Noise Dependent Signal Processing For In-Car Communication Systems With Multiple Acoustic Zones

• US 20150127351A1
• Filed: 12/26/2012
• Published: 05/07/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/10/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Buck, Markus, Herbig, Tobias, Pfeffinger, Meik
• Granted Patent: US 9,502,050 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/270
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/03646 Stress or Lombard effect
• 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: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/00 Details of transducers, loudspeakers or microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/15 Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/302 Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation H04S7/301 takes precedence

Abstract

A speech communication system includes a speech service compartment for holding one or more system users. The speech service compartment includes a plurality of acoustic zones having varying acoustic environments. At least one input microphone is located within the speech service compartment, for developing microphone input signals from the one or more system users. At least one loudspeaker is located within the service compartment. An in-car communication (ICC) system receives and processes the microphone input signals, forming loudspeaker output signals that are provided to one or more of the at least one output loudspeakers. The ICC system includes at least one of a speaker dedicated signal processing module and a listener specific signal processing module, that controls the processing of the microphone input signal and/or forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on at least one of an associated acoustic environment(s) and resulting psychoacoustic effect(s).

Claims

1. A speech communication system comprising:

a speech service compartment for holding one or more system users, the speech service compartment including a plurality of acoustic zones having varying acoustic environments;

at least one input microphone within the speech service compartment, that develops microphone input signals from the one or more system users;

at least one loudspeaker within the service compartment; and

an in-car communication (ICC) system for receiving and processing the microphone input signals, forming loudspeaker output signals that are provided to one or more of the at least one loudspeakers, the ICC system including at least one of a speaker dedicated signal processing module and a listener specific signal processing module, that controls the processing of the microphone input signal and/or forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on at least one of an associated acoustic environment(s) and resulting psychoacoustic effect(s).

2. The speech communication system according to claim 1, wherein the speech service compartment is the passenger compartment of one of an automobile, a boat, and a plane.

3. The speech communication system according to claim 1, wherein the speaker dedicated signal processing module compensates for the Lombard effect of a system user.

4. The speech communication system according to claim 3, wherein the speaker dedicated signal processing module compensates for the Lombard effect of a system user by utilizing, at least in part, a target peak level for the speech level that depends on the background noise of the system user.

5. The speech communication system according to claim 1, wherein the ICC system includes a deesser that processes the microphone input signal based, at least in part, on the acoustic environment.

6-7. -7. (canceled)

9-13. -13. (canceled)

14. A computer-implemented method using one or more computer processes for speech communication, the method comprising:

developing a plurality of microphone input signals received by a plurality of input microphones from a plurality of system users within a service compartment, the speech service compartment including a plurality of acoustic zones having varying acoustic environments;

processing the microphone input signals using at least one of a speaker dedicated signal processing module and a listener specific signal processing module, forming loudspeaker output signals that are provided to one or more loudspeakers within the service compartment, the processing including controlling the processing of the microphone input signal and/or forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on at least one of an associated acoustic environment(s) and resulting psychoacoustic effect(s).

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the speech service compartment is the passenger compartment of one of an automobile, a boat, and a plane.

16. The method according to claim 14, further comprising compensating for the Lombard effect of a system user by the speaker dedicated signal processing module.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein compensating for the Lombard effect of a system user includes utilizing, at least in part, a target peak level for the speech level that depends on the background noise of the system user.

18. The method according to claim 14, further comprising de-essing, by the speaker dedicated signal processing module, the microphone input signal based, at least in part, on the acoustic environment.

19. The method according to claim 18, wherein de-essing includes scaling the aggressiveness of de-essing based on an expected noise masking effect.

20. The method according to claim 14, further comprising providing a Noise Dependent Gain Control (NDGC) having adjustable gain characteristics that vary based on background noise levels.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the NGDC includes a limiter module, the method further including, using, by the limiter module, noise specific characteristics in the associated acoustic environment(s) to process peaks individually in each loudspeaker output signal.

22. The method according to claim 14, further including processing the microphone input signals and/or forming the loudspeaker output signals based, at least in part, on a determined masking effect of background noise in the acoustic environment(s).

23. The method according to claim 22, wherein the speech service compartment is associated with a vehicle, the method further comprising performing increased noise reduction when the vehicle is moving at a high speed, compared to when the vehicle is moving at a low speed.

24. The method according to claim 14, further comprising utilizing a plurality of parameter sets in performing equalization on at least one of the microphone input signals and/or loudspeaker output signals.

25. The method according to claim 24, wherein one or more of the parameter sets are trained offline depending on the driving situation.

26. The method according to claim 25, further comprising utilizing at least one of acoustic sensor-driven sensor information and non-acoustic vehicle provided signals in determining the parameter sets.

27. A computer program product encoded in a non-transitory computer-readable medium for speech communication, the product comprising:

program code for developing a plurality of microphone input signals received by a plurality of input microphones from a plurality of system users within a service compartment, the speech service compartment including a plurality of acoustic zones having varying acoustic environments;

program code for processing the microphone input signals using at least one of a speaker dedicated signal processing module and a listener specific signal processing module, forming loudspeaker output signals that are provided to one or more loudspeakers within the service compartment, the processing including controlling the processing of the microphone input signal and/or forming of the loudspeaker output signal based, at least in part, on at least one of an associated acoustic environment(s) and resulting psychoacoustic effect(s).