Call Voice Processing Apparatus, Call Voice Processing Method and Program

• US 20100111290A1
• Filed: 11/03/2009
• Published: 05/06/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 11/04/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: NAMBA, Ryuichi, Nishiguchi, Masayuki, Abe, Mototsugu
• Application Number:
  US12/611,908
• Publication Number:
  US 20100111290A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 379/392.10
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6008 in the transmitter circuit

Abstract

There is provided a call voice processing apparatus including an input correction unit that corrects characteristics of a first input sound input from a first input apparatus to characteristics of a second input sound input from a second input apparatus, a sound separation unit that separates the second input sound into a plurality of sounds, a sound type estimation unit that estimates sound types of the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit, a mixing ratio calculation unit that calculates a mixing ratio of each sound in accordance with the sound type estimated by the sound type estimation unit, a sound mixing unit that mixes the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit in the mixing ratio calculated by the mixing ratio calculation unit, and an extraction unit that extracts a specific sound from the first input sound corrected by the input correction unit.

Claims

1. A call voice processing apparatus, comprising:

an input correction unit that corrects characteristics of a first input sound input from a first input apparatus to characteristics of a second input sound input from a second input apparatus that are different from the characteristics of the first input sound;

a sound separation unit that, when a plurality of sounds is contained in the second input sound, separates the second input sound into a plurality of sounds;

a sound type estimation unit that estimates sound types of the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit;

a mixing ratio calculation unit that calculates a mixing ratio of each sound in accordance with the sound type estimated by the sound type estimation unit;

a sound mixing unit that mixes the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit in the mixing ratio calculated by the mixing ratio calculation unit; and

an extraction unit that extracts a specific sound from the first input sound corrected by the input correction unit using a mixed sound mixed by the sound mixing unit.

2. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the first input apparatus is a call microphone and the second input apparatus is an imaging microphone, and

the specific sound extracted by the extraction unit is a voice of a caller.

3. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound separation unit

separates the first input sound and the second input sound into a plurality of sounds.

4. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising:

a sound determination unit that determines whether the first input sound contains a voice of a caller.

5. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 4, wherein the sound determination unit

determines whether a sound source of a caller is contained by determining a direction of the sound source, a distance, and a tone using at least one of a volume of the input sound, a spectrum, a phase difference of a plurality of input sounds, and a distribution of amplitude information at discrete times.

6. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input correction unit corrects frequency characteristics of the first input sound and/or the second input sound.

7. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input correction unit performs sampling rate conversions of the first input sound and/or the second input sound.

8. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the input correction unit corrects a delay difference due to A/D conversions of the first input sound and/or the second input sound.

9. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein

the sound separation unit separates the input sound into a plurality of sounds in units of blocks, comprising:

an identity determination unit that determines whether the sounds separated by the sound separation unit are identical among a plurality of blocks; and

a recording unit that records the sounds separated by the sound separation unit in units of blocks.

10. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound separation unit separates the input sound into a plurality of sounds using statistical independence of sound and differences in spatial transfer characteristics.

11. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound separation unit separates the input sound into a sound originating from a specific sound source and other sounds using a paucity of overlapping between time-frequency components of sound sources.

12. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound type estimation unit estimates whether the input sound is a steady sound or non-steady sound using a distribution of amplitude information, direction, volume, zero crossing number and the like at discrete times of the input sound.

13. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the sound type estimation unit estimates whether the sound estimated to be a non-steady sound is a noise sound or a voice uttered by a person.

14. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 11, wherein the mixing ratio calculation unit calculates a mixing ratio that does not significantly change the volume of the sound estimated to be a steady sound by the sound type estimation unit.

15. The call voice processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein the mixing ratio calculation unit calculates a mixing ratio that lowers the volume of the sound estimated to be a noise sound by the sound type estimation unit and does not lower the volume of the sound estimated to be a voice uttered by a person.

16. A call voice processing method, comprising the steps of:

correcting characteristics of a first input sound input from a first input apparatus to characteristics of a second input sound input from a second input apparatus that are different from the characteristics of the first input sound;

when a plurality of sounds is contained in the second input sound, separating the second input sound into a plurality of sounds;

estimating sound types of the plurality of separated sounds;

calculating a mixing ratio of each sound in accordance with the estimated sound type;

mixing the plurality of separated sounds in the calculated mixing ratio; and

extracting a specific sound from the corrected first input sound using a mixed sound obtained by the mixing.

17. A program for causing a computer to function as

a call voice processing apparatus, comprising:

an input correction unit that corrects characteristics of a first input sound input from a first input apparatus to characteristics of a second input sound input from a second input apparatus that are different from the characteristics of the first input sound;

a sound separation unit that, when a plurality of sounds is contained in the second input sound, separates the second input sound into a plurality of sounds;

a sound type estimation unit that estimates sound types of the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit;

a mixing ratio calculation unit that calculates a mixing ratio of each sound in accordance with the sound type estimated by the sound type estimation unit;

a sound mixing unit that mixes the plurality of sounds separated by the sound separation unit in the mixing ratio calculated by the mixing ratio calculation unit; and

an extraction unit that extracts a specific sound from the first input sound corrected by the input correction unit using a mixed sound mixed by the sound mixing unit.