DEVICE AND METHOD FOR CAPTURING AND PROCESSING VOICE

• US 20120330653A1
• Filed: 05/30/2012
• Published: 12/27/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Veovox SA
• Original Assignee: Veovox SA
• Inventors: LISSEK, Herve, MARTIN, Philippe, CARMONA, Jorge, IMHASLY, Michel, MILLAR, Ian, FALOURD, Xavier, MARMAROLI, Patrick, MAITRE, Gilbert
• Granted Patent: US 9,510,090 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/226
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/035 Improving the acoustic characteristics by means of constructional features of the housing, e.g. ribs, walls, resonating chambers or cavities
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6008 in the transmitter circuit
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/05 Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A portable voice capture device comprising:

• • an orientable arm with a first differential array of microphones comprising at least one pair of microphones, the directivity of said first array being arranged for sensing voice from a first direction depending on the orientation of said arm;
  • a second differential array of microphones comprising at least one pair of microphones, the directivity of said second array being arranged for sensing noise from a second direction different from the first direction;
  • a noise reduction circuit for providing a voice signal with reduced noise, based on the output of said first array and on the output of said second array.

Claims

1. A hand held voice capture device comprising:

an orientable arm, comprising one first leg and a second leg, said first leg and said second leg having different orientations, said first leg of said arm comprising a first differential linear array of microphones, the directivity of said first differential linear array being arranged for improved sensing of voice from a user;

said second leg of said arm comprising a second differential linear array of microphones, the directivity of said second differential linear array being arranged for improved sensing of noise from a different than the direction of said sensed voice;

a noise reduction circuit for providing a voice signal with reduced noise, based on the output of said first differential linear array and on the output of said second differential linear array.

2. The device of claim 1, wherein said noise reduction circuit is based on coherence techniques for removing noise from the output of said first differential linear array.

3. The device of claim 1, comprising a rotatable link for rotating said orientable arm around the axis of one of said legs.

4. The device of claim 3, said arm being L shaped, the first differential linear array being arranged on a first leg and the second differential linear array on a second leg of said L-shaped arm, wherein said orientable arm can be rotated around an axis parallel to one of said legs.

5. The device of claim 3, said orientable arm being U shaped and comprising three arrays of microphones.

6. The device of claim 1, further comprising:

data processing means;

a display;

a wireless communication interface;

a Wiener Filter for noise reduction;

a voice activity detector.

7. The device of claim 6, the voice activity detector being a built-in multi-layer voice activity detector comprising at least one of the following means

noise estimate means;

absolute voice activity detector means;

relative voice activity detector means;

speech-keeping means.

8. The device of claim 1, operatively connected to a user dependant speech recognition module.

9. The device of claim 8, said user dependant speech recognition module comprising a grammar and a dictionary adapted for “

command and control”

applications, and/or for order taking in restaurants.

12. System comprising a portable digital assistant as a hand held voice capture device according to claim 1, with said orientable arm being a removable external add-on mounted on said portable digital assistant.

13. System comprising a portable digital assistant as a hand held voice capture device according to claim 1, with said orientable arm being wirelessly connected to said portable digital assistant.

10. A method for capturing voice, comprising:

capturing a voice signal with a first differential linear array of microphones mounted on a first leg of an orientable arm of a hand held device, said orientable arm being directed toward the mouth of a user;

capturing noise from at least one direction different than the direction of said useful signal, using a second differential linear array of microphones mounted on a second leg of said orientable arm, said first and second legs having different directions;

reducing noise from said voice signal, using the output of said first differential linear array and of said second differential linear array.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the directivity of said first and second differential linear arrays of microphones capturing speech at a distance to the mouth greater than 15 cm in noisy condition.