OPERATING METHOD FOR MICROPHONES AND ELECTRONIC DEVICE SUPPORTING THE SAME

• US 20150379992A1
• Filed: 06/30/2015
• Published: 12/31/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 06/30/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: LEE, Sang Hoon, KIM, Kyung Tae, JUNG, Seok Yeong, SUBHOJIT, Chakladar
• Granted Patent: US 9,679,563 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3206 Monitoring of events, devices or parameters that trigger a change in power modality
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/3287 by switching off individual functional units in the computer system
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 3/165 Management of the audio stream, e.g. setting of volume, audio stream path
• 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 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/28 Constructional details of speech recognition systems
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/223 Execution procedure of a spoken command
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02082 the noise being echo, reverberation of the speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• 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 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 10/00 Energy efficient computing, e.g. low power processors, power management or thermal management
• CPC Class Codes: Y02D 30/50 in wire-line communication networks, e.g. low power modes or reduced link rate

Abstract

An electronic device which includes a plurality of microphones and an audio data processing module is provided. The plurality of microphones is operatively coupled to the electronic device, and the audio data processing module is capable of being implemented with at least one processor. The audio data processing module recognizes a specified command, based on first audio data collected using a portion of the plurality of microphones and executes a function or an application corresponding to second audio data collected using all the plurality of microphones, when the specified command is recognized.

Claims

1. An electronic device comprising:

a plurality of microphones operatively coupled to the electronic device; and

an audio data processing module capable of being implemented with at least one processor,

wherein the audio data processing module is configured to;

recognize a specified command, based on first audio data collected using a portion of the plurality of microphones. and

execute a function or an application corresponding to second audio data collected using all of the plurality of microphones corresponding to the recognition of the specified command.

2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the audio data processing module comprises:

a single channel signal processing module configured to;

perform a specified audio process associated with at least one audio channel signal corresponding to the portion of the plurality of microphones when the at least one audio channel signal is received, and

generate the first audio data based on a result of the specified audio process;

a first voice recognition module configured to recognize the specified command through voice recognition of the first audio data;

a multi-channel signal processing module configured to;

perform a specified audio process associated with a multi-channel audio signal corresponding to all of the plurality of microphones, and

generate the second audio data based on a result of the specified audio process; and

a second voice recognition module configured to;

perform voice recognition of the second audio data and

execute the function or application corresponding to the voice recognition result.

3. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the first voice recognition module comprises a first process operatively coupled to the portion of the plurality of microphones, and

wherein the second voice recognition module comprises a second processor operatively coupled to all of the plurality of microphones.

4. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the first voice recognition module activates at least one of a remaining microphones of the plurality of microphones other than the portion of the plurality of microphones and the multi-channel signal processing module corresponding to the recognition of the specified command.

5. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the multi-channel signal processing module comprises at least one of:

a sound source direction detecting unit configured to recognize a sound source direction of the multi-channel audio signal based on positions of microphones corresponding to the multi-channel audio signal;

a beam forming unit configured to adjust a parameter of the multi-channel audio signal so as to adjust an input gain of a specific direction;

a noise suppression unit configured to adjust a parameter of the multi-channel audio signal so as to suppress receiving of a sound source of a specific direction associated with a noise; and

an echo cancellation unit configured to cancel an echo component included in the multi-channel audio signal.

6. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the first voice recognition module determines whether the first audio data comprises at least one of utterance character information and speaker classification information corresponding to the specified command

7. The electronic device of claim 2, wherein the single channel signal processing module transfers a command, set to activate the multi-microphone processing module, to the multi-microphone processing module corresponding to the recognition of the specified command or specific audio data.

8. The electronic device of claim 2, further comprising:

an audio codec in which at least one of the single channel signal processing module and the multi-channel signal processing module is disposed; and

an audio data processing module in which the second voice recognition module is disposed.

9. The electronic device of claim 2, further comprising:

a low-power processing module in which the single channel signal processing module is disposed; and

an audio data processing module in which the multi-channel signal processing module and the second voice recognition module are disposed.

10. The electronic device of claim 2, further comprising:

a low-power processing module in which the single channel signal processing module is disposed;

an audio code in which the multi-channel signal processing module is disposed; and

an audio data processing module in which the second voice recognition module is disposed.

11. A microphone operating method comprising:

collecting first audio data using a portion of a plurality of microphones operatively coupled to an electronic device;

recognizing a specified command, based on the first audio data; and

executing a function or an application, corresponding to second audio data collected using all of the plurality of microphones, based on the recognition of the specified command.

12. The microphone operating method of claim 11, further comprising at least one of:

wherein the collecting of the first audio data comprises performing a single channel signal processing operation of generating the first audio data, based on a result of performing the specified audio process associated with an audio signal of at least one channel corresponding to a portion of the plurality of microphones;

wherein the recognizing of the specified command comprises performing a first voice recognition operation of recognizing the specified command through voice recognition of the first audio data; and

wherein the executing of the function or application comprises;

performing a multi-channel signal processing operation of generating the second audio data, based on a result of performing a specified audio process associated with a multi-channel audio signal corresponding to all of the plurality of microphones, and

performing a second voice recognition operation of performing the function or the application through voice recognition of the second audio data.

13. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

performing the first voice recognition operation by a first processor operatively coupled to the portion of the plurality of microphones; and

performing the second voice recognition operation by a second processor operatively coupled to all of the plurality of microphones.

14. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

activating at least one of a remaining microphone of the plurality of microphones other than the portion of the plurality of microphones according to recognition of the specified command; and

processing the multi-channel audio signal according to the recognition of the specified command.

15. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

determining a sound source direction of the multi-channel audio signal, based on positions where microphones corresponding to the multi-channel audio signal are disposed;

adjusting a parameter of the multi-channel audio signal so as to tune an input gain of a specific direction;

adjusting a parameter of the multi-channel audio signal so as to suppress receiving of a sound source of a specific direction associated with a noise; and

cancelling an echo component included in the multi-channel audio signal.

16. The microphone operating method of claim 12, wherein the first voice recognition operation comprises:

determining whether the first audio data comprises at least one of utterance character information and speaker classification information corresponding to the specified command.

17. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising:

transferring a command, set to process the multi-channel audio signal, to a multi-channel processing module according to the recognition of the specified command or specific audio data.

18. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

setting at least one of the single channel signal processing operation or the multi-channel signal processing operation to an audio codec; and

setting the second voice recognition operation to an audio data processing module.

19. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

setting the single channel signal processing operation to a low-power processing module; and

setting the multi-channel signal processing operation and the second voice recognition operation to an audio data processing module.

20. The microphone operating method of claim 12, further comprising at least one of:

setting the single channel signal processing operation to a low-power processing module;

setting the multi-channel signal processing operation to an audio codec; and

setting the second voice recognition operation to an audio data processing module.