Apparatus and Method for Beamforming to Obtain Voice and Noise Signals
First Claim
1. A method comprising:
- beamforming a plurality of microphone outputs to obtain at least one virtual microphone channel;
performing voice recognition on the at least one virtual microphone channel; and
adjusting a corresponding beamform until voice recognition indicates one of the presence of voice on the at least one virtual microphone channel or that voice is not substantially present on the at least one virtual microphone channel.
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Accused Products
Abstract
One method of operation includes beamforming a plurality of microphone outputs to obtain a plurality of virtual microphone audio channels. Each virtual microphone audio channel corresponds to a beamform. The virtual microphone audio channels include at least one voice channel and at least one noise channel. The method includes performing voice activity detection on the at least one voice channel and adjusting a corresponding voice beamform until voice activity detection indicates that voice is present on the at least one voice channel. Another method beamforms the plurality of microphone outputs to obtain a plurality of virtual microphone audio channels, where each virtual microphone audio channel corresponds to a beamform, and with at least one voice channel and at least one noise channel. The method performs voice recognition on the at least one voice channel and adjusts the corresponding voice beamform to improve a voice recognition confidence metric.
255 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A method comprising:
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beamforming a plurality of microphone outputs to obtain at least one virtual microphone channel; performing voice recognition on the at least one virtual microphone channel; and adjusting a corresponding beamform until voice recognition indicates one of the presence of voice on the at least one virtual microphone channel or that voice is not substantially present on the at least one virtual microphone channel. - View Dependent Claims (2)
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3. A method comprising:
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beamforming a plurality of microphone outputs to obtain a plurality of virtual microphone audio channels, each virtual microphone audio channel corresponding to a beamform, comprising at least one voice channel and at least one noise channel; performing voice activity detection on the at least one voice channel; and adjusting a corresponding voice beamform until voice activity detection indicates that voice is present on the at least one voice channel. - View Dependent Claims (4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9)
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10. A method comprising:
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beamforming a plurality of microphone outputs to obtain a plurality of virtual microphone audio channels, each virtual microphone audio channel corresponding to a beamform, comprising at least one voice channel and at least one noise channel; performing voice recognition on the at least one voice channel; and adjusting the corresponding voice beamform to improve a voice recognition confidence metric of the voice recognition. - View Dependent Claims (11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18)
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19. An apparatus comprising:
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a beamformer, operatively coupled to a plurality of microphone outputs, the beamformer operative to provide, as beamformer outputs, a plurality of virtual microphone audio channels each virtual microphone audio channel corresponding to a beamform, comprising at least one voice channel and at least one noise channel; a beamformer controller, operatively coupled to the beamformer, the beamformer controller operative to; monitor the at least one voice channel and the at least one noise channel to determine if voice is present on either of the at least one voice channel or the at least one noise channel; and control the beamformer to adjust a beamform corresponding to the at least one voice channel until voice is present on the at least one voice channel. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21, 22)
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Specification