Method and apparatus for identifying sound sources from mixed sound signal

• US 20090086998A1
• Filed: 03/05/2008
• Published: 04/02/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 10/01/2007
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Jeong, So-young, Oh, Kwang-cheol, Jeong, Jae-hoon, Kim, Kyu-hong
• Application Number:
  US12/073,458
• Publication Number:
  US 20090086998A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/119
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2201/403 Linear arrays of transducers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A method and apparatus for discriminating sound sources from a mixed sound is provided. The method includes separating sound source signals from a mixed sound signal including a plurality of sound source signals that are input through a microphone array, estimating a transfer function of a mixing channel mixing the plurality of sound source signals from relationships between the mixed sound signal and the separated sound source signals, obtaining input signals of the microphone array by multiplying the estimated transfer function by the separated sound source signals, and calculating location information of each sound source using a predetermined sound source location estimation method based on the obtained input signals.

Claims

1. A method of discriminating sound sources, the method comprising:

separating sound source signals from a mixed sound signal including a plurality of sound source signals that are input through a microphone array;

estimating a transfer function of a mixing channel mixing the plurality of sound source signals from relationships between the mixed sound signal and the separated sound source signals;

obtaining input signals of the microphone array by multiplying the estimated transfer function by the separated sound source signals; and

calculating location information of each sound source using a predetermined sound source location estimation method based on the obtained input signals.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the separating of the sound source signals comprises:

separating the sound source signals based on a condition that the sound source signals included in the mixed sound signal have statistically independent characteristics.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the estimating of the transfer function comprises:

determining an unmixing channel separating the sound source signals from the relationships between the mixed sound signal and the separated sound source signals using a predetermined learning rule; and

estimating the transfer function by calculating an inverse of the determined unmixing channel.

4. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

removing a permutation ambiguity in which components of the unmixing channel are permutated by arranging row vectors of the unmixing channel; and

removing a scaling ambiguity in which a signal size of the unmixing channel is changed by normalizing the components of the unmixing channel using a diagonal component of the inverse of the unmixing channel.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein the calculated location information comprises at least one of a direction of each sound source and a distance between the microphone array and each sound source.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

improving a signal to noise ratio (SNR) of one or more sound source signals from among the sound source signals using a predetermined beam-forming algorithm based on the calculated location information.

7. A computer-readable recording medium on which a program for executing the method of claim 1 is recorded.

8. An apparatus for discriminating sound sources, the apparatus comprising:

a sound source separation unit separating sound source signals from a mixed sound signal including a plurality of sound source signals that are input through a microphone array;

a transfer function estimation unit estimating a transfer function of a mixing channel mixing the plurality of sound source signals from relationships between the mixed sound signal and the separated sound source signals;

an input signal obtaining unit obtaining input signals of the microphone array by multiplying the estimated transfer function by the separated sound source signals; and

a location information calculation unit calculating location information of each sound source using a predetermined sound source location estimation method based on the obtained input signals.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the sound source separation unit separates the sound source signals based on a condition that the sound source signals included in the mixed sound signal have statistically independent characteristics.

10. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the transfer function estimation unit determines an unmixing channel separating the sound source signals from the relationships between the mixed sound signal and the separated sound source signals using a predetermined learning rule, and estimates the transfer function by calculating an inverse of the determined unmixing channel.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a permutation ambiguity solver removing a permutation ambiguity in which components of the unmixing channel are permutated by arranging row vectors of the unmixing channel; and

a scaling ambiguity solver removing a scaling ambiguity in which a signal size of the unmixing channel is changed by normalizing the components of the unmixing channel using a diagonal component of the inverse of the unmixing channel.

12. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the calculated location information comprises at least one of a direction of each sound source and a distance between the microphone array and each sound source.

13. The apparatus of claim 8, further comprising:

a sound quality improvement unit improving an SNR of one or more sound source signals from among the sound source signals using a predetermined beam-forming algorithm based on the calculated location information.