SOUND SOURCE LOCALIZATION USING PHASE SPECTRUM

• US 20130016852A1
• Filed: 07/14/2011
• Published: 01/17/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 07/14/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Microsoft Technology Licensing LLC (Microsoft Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Microsoft Corporation
• Inventors: Regunathan, Shankar, Koishida, Kazuhito, Kikkeri, Harshavardhana Narayana
• Granted Patent: US 9,435,873 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/92
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/8006 Multi-channel systems specially adapted for direction-finding, i.e. having a single aerial system capable of giving simultaneous indications of the directions of different signals
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/8083 determining direction of source
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 3/82 with means for adjusting phase or compensating for time-lag errors
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

An array of microphones placed on a mobile robot provides multiple channels of audio signals. A received set of audio signals is called an audio segment, which is divided into multiple frames. A phase analysis is performed on a frame of the signals from each pair of microphones. If both microphones are in an active state during the frame, a candidate angle is generated for each such pair of microphones. The result is a list of candidate angles for the frame. This list is processed to select a final candidate angle for the frame. The list of candidate angles is tracked over time to assist in the process of selecting the final candidate angle for an audio segment.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented process comprising:

receiving signals from a plurality of pairs of microphones into a memory;

processing the signals from the microphones to identify when the signals are active;

computing frequency spectrum data for the signals;

for each pair of active signals, determining a candidate angle for the pair using the frequency spectrum data; and

selecting an angle from among the candidate angles for a plurality of pairs of microphones.

2. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein receiving signals includes receiving each signal as a plurality of frames, and wherein processing, computing, determining and selecting are performed on a per frame basis.

3. The computer-implemented process of claim 1, wherein selecting the angle from among the candidate angles comprises selecting the angle using information about prior candidate angles.

4. The computer-implemented process of claim 3, wherein selecting further comprises:

tracking a history of candidate angles over multiple frames; and

updating the history with the candidate angles from the current frame.

5. The computer-implemented process of claim 4, further comprising selecting the angle from the history which has a phase distortion less than or equal to the minimum phase distortion of all entries.

6. The computer-implemented process of claim 5, further comprising selecting the angle from the history having an angle similar to a highest ranked candidate angle for the frame.

7. The computer-implemented process of claim 6, further comprising selecting the angle from the history having a presence score greater than or equal to a maximum presence score of angles in the history.

8. An article of manufacture comprising:

a computer storage medium;

computer program instructions stored on the computer storage medium which, when processed by a processing device, instruct the processing device to perform a process comprising;

receiving signals from a plurality of pairs of microphones into a memory;

processing the signals from the microphones to identify when the signals are active;

computing frequency spectrum data for the signals;

for each pair of active signals, determining a candidate angle for the pair using the frequency spectrum data; and

selecting an angle from among the candidate angles for a plurality of pairs of microphones.

9. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein receiving signals includes receiving each signal as a plurality of frames, and wherein processing, computing, determining and selecting are performed on a per frame basis.

10. The article of manufacture of claim 8, wherein selecting the angle from among the candidate angles comprises selecting the angle using information about prior candidate angles.

11. The article of manufacture of claim 10, wherein selecting further comprises:

tracking a history of candidate angles over multiple frames; and

updating the history with the candidate angles from the current frame.

12. The article of manufacture of claim 11, further comprising selecting the angle from the history which has a phase distortion less than or equal to the minimum phase distortion of all entries.

13. The article of manufacture of claim 12, further comprising selecting the angle from the history having an angle similar to a highest ranked candidate angle for the frame.

14. The article of manufacture of claim 13, further comprising selecting the angle from the history having a presence score greater than or equal to a maximum presence score of angles in the history.

15. A computing machine comprising:

a memory;

an input for receiving signals from a plurality of pairs of microphones into the memory;

a processing unit configured to process the signals from the microphones to identify when the signals are active and compute frequency spectrum data for the signals;

wherein the processing unit is further configured to, for each pair of active signals, determine a candidate angle for the pair using the frequency spectrum data select an angle from among the candidate angles for a plurality of pairs of microphones.

16. The computing machine of claim 15, wherein the input receives and stores each signal as a plurality of frames, and wherein the processing unit is configured to process the signals on a per frame basis.

17. The computing machine of claim 15, wherein the memory further stores a history of candidate angles over multiple frames, and the processing unit is configured to update the history with the candidate angles from the current frame.

18. The computing machine of claim 17, wherein the angle selected from the history has a phase distortion less than or equal to the minimum phase distortion of all entries.

19. The computing machine of claim 18, wherein the angle selected from the history has an angle similar to a highest ranked candidate angle for the frame.

20. The computing machine of claim 19, wherein the angle selected from the history has a presence score greater than or equal to a maximum presence score of angles in the history.