ACCELEROMETER VECTOR CONTROLLED NOISE CANCELLING METHOD

• US 20120259628A1
• Filed: 05/04/2011
• Published: 10/11/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 04/06/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Ericsson Mobile Communications USA Incorporated (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: SIOTIS, Georg
• Granted Patent: US 8,868,413 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/233
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/03 Constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. telephone hand-sets
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2250/12 including a sensor for measuring a physical value, e.g. temperature or motion telephones including GPS signal receivers H04M2250/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/07 Mechanical or electrical reduction of wind noise generated by wind passing a microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A telecommunication device is disclosed, comprising: a microphone array comprising a plurality of microphones, wherein each microphone receives an analogue acoustic signal; a position sensing device for determining how the telecommunication device is positioned in three-dimensions with respect to a user'"'"'s mouth; at least one analogue/digital converter for converting each analogue acoustic signal into a digital signal; a digital signal processor for performing signal processing on the received digital signals comprising a controller, a plurality of delay circuits for delaying each received signal based on an input from the controller and a plurality of preamplifiers for adjusting the gain of each received signal based on a gain input from the controller, wherein the controller selects the appropriate delay and gain values applied to each received signal to remove noise from the received signals based on the determined position of the telecommunication device. A method for creating and controlling a location of a virtual microphone near a telecommunication device so as to reduce background noise in a speech signal is also disclosed.

Claims

1. A telecommunication device, comprising:

a microphone array comprising a plurality of microphones, wherein each microphone is adapted to receive an analogue acoustic signal;

a position sensing device adapted to determine how the telecommunication device is positioned in three-dimensions with respect to a user'"'"'s mouth;

at least one analogue/digital converter adapted to convert each analogue acoustic signal into a digital signal;

a digital signal processor adapted to perform signal processing on the received digital signals comprising a controller, a plurality of delay circuits adapted to delay each received signal based on an input from the controller and a plurality of preamplifiers adapted to adjust the gain and frequency response of each received signal based on a gain input from the controller, wherein the controller selects the appropriate delay, gain, and frequency response values applied to each received signal to remove noise from the received signals based on the determined position of the telecommunication device.

2. The telecommunication device according to claim 1, wherein each microphone is a unidirectional microphone.

3. The telecommunication device according to claim 1, wherein the position sensing device is an accelerometer.

4. The telecommunication device according to claim 1, wherein the gain and delay values applied to the received acoustic signals create a virtual microphone located near the telecommunication device.

5. The telecommunication device according to claim 4, wherein the controller is adapted to move the location of the virtual microphone near the telecommunication device to various locations by changing the delay and gain values.

6. The telecommunication device according to claim 5, wherein the controller is adapted to delay the movement of the location of the virtual microphone.

7. The telecommunication device according to claim 5, wherein the controller is adapted to move the location of the virtual microphone in response to a reasonableness analysis performed by the controller based on position information received from the accelerometer about the device.

8. The telecommunication device according to claim 5, wherein various gain and delay values are stored in a memory for predetermined positions of the telecommunication device.

9. The telecommunication device according to claim 1, further comprising an ear speaker, wherein the controller is adapted to send a side tone signal to the ear speaker adjusted by the controller based on the determined position of the telecommunication device.

10. The telecommunication device according to claim 9, wherein the controller is adapted to increase the side tone the further the virtual microphone is from the user'"'"'s mouth.

11. The telecommunication device according to claim 3, wherein the accelerometer is adapted to create a three-dimensional system having three sub-vectors orthogonal in relation to each other, and a resulting vector determined by the accelerometer pointing to the ground.

12. The telecommunication device according to claim 1, wherein the microphone array comprises at least three microphones.

13. The telecommunication device according to claim 12, wherein the three microphones are arranged asymmetrically around the telecommunication device.

14. A method for creating and controlling a location of a virtual microphone near a telecommunication device so as to reduce background noise in a speech signal, comprising the steps of:

receiving acoustic signals containing a speech signal and a noise signal at a plurality of microphones located on the telecommunication device;

determining a three-dimensional position of the telecommunication device with reference to a user'"'"'s mouth; and

adjusting delay and gain values applied to the received acoustic signals from each microphone based on the determined position of the telecommunication device to reduce the noise signal in the received acoustic signal.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the gain, delay, and frequency response values applied to the received acoustic signals create a virtual microphone located near the telecommunication device.

16. The method according to claim 15, wherein the location of the virtual microphone near the telecommunication device is moved to various locations by changing the delay, gain, and frequency response values.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein various gain, delay, and frequency response values are stored in a memory for predetermined positions of the telecommunication device.

18. The method according to claim 14, further comprising the step of:

sending a side tone signal to an ear speaker, wherein the strength of the side tone signal is adjusted based on the determined position of the telecommunication device.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein the side tone is increased the further the virtual microphone is from the user'"'"'s mouth

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein the position of the telecommunication device is determined by an accelerometer in the telecommunication device.

21. The telecommunication device according to claim 14, wherein the movement of the location of the virtual microphone is delayed.

22. The telecommunication device according to claim 20, wherein the location of the virtual microphone is moved in response to a reasonableness analysis based on position information received from the accelerometer about the device.

23. The method according to claim 20, wherein the accelerometer creates a three-dimensional vector wherein a first axis corresponds to the position along a user'"'"'s cheek, a second axis corresponds to the position away from the user'"'"'s cheek, and a third axis corresponds to the position relative to the user'"'"'s ear.

24. A computer program comprising instructions which when executed on a processor of a terminal apparatus cause the terminal apparatus to perform the method according to claim 14.