Apparatus with Adaptive Audio Adjustment Based on Surface Proximity, Surface Type and Motion

• US 20140270202A1
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Published: 09/18/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Motorola Mobility LLC (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Singaraju, Snehitha, Wu, Jincheng, Ivanov, Plamen A, Bastyr, Kevin J, Clark, Joel A, Oliveira, Rivanaldo S
• Granted Patent: US 9,294,859 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/58
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 29/44 Processing the detected response signal , e.g. electronic circuits specially adapted therefor digital signal processing per se G06F17/00
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/02 Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation reducing echo effects in line transmission systems H04B3/20; echo suppression in hands-free telephones H04M9/08
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/03 Constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. telephone hand-sets
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6041 Portable telephones adapted for handsfree use
• 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 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 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/004 for microphones H04R29/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/005 Microphone arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A method includes detecting a surface in proximity to a mobile device using sensor data and determining an acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity of the surface using the sensor data. The method may further compensate for the acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity by controlling a configurable group of microphones of the mobile device. Compensating for the surface acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity may include beamforming the outputs of the configurable group of microphones to obtain one of an omnidirectional beamform pattern or a directional beamform pattern. An apparatus that performs the method include a configurable group of microphones, a signal conditioner, and a surface compensator. The surface compensator is operative to detect a surface in proximity to the apparatus and determine a surface acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

detecting a surface in proximity to a mobile device using sensor data; and

determining an acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity of the surface using the sensor data.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

compensating for the acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity of the surface by controlling a beamformer to avoid acoustic interference by the surface.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

compensating for the acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity by controlling a configurable group of microphones.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein compensating for the surface acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity, further comprises:

beamforming the outputs of the configurable group of microphones to obtain one of an omnidirectional beamform pattern or a directional beamform pattern.

5. The method of claim 4, further comprising:

obtaining the sensor data including orientation sensor data; and

beamforming the outputs of the configurable group of microphones using the orientation data to determine the beamform pattern.

6. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

compensating for the acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity by adjusting signal conditioning applied to the outputs of a configurable group of microphones

7. The method of claim 6, wherein adjusting signal conditioning, comprises:

applying de-reverberation to the outputs of the configurable group of microphones based on the proximity of the surface.

8. The method of claim 6, wherein adjusting signal conditioning, comprises:

applying gain to the outputs of the configurable group of microphones based on absorptivity of the surface.

9. An apparatus comprising:

a surface compensator, operatively coupled to a configurable group of microphones, the surface compensator operative to detect a surface in proximity to the apparatus and determine the surface'"'"'s acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity.

10. The apparatus of claim 9, further comprising:

a beamformer, operatively coupled to the surface compensator; and

wherein the surface compensator is further operative to compensate for the acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity of the surface by controlling the beamformer to avoid acoustic interference by the surface.

11. The apparatus of claim 10, wherein the configurable group of microphones is operative to have each microphone of the group independently turned on or off, or have gain, attenuation or filtering applied to a corresponding microphone output in response to control signals from the surface compensator.

12. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a signal conditioner, operatively coupled to the configurable group of microphones and to the surface compensator, the signal conditioner operative to receive outputs from each microphone of the group of microphones and operative to receive a control signal from the surface compensator to adjust signal conditioner parameters.

13. The apparatus of claim 10, further comprising:

a plurality of sensors, operatively coupled to the surface compensator; and

wherein the surface compensator is operative to obtain sensor data from the plurality of sensors and determine the surface'"'"'s acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity using the sensor data

14. The apparatus of claim 13, wherein the surface compensator is further operative to control the configurable group of microphones or a signal conditioner to compensate for the surface acoustic reflectivity or acoustic absorptivity.