MULTIPLE DEVICE NOISE REDUCTION MICROPHONE ARRAY

• US 20160029122A1
• Filed: 10/06/2015
• Published: 01/28/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 09/25/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Tahoe Research Limited (f/k/a Learndale Limited) (Vector Capital Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Intel Corporation
• Inventors: Domingo Yaguez, Gustavo D., Shippy, Keith L., Price, Mark H., Healey, Jennifer A.
• Granted Patent: US 9,866,956 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/01 Noise reduction using microphones having different directional characteristics
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/05 Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/21 Direction finding using differential microphone array [DMA]
• 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 3/002 Damping circuit arrangements for transducers, e.g. motional feedback circuits
• 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: H04R 5/027 Spatial or constructional arrangements of microphones, e.g. in dummy heads

Abstract

Various embodiments are directed to cooperation among communications devices having microphones to employ their microphones in unison to provide voice detection with noise reduction for voice communications. A first communications device comprises a processor circuit; a first microphone; an interface operative to communicatively couple the processor circuit to a network; and a storage communicatively coupled to the processor circuit and arranged to store a sequence of instructions operative on the processor circuit to store a first detected data that represents sounds detected by the first microphone; receive a second detected data via the network that represents sounds detected by a second microphone of a second communications device; subtractively sum the first and second data to create a processed data; and transmit the processed data to a third communications device. Other embodiments are described and claimed herein.

Claims

1. A first communications device comprising:

a processor circuit;

a first microphone;

an interface operative to communicatively couple the processor circuit to a network; and

a storage communicatively coupled to the processor circuit and arranged to store a sequence of instructions operative on the processor circuit to;

store a first detected data that represents sounds detected by the first microphone;

receive a second detected data via the network that represents sounds detected by a second microphone of a second communications device;

subtractively sum the first and second data to create a processed data; and

transmit the processed data to a third communications device.

2. The first communications device of claim 1, comprising a first clock, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

signal the second communications device to synchronize the first clock with a second clock of the second communications device;

timestamp the first detected data with a time maintained by the first clock; and

align timestamps of the first and second detected data.

3. The first communications device of claim 1, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

locate occurrences of an acoustic feature in both the first and second detected data;

determine a difference in time of occurrence of the acoustic feature in the first detected data and in the second detected data; and

align the first and second detected data based on the difference in time.

4. The first communications device of claim 1, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

determine a distance between the first and second microphones; and

employ the distance between the first and second microphones as a weighting factor in subtractively summing the first and the second detected data.

5. The first communications device of claim 1, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to subject a one of the first and second detected data that represents noise sounds to a transfer function prior to subtractively summing the first and second detected data.

6. The first communications device of claim 5, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

operate the interface to vary a signal strength of signals transmitted to the second communications device via the network to detect a distance between the first and second microphones; and

derive the transfer function based at least on the distance between the first and second microphones.

7. The first communications device of claim 5, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

operate an acoustic transducer of the first communications device to generate a test sound;

receive a signal from the second communications device via the network that indicates a time at which the second microphone detected the test sound;

determine a distance between the first and second microphones based on the time at which the second microphone detected the test sound; and

derive the transfer function based at least on the distance between the first and second microphones.

8. The first communications device of claim 5, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

determine a distance between the first and second microphones; and

alter the transfer function based on the distance between the first and second microphones.

9. The first communications device of claim 5, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

receive a signal via the network from the second communications device that specifies a characteristic of the second microphone; and

derive the transfer function based on a difference in characteristics between the first and second microphones.

10. The first communications device of claim 8, the characteristic comprising microphone frequency response.

11. The first communications device of claim 1, the interface operative to communicatively couple the processor circuit to the network comprises the interface arranged as a wired digital serial interface to couple the processor circuit to the network that includes a wired network.

12. The first communications device of claim 1, the interface operative to communicatively couple the processor circuit to the network comprises the interface arranged as a radio frequency wireless interface to couple the processor circuit to the network that includes a wireless network.

14. The apparatus of claim 12, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

detect with the first microphone a test signal emitted by the communications device; and

transmit a time at which the first microphone detected the test signal via the network to the communications device.

15. The apparatus of claim 12, the instructions operative on the processor circuit to:

receive a signal via the network from the communications device that requests a microphone data that specifies a characteristic of the first microphone; and

transmit the microphone data to the communications device.

16. The apparatus of claim 15, the characteristic comprises a frequency response of the first microphone.

13. An apparatus comprising:

a processor circuit;

a first clock;

a first microphone;

an interface operative to communicatively couple the processor circuit to a network; and

a storage communicatively coupled to the processor circuit and arranged to store a sequence of instructions operative on the processor circuit to;

convert signals output by the first microphone into a detected data that represents sounds detected by the first microphone;

receive a signal via the network from a communications device that requests synchronization of the first clock with a second clock of the communications device;

synchronize the first and second clocks in response to the request;

timestamp the detected data with a time maintained by the first clock; and

transmit the detected data with timestamp via the network to the communications device.

17. A method comprising:

converting, at a processor circuit for a first communication device, signals output by a first microphone at the first communication device into a detected data that represents sounds detected by the first microphone;

receiving a signal via the network from a second communications device that requests synchronization of a first clock of the first communication device with a second clock of the second communications device;

synchronizing the first and second clocks responsive to the request;

timestamping the detected data with a time maintained by the first clock; and

transmitting the detected data with timestamp via the network to the second communications device.

18. The method of claim 17, comprising:

detecting with the first microphone a test signal emitted by the second communications device; and

transmitting a time at which the first microphone detected the test signal via the network to the second communications device.

19. The method of claim 17, comprising:

receiving a signal via the network from the second communications device requesting a microphone data that specifies a characteristic of the first microphone; and

transmitting the microphone data to the second communications device.

20. The method of claim 19, the characteristic comprises a frequency response of the first microphone.