SPEECH PROCESSING APPARATUS, CONTROL METHOD THEREOF, STORAGE MEDIUM STORING CONTROL PROGRAM THEREOF, AND VEHICLE, INFORMATION PROCESSING APPARATUS, AND INFORMATION PROCESSING SYSTEM INCLUDING THE SPEECH PROCESSING APPARATUS

• US 20130311175A1
• Filed: 12/03/2011
• Published: 11/21/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 01/13/2011
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Original Assignee: NEC Corporation
• Inventors: Arakawa, Takayuki, Sugiyama, Akihiko
• Application Number:
  US13/978,671
• Publication Number:
  US 20130311175A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/226
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/20 Speech recognition techniques specially adapted for robustness in adverse environments, e.g. in noise, of stress induced speech G10L21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0216 characterised by the method used for estimating noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

An apparatus of this invention is a speech processing apparatus that acquires pseudo speech from a mixture sound including desired speech and noise. The speech processing apparatus includes a first microphone that inputs a first mixture sound including desired speech and noise and outputs a first mixture signal, a second microphone that is opened to the same sound space as that of the first microphone, inputs a second mixture sound including the desired speech and the noise at a ratio different from the first mixture sound, and outputs a second mixture signal, a sound insulator that is disposed between the first microphone and the second microphone, and a noise suppression circuit that suppresses an estimated noise signal based on the first mixture signal and the second mixture signal and outputs a pseudo speech signal. With this arrangement, it is possible to, in a single sound space where desired speech and noise mix, correctly estimate the noise and reconstruct pseudo speech close to the desired speech.

Claims

1. A speech processing apparatus comprising:

a first microphone that inputs a first mixture sound including desired speech and noise, and outputs a first mixture signal;

a second microphone that is opened to the same sound space as that of said first microphone, inputs a second mixture sound including the desired speech and the noise at a ratio different from the first mixture sound, and outputs a second mixture signal;

a sound insulator that is disposed between said first microphone and said second microphone; and

a noise suppression circuit that suppresses an estimated noise signal based on the first mixture signal and the second mixture signal and outputs a pseudo speech signal.

2. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sound insulator includes a sound insulating portion that crosses a line segment connecting said first microphone and a source of the noise, and shields an airborne sound of the noise.

3. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said sound insulator further includes a sound insulating portion that shields the noise that gets around from the source of the noise to said first microphone as a solid borne sound.

4. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sound insulator is disposed such that when said sound insulator is cut along a plane perpendicular to a line connecting said first microphone and a source of the desired speech, a sectional area remains the same or becomes small from the source of the desired speech to said first microphone.

5. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sound insulator has an L-shaped end face cut along a plane formed by the line connecting said first microphone and the source of the desired speech and the line connecting said first microphone and the source of the noise, and

said first microphone is disposed on an interior angle side of the L-shaped end face, and said second microphone is disposed on an exterior angle side of the L-shaped end face.

6. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said sound insulator has one of a conical shape and a pyramidal shape having an apex on a side of the line connecting said first microphone and the source of the desired speech closer to said first microphone and a cylindrical shape and a rectangular tube shape having an axis in a direction of connecting said first microphone and the source of the desired speech, and

said first microphone is disposed inside said sound insulator, and said second microphone is disposed outside said sound insulator.

7. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a sound insulator moving unit capable of moving said sound insulator in a direction in which the noise is shielded, and said first microphone collects the desired speech.

8. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 7, further comprising a sound insulator position controller that controls movement of said sound insulator moving unit in accordance with a parameter used by said noise suppression circuit.

9. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising a microphone moving unit capable of moving said first microphone in a direction in which said first microphone collects the desired speech.

10. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 9, further comprising a microphone position controller that controls movement of said microphone moving unit in accordance with a parameter used by said noise suppression circuit.

11. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, further comprising an integrated speech input unit including said first microphone, said second microphone, and said sound insulator.

12. The speech processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein said noise suppression circuit comprises:

a first subtracter that subtracts the estimated noise signal estimated to be included in the first mixture signal from the first mixture signal;

a second subtracter that subtracts an estimated speech signal estimated to be included in the second mixture signal from the second mixture signal;

an estimated noise signal generator that generates the estimated noise signal from an output signal of said second subtracter; and

an estimated speech signal generator that generates the estimated speech signal from an output signal of said first subtracter, and

the pseudo speech signal is the output signal of said first subtracter.

13. A vehicle including a speech processing apparatus of claim 1,

wherein said first microphone is disposed at a position where said sound insulator does not shield desired speech uttered by an occupant but shields noise generated from a noise source, and

said second microphone is disposed at a position where said sound insulator shields the desired speech uttered by the occupant but does not shield the noise generated from the noise source.

14. The vehicle according to claim 13, wherein said sound insulator is attached to a sun visor, and

said first microphone and said second microphone are disposed on both sides of the sun visor.

15. The vehicle according to claim 14, wherein said sound insulator is further attached to a ceiling, and

said first microphone is attached to said sound insulator attached to the ceiling.

16. The vehicle according to claim 13, wherein said first microphone, said second microphone, and said sound insulator are disposed on an upper portion of a dashboard or under a steering wheel.

17. The vehicle according to claim 16, wherein a part of said sound insulator is attached to the upper portion of the dashboard, and another part of said sound insulator extends in a direction to separate from the upper portion of the dashboard,

said first microphone is attached to the upper portion of the dashboard and attached to the part of said sound insulator, and

said second microphone is disposed at a position to sandwich, with said first microphone, the other part of said sound insulator extending in the direction to separate from the upper portion of the dashboard.

18. The vehicle according to claim 13, wherein said sound insulator is attached to a room minor, and

said first microphone and said second microphone are disposed on both sides of the room minor.

19. An information processing apparatus including a speech processing apparatus of claim 1,

wherein said first microphone is disposed at a position where said sound insulator does not shield desired speech uttered by an operator of the information processing apparatus but shields noise generated from a noise source, and

said second microphone is disposed at a position where said sound insulator shields the desired speech uttered by the operator but does not shield the noise generated from the noise source.

20. The information processing apparatus according to claim 19, wherein said sound insulator is attached to a display, and

said first microphone and said second microphone are disposed on both sides of the display.

21. The information processing apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the information processing apparatus comprises a notebook personal computer,

said first microphone is disposed on a display surface side of the display, and said second microphone is disposed on a surface of the display opposite to the operator.

22. The information processing apparatus according to claim 20, wherein said sound insulator is further attached to a keyboard surface, and

said first microphone is disposed on the keyboard surface.

23. The information processing apparatus according to claim 19, wherein the information processing apparatus comprises a notebook personal computer, and

the information processing apparatus further comprises a microphone moving unit capable of moving said first microphone in a direction in which said first microphone collects the desired speech.

24. The information processing apparatus according to claim 23, further comprising a microphone position controller that controls movement of said microphone moving unit in accordance with an angle made by a display surface of the display and the keyboard surface.

25. An information processing system including a speech processing apparatus of claim 1, comprising:

a speech recognition apparatus that recognizes desired speech from the pseudo speech signal output from the speech processing apparatus; and

an information processing apparatus that processes information in accordance with the desired speech recognized by said speech recognition apparatus.

26. A control method of a speech processing apparatus including:

a first microphone that inputs a first mixture sound including desired speech and noise and outputs a first mixture signal;

a second microphone that is opened to the same sound space as that of the first microphone, inputs a second mixture sound including the desired speech and the noise at a ratio different from the first mixture sound, and outputs a second mixture signal;

a sound insulator that is disposed between the first microphone and the second microphone; and

a noise suppression circuit that suppresses an estimated noise signal based on the first mixture signal and the second mixture signal and outputs a pseudo speech signal, the method comprising;

acquiring a parameter of the noise suppression circuit;

determining, in accordance with the parameter of the noise suppression circuit, at least one of a position of the sound insulator and a direction of the first microphone to shield the noise and cause the first microphone to collect the desired speech; and

controlling at least one of the position of the sound insulator and the direction of the first microphone.

27. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a control program of a speech processing apparatus including:

a first microphone that inputs a first mixture sound including desired speech and noise and outputs a first mixture signal;

a second microphone that is opened to the same sound space as that of the first microphone, inputs a second mixture sound including the desired speech and the noise at a ratio different from the first mixture sound, and outputs a second mixture signal;

a sound insulator that is disposed between the first microphone and the second microphone; and

a noise suppression circuit that suppresses an estimated noise signal based on the first mixture signal and the second mixture signal and outputs a pseudo speech signal, the control program causing a computer to execute;

acquiring a parameter of the noise suppression circuit;

determining, in accordance with the parameter of the noise suppression circuit, at least one of a position of the sound insulator and a direction of the first microphone to shield the noise and cause the first microphone to collect the desired speech; and

controlling at least one of the position of the sound insulator and the direction of the first microphone.