NOISE REMOVAL FOR ELECTRONIC DEVICE WITH FAR FIELD MICROPHONE ON CONSOLE

• US 20070258599A1
• Filed: 05/04/2006
• Published: 11/08/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 05/04/2006
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Interactive Entertainment Inc. (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Computer Entertainment Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Mao, Xiadong
• Granted Patent: US 7,697,700 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/71.100
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/03 Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones

Abstract

Reduction of noise in a device having a console with one or more microphones and a source of narrow band distributed noise located on the console is disclosed. A microphone signal containing a broad band distributed desired sound and narrow band distributed noise is divided amongst a plurality of frequency bins. For each frequency bin, it is determined whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to a narrow band distribution characteristic of the source of narrow band noise located on the console. Any frequency bins containing portions of the signal belonging to the narrow band distribution are filtered to reduce the narrow band noise.

Claims

1. A method for reduction of noise in a device having a console with one or more microphones and a source of narrow band distributed noise located on the console, the method comprising:

obtaining a signal from the one or more microphones containing a broad band distributed desired sound and narrow band distributed noise from the source located on the console;

dividing the signal amongst a plurality of frequency bins;

for each frequency bin, determining whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to a narrow band distribution characteristic of the source of narrow band noise located on the console; and

filtering from the signal any frequency bins containing portions of the signal belonging to the narrow band distribution.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to the narrow band distribution includes comparing a value corresponding to the portion of the signal in the frequency bin to a stored value for that frequency bin derived from a known signal from the source of narrow band noise located on the console.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the one or more microphones include a first microphone and a second microphone, wherein, obtaining a signal from the one or more microphones includes obtaining a first signal from the first microphone and obtaining a second signal from the second microphone, wherein determining whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to the narrow band distribution includes determining a first vector feature from the first signal and obtaining a second vector feature from the second signal, concatenating the first and second signals to form a combined vector feature and matching the combined feature vector against a model.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein dividing the signal amongst a plurality of frequency bins includes capturing a time-windowed portion of the signal, converting the time-windowed portion to a frequency domain signal and dividing the frequency domain signal amongst the plurality of frequency bins.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein the broad band distributed desired sound is a voice sound.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein the source of narrow band distributed noise is a disk drive.

7. The method of claim 1 wherein the broad band distributed desired sound is characterized by a Gaussian-distributed probability density function.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein the narrow band noise is characterized by a gamma-distributed probability density function.

9. An electronic device, comprising:

a console;

one or more microphones located on the console;

a source of narrow band distributed noise located on the console;

a processor coupled to the microphone;

a memory coupled to the processor, the memory having embodied therein a set of processor readable instructions for implementing a method for reduction of noise, the processor readable instructions including;

instructions which, when executed, cause the device to obtain a signal from the one or more microphones containing a broad band distributed desired sound and narrow band distributed noise from the source located on the console;

instructions which, when executed, divide the signal amongst a plurality of frequency bins;

instructions which, when executed, determine, for each frequency bin, whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to a narrow band distribution characteristic of the source of narrow band noise located on the console; and

instructions which, when executed, filter from the signal any frequency bins containing portions of the signal belonging to the narrow band distribution.

10. The device of claim 9, wherein the instructions which, when executed, determine whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to the narrow band distribution include one or more instructions which, when executed, compare a value corresponding to the portion of the signal in the frequency bin to a stored value for that frequency bin derived from a known signal from the source of narrow band noise located on the console.

11. The device of claim 10 further comprising a look-up table stored in the memory, wherein the look-up table contains the stored value.

12. The device of claim 9, wherein the one or more microphones include a first microphone and a second microphone.

13. The device of claim 9 wherein the instructions which, when executed, obtain a signal from the one or more microphones include one or more instructions which, when executed cause the device to obtain a first signal from the first microphone and obtain a second signal from the second microphone, wherein determining whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to the narrow band distribution includes determining a first vector feature from the first signal and obtaining a second vector feature from the second signal, concatenating the first and second signals to form a combined vector feature and matching the combined feature vector against a model.

14. The device of claim 9 wherein instructions which, when executed, divide the signal amongst a plurality of frequency bins include instructions which, when executed, directed the device to capture a time-windowed portion of the signal, converting the time-windowed portion to a frequency domain signal and divide the frequency domain signal amongst the plurality of frequency bins.

15. The device of claim 9 wherein the broad band distributed desired sound is a voice sound.

16. The device of claim 9 wherein the source of narrow band distributed noise is a disk drive.

17. The device of claim 9 wherein the broad band distributed desired sound is characterized by a Gaussian-distributed probability density function.

18. The device of claim 9 wherein the narrow band noise is characterized by a gamma-distributed probability density function.

19. The device of claim 9, wherein the console is a video game console.

20. The device of claim 9 wherein the console is a cable television set top box or a digital video recorder.

21. A processor readable medium having embodied therein a set of processor readable instructions for implementing a method for reduction of noise in an electronic device having a console, one or more microphones located on the console, a source of narrow band distributed noise located on the console, a processor coupled to the microphone and a memory coupled to the processor, the processor readable instructions including:

instructions which, when executed, cause the device to obtain a signal from the one or more microphones containing a broad band distributed desired sound and narrow band distributed noise from the source located on the console;

instructions which, when executed, divide the signal amongst a plurality of frequency bins;

instructions which, when executed, determine, for each frequency bin, whether a portion of the signal within the frequency bin belongs to a narrow band distribution characteristic of the source of narrow band noise located on the console; and

instructions which, when executed, filter from an output signal any frequency bins containing portions of the signal belonging to the narrow band distribution.