Host mode for an audio conference phone

• US 20120224714A1
• Filed: 03/04/2011
• Published: 09/06/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 03/04/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Mitel Networks Corporation
• Original Assignee: Mitel Networks Corporation
• Inventors: Couse, Peter Francis, Wu, Anjie
• Granted Patent: US 8,989,360 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/92
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/009 Signal processing in [PA] systems to enhance the speech intelligibility
• 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 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F

Abstract

A system and method for receiving sound from a teleconference host at a teleconference phone is disclosed. The method comprises identifying a person to act as the teleconference host. A location of the identified teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone is determined. A plurality of microphones on the conference phone are configured as a beamforming receiver to receive an audio signal from the location of the teleconference host. Selected microphones from the plurality of microphones are biased to receive sound from the direction of the teleconference host relative to sound received from other directions.

Claims

1. A method for receiving sound at a teleconference phone from a teleconference host, comprising:

identifying a person to act as the teleconference host;

determining a location of the identified teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone;

configuring a plurality of microphones on the teleconference phone as a beamforming receiver to receive an audio signal from the location of the teleconference host whenever an amplitude of the audio signal from the location is greater than a predetermined threshold level; and

biasing selected microphones from the plurality of microphones to receive sound from the direction of the teleconference host relative to sound received from other directions relative to the teleconference phone.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a location of the identified teleconference host further comprises physically moving a predetermined location on the teleconference phone in a direction towards the teleconference host.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a location of the identified teleconference host further comprises electronically identifying the location of the teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein determining a location of the identified teleconference host further comprises determining the location of the teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone using voice identification of the teleconference host.

5. The method of claim 1, wherein configuring the plurality of microphones on the teleconference phone as a beamforming receiver further comprises applying a finite impulse response filter to each of the plurality of microphones to form a spatial filter.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein biasing the plurality of microphones further comprises increasing a sensitivity of microphones to increase a reception of audio signals received from the location.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein biasing the plurality of microphones further comprises manually adjusting a sensitivity of microphones to adjust a sensitivity of reception of audio signals received from the location.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein biasing the plurality of microphones further comprises decreasing a sensitivity of microphones to decrease a reception of background noise received from other directions than the location.

9. A system for receiving sound from a teleconference host on a teleconference phone, comprising:

a teleconference phone having a plurality of microphones configured as a beamforming receiver to receive an audio signal from a selected direction;

a direction identification module electronically coupled to the teleconference phone to enable a direction of the teleconference host to be identified relative to the teleconference phone; and

a directional bias module configured to bias selected microphones from the plurality of microphones to receive an audio signal from the identified direction of the teleconference host relative to audio signals from other directions.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the direction identification module configures a selected location on the teleconference phone to be biased to receive the audio signal in the direction of the selected location on the teleconference phone and the selected location is physically turned towards the teleconference host.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the direction identification module is configured to allow a user to electronically identify a selected location on the teleconference phone to be biased to receive the audio signal in the direction of the selected location on the teleconference phone and the selected location is near the teleconference host.

12. The system of claim 9, wherein the location identification module is configured to identify a direction of the teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone using voice identification.

13. The system of claim 9, wherein the directional bias module is configured to bias the plurality of microphones to receive an audio signal from the identified direction of the teleconference host by applying a bias to selected microphones of the plurality of microphones that are selected using a beamforming algorithm selected from the group consisting of a delay and sum beamforming algorithm, a Bartlett beamforming algorithm, a superdirective beamforming algorithm, a least square beamforming algorithm, and a minimum variance distortionless response (MVDR) beamforming algorithm.

14. The system of claim 9, wherein the directional bias module is configured to increasing a sensitivity of selected microphones to increase a reception of audio signals received from the identified direction of the teleconference host.

15. The system of claim 9, wherein the directional bias module is configured to decrease a sensitivity of selected microphones to decrease a reception of audio signals received from directions other than the identified direction of the teleconference host.

16. The system of claim 9, further comprising a comment button configured to produce an audio tone when the comment button is activated to indicate that a conference attendee has at least one of a question and a comment.

17. The system of claim 9, further comprising a portable teleconference host microphone configured to be worn by the teleconference host to enable a distance of the teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone to be determined to adjust the bias of the selected microphones based on the distance.

18. A computer program product, comprising a computer usable medium having a computer readable program code embodied therein, said computer readable program code adapted to be executed to implement a method for receiving sound at a teleconference phone from a teleconference host, comprising:

selecting a person to act as the teleconference host;

identifying a direction of the selected teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone;

configuring a plurality of microphones on the teleconference phone as a beamforming receiver to receive an audio signal from the direction of the teleconference host whenever an amplitude of the audio signal from the location is greater than a predetermined threshold level; and

biasing the plurality of microphones to receive sound from the direction of the teleconference host relative to sound from other directions relative to the teleconference phone.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying a direction of the selected teleconference host further comprises:

physically moving a predetermined location on the teleconference phone in a direction towards the teleconference host.

20. The method of claim 18, wherein identifying a direction of the selected teleconference host further comprises electronically identifying the direction of the teleconference host relative to the teleconference phone.