FILTERING AN AUDIO SIGNAL FOR A NON-REAL-TIME RECIPIENT

• US 20150140972A1
• Filed: 11/20/2013
• Published: 05/21/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 11/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Lenovo PC International Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Lenovo Singapore Pte Limited (Lenovo Group Ltd.)
• Inventors: Zhang, Jianbang, Nicholson, John Weldon
• Granted Patent: US 9,565,306 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 455/413
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/00 Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility G10L19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0272 Voice signal separating
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 2201/41 using speaker recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 3/4936 Speech interaction details speech recognition per se G10L15/00
• CPC Class Codes: H04W 4/12 Messaging; Mailboxes; Announcements

Abstract

For filtering an audio signal for a non-real-time recipient, a signal module may detect communication of an audio signal to the non-real-time recipient. A management module may filter the audio signal with a high-latency audio filter.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising:

a processor;

a memory storing program code executable by the processor, the program code comprising;

a signal module detecting communication of an audio signal to a non-real-time recipient; and

a management module filtering the audio signal with a high-latency audio filter.

2. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the non-real-time recipient is one of a voicemail account, a messaging system, a speech recognition system, an automated phone menu, and a combined latency of the high-latency audio filter and a path to the recipient being less than a latency threshold.

3. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein the high-latency audio filter is a speaker identification audio filter that preserves one or more primary speaker signals and removes other audio signals.

4. The apparatus of claim 3, the management module further:

detecting a change from a first primary speaker to a second primary speaker; and

modifying the speaker identification audio filter to a preserve second primary speaker signal.

5. The apparatus of claim 4, wherein the change to the second primary speaker is detected from one or more of a change in relative amplitudes of a first primary speaker audio signal and the second primary speaker audio signal, a motion, and a specified change phrase.

6. A method comprising:

detecting, by use of a processor, communication of an audio signal to a non-real-time recipient; and

filtering the audio signal with a high-latency audio filter.

7. The method of claim 6, the method further comprising filtering the audio signal with a low-latency audio filter in response to detecting communication of the audio signal to a real-time recipient.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the low-latency audio filter has a latency of less than 50 milliseconds.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-real-time recipient is a voicemail account.

10. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-real-time recipient is a messaging system.

11. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-real-time recipient is a speech recognition system.

12. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-real-time recipient is an automated phone menu.

13. The method of claim 6, wherein the non-real-time recipient is detected from a specified automation phrase.

14. The method of claim 6, wherein the high-latency audio filter is a speaker identification audio filter that preserves one or more primary speaker signals and removes other audio signals.

15. The method of claim 14, wherein the one or more primary speaker signals are identified from one or more of phonemes, prosodic attributes, and frequency profiles.

16. The method of claim 14, the method further comprising:

detecting a change from a first primary speaker to a second primary speaker; and

modifying the speaker identification audio filter to preserve a second primary speaker signal.

17. The method of claim 16, wherein the change to the second primary speaker is detected from one or more of a change in relative amplitudes of a first primary speaker audio signal and the second primary speaker audio signal, a motion, and a specified change phrase.

18. The method of claim 6, wherein the high-latency audio filter has a latency of greater than 200 milliseconds for a voicemail account, messaging system, and a speech recognition system.

19. The method of claim 6, wherein the high-latency audio filter has a latency in the range of 50-200 milliseconds for an automated phone menu.

20. A program product comprising a computer readable storage medium storing computer readable code executable by a processor to perform:

detecting communication of an audio signal to a non-real-time recipient; and

filtering the audio signal with a high-latency audio filter.