the steps of;
receiving the microphone signals;
generating a noise signal comprising substantially only noise components;
generating a combination signal comprising both noise components and speech components;
processing the combination signal with the noise signal; and
generating a speech signal indicative of a speaker'"'"'s speech; and
a transmitter for generating the radio signal, the radio signal comprising speech information indicative of the speech signal. - View Dependent Claims (40, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50)
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51. A headset system, comprising:
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a plurality of microphones, each microphone generating a signal having a noise component and a speech component;
a processor operating the steps of;
receiving the microphone signals;
generating a noise signal comprising substantially only noise components;
generating a combination signal comprising both noise components and speech components;
processing the combination signal with the noise signal; and
generating a speech signal indicative of the speaker'"'"'s speech; and
an output line for transmitting the speech signal to a receiving device. - View Dependent Claims (52, 53, 56, 57, 58, 59)
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54. An information separation process, comprising:
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receiving a first signal having an information component and a noise component, the first signal being indicative of a signal generated by a first transducer;
receiving a second signal having an information component and a noise component, the second signal being indicative of a signal generated by a second transducer;
receiving the first signal and the second signal into a separation process;
separating the received signals into a plurality of channels, one of the channels providing a noise signal that is substantially noise components;
identifying another one of the channels as having a signal with a usable level of information components;
processing the noise signal with the signal from the identified channel; and
generating an information signal. - View Dependent Claims (55)
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Specification