HANDSFREE BEAM PATTERN CONFIGURATION

• US 20160295340A1
• Filed: 09/25/2014
• Published: 10/06/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 11/22/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Boozer, Brad G., Baker, John J., Johnson, Martin E., Family, Afrooz, Howes, Michael B., Stanley, Craig M.
• Granted Patent: US 10,251,008 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/04 Training, enrolment or model building
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/06 Decision making techniques; Pattern matching strategies
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/08 Mouthpieces; Microphones; Attachments therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/403 loud-speakers
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2203/12 Beamforming aspects for stereophonic sound reproduction with loudspeaker arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/23 Direction finding using a sum-delay beam-former
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/302 Electronic adaptation of stereophonic sound system to listener position or orientation H04S7/301 takes precedence

Abstract

An audio system that adjusts one or more beam patterns emitted by one or more loudspeaker arrays based on the preferences of users/listeners is described. The audio system includes an audio receiver that contains a listener location estimator, a listener identifier, and a voice command processor. Inputs from the listener location estimator, the listener identifier, and the voice command processor are fed into an array processor. The array processor drives the one or more loudspeaker arrays to emit beam patterns into the listening area based on inputs from each of these devices. By examining the location, preferred usage settings, and voice commands from listeners, the generated beam patterns are customized to the explicit and implicit preferences of the listeners with minimal direct input. Other embodiments are also described.

Claims

1. A method for adjusting sound emitted by a loudspeaker array, comprising:

sensing, by one or more microphone arrays, a voice command from a user in a listening area;

determining a location in the listening area to steer a beam pattern based on the sensed voice command; and

steering the beam pattern at the determined location in the listening area.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein determining the location in the listening area comprises:

feeding microphone signals received from the microphone arrays to a set of beamformers pointing in a discrete number of directions in the listening area;

calculating the energy output from each beamformer; and

determining an angle of arrival of the voice command based on the beamformer with the largest energy output, wherein the determined location to steer the beam pattern is in the direction of the angle of arrival of the voice command.

3. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving microphone signals from the microphone arrays; and

comparing the microphone signals with one or more speech signatures associated with stored user profiles to determine a match.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein determining the location in the listening area comprises:

retrieving a preferred location setting from the matched user profile, wherein the preferred location setting is set based on historical usage habits by the user.

5. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

retrieving one or more preferred settings from the matched user profile, wherein the beam pattern is generated based on the one or more preferred settings.

6. The method of claim 3, further comprising:

generating a new user profile in response to being unable to determine a match between the microphone signals and the one or more speech signatures associated with the stored user profiles.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

receiving microphone signals corresponding to the voice command from the microphone arrays;

processing the microphone signals to determine one or more preferred settings for the beam pattern indicated by the voice command, wherein the beam pattern is generated based on the determined one or more preferred settings.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more preferred settings indicate a predefined location in the listening area to steer the beam pattern.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the one or more preferred settings indicate one or more of volume, bass, treble, and reverberation ratio of the beam pattern.

10. An audio system for adjusting sound emitted by one or more loudspeaker arrays, comprising:

a plurality of microphones to sense a voice command from a listener;

a voice command processor to determine a first setting to apply to a beam pattern emitted by one of the one or more loudspeaker arrays based on signals representing the sensed voice command received from the plurality of microphones; and

an array processor to generate a set of driving signals to drive each transducer in the one of the one or more loudspeaker arrays to emit the beam pattern based on the determined first setting.

11. The audio system of claim 10, further comprising:

a listener location estimator to estimate the location of the listener based on the signals representing the sensed voice command received from the plurality of microphones, wherein the array processor generates the driving signals to steer the beam pattern at the estimated location.

12. The audio system of claim 11, further comprising:

a user profile database that stores speech signatures for one or more known listeners; and

a listener identifier to compare the signals representing the sensed voice command received from the plurality of microphones with each of the stored speech signatures to identify a user profile corresponding to the listener.

13. The audio system of claim 12, wherein the listener identifier feeds a second setting associated with the user profile corresponding to the listener to the array processor, wherein the array processor generates the driving signals to emit the beam pattern based on the second setting.

14. The audio system of claim 13, wherein when the listener location estimator is unable to estimate the location of the listener, the second setting is a preferred location corresponding to the listener to direct the beam pattern.

15. The audio system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of microphones form one or more microphone arrays and each microphone array is integrated in a separate loudspeaker array.

16. The audio system of claim 10, wherein each of the plurality of microphones are integrated in a separate loudspeaker array.

17. An article of manufacture for adjusting sound emitted by a loudspeaker array, comprising:

a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium that stores instructions which, when executed by a processor in a computing device,

detect, from microphone signals, a voice command from a user in a listening area;

determine a location in the listening area to steer a beam pattern based on the detected voice command; and

steer the beam pattern at the determined location in the listening area.

18. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium stores further instruction which when executed by the processor:

feed the microphone signals to a set of beamformers pointing in a discrete number of directions in the listening area;

calculate the energy output from each beamformer; and

determine an angle of arrival of the voice command based on the beamformer with the largest energy output, wherein the determined location to steer the beam pattern is in the direction of the angle of arrival of the voice command.

19. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium stores further instruction which when executed by the processor:

compare the microphone signals with one or more speech signatures associated with stored user profiles to determine a match.

20. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium stores further instruction which when executed by the processor:

retrieve a preferred location setting from the matched user profile, wherein the preferred location setting is set based on historical usage habits by the user.

21. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium stores further instruction which when executed by the processor:

retrieve one or more preferred settings from the matched user profile, wherein the beam pattern is generated based on the one or more preferred settings.

22. The article of manufacture of claim 19, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium stores further instruction which when executed by the processor:

generate a new user profile in response to being unable to determine a match between the microphone signals and the one or more speech signatures associated with the stored user profiles.

23. The article of manufacture of claim 17, wherein the non-transitory machine-readable storage medium stores further instruction which when executed by the processor:

process the microphone signals to determine one or more preferred settings for the beam pattern indicated by the voice command, wherein the beam pattern is generated based on the determined one or more preferred settings.

24. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the one or more preferred settings indicate a predefined location in the listening area to steer the beam pattern.

25. The article of manufacture of claim 23, wherein the one or more preferred settings indicate one or more of volume, bass, treble, and reverberation ratio of the beam pattern.