System and apparatus for speech communication and speech recognition
First Claim
1. A headset system including a base unit and a headset unit for wearing by a user and having a plurality of microphones, the headset unit and base unit being arranged for mutual wireless communication, and at least one of the base unit and the headset unit comprising at least one digital signal processing unit arranged to perform signal processing in the time domain on audio signals received by the plurality of microphones, the at least one digital signal processing unit including a first adaptive filter configured to enhance a wanted signal in the audio signals, a second adaptive filter and a third adaptive filter each configured to receive an output of the first adaptive filter, the second adaptive filter being configured to reduce an unwanted interference signal in the audio signals, and the third adaptive filter being arranged to estimate noise signals.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A headset system is proposed including a headset unit to be worn by a user and having two or more microphones, and a base unit in wireless communication with the headset. Signals received from the microphones are processed using a first adaptive filter to enhance a target signal, and then divided and supplied to a second adaptive filter arranged to reduce interference signals and a third filter arranged to reduce noise. The outputs of the second and third filters are combined, and are be subject to further a processing in the frequency domain. The results are transmitted to a speech recognition engine.
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Citations
26 Claims
- 1. A headset system including a base unit and a headset unit for wearing by a user and having a plurality of microphones, the headset unit and base unit being arranged for mutual wireless communication, and at least one of the base unit and the headset unit comprising at least one digital signal processing unit arranged to perform signal processing in the time domain on audio signals received by the plurality of microphones, the at least one digital signal processing unit including a first adaptive filter configured to enhance a wanted signal in the audio signals, a second adaptive filter and a third adaptive filter each configured to receive an output of the first adaptive filter, the second adaptive filter being configured to reduce an unwanted interference signal in the audio signals, and the third adaptive filter being arranged to estimate noise signals.
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25. A method of processing signals received from an array of sensors, including sampling and digitizing the received signals into digital signals, the method comprising:
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filtering the digital signals using a first adaptive filter arranged to enhance a target signal in the digital signals; transmitting an output of the first adaptive filter to each of a second adaptive filter and a third adaptive filter, the second adaptive filter being arranged to suppress unwanted interference signals, and the third adaptive filter being arranged to estimate noise signals; and combining the outputs of the second and third adaptive filters.
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26. A headset system including a base unit and a headset unit for wearing by a user and having a plurality of microphones, the headset unit and the base unit being arranged for mutual wireless communication, and at least one of the base unit and the headset unit comprising at least one digital signal processing unit arranged to perform signal processing in a time domain on audio signals generated by the plurality of microphones, the at least one digital signal processing unit including a first adaptive filter configured to enhance a wanted signal in the audio signals, a second adaptive filter and a third adaptive filter each configured to receive an output of the first adaptive filter, the second adaptive filter being configured to reduce an unwanted interference signal in the audio signals, the third adaptive filter being arranged to estimate noise signals, the headset system being configured:
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so that the second and third adaptive filters are not adapted if it is determined that a target signal is present; to determine signal energy at intervals, and to derive at least one noise threshold from a plurality of values of the signal energy, including to determine whether a further signal energy is above the at least one noise threshold; and so that the derivation of said at least one noise threshold includes using the plurality of values of the signal energy to derive a histogram representing the statistical frequencies of signal energy values in each of a number of bands, and deriving the at least one noise threshold from a signal energy value Emax associated with a band having a highest histogram value.
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Specification