Remote voice detection system

• US 7,539,083 B2
• Filed: 06/25/2007
• Issued: 05/26/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 06/25/2007
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Government of the United States of America
• Original Assignee: the united states of america as represented by the secretary of the navy
• Inventors: Antonelli, Lynn T., Blackmon, Fletcher A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Lobo; Ian J
• Application Number:
  US11/767,644
• Publication Number:
  US 20080314155A1
• Time in Patent Office: 701 Days
• Field of Search: 367/87, 367/198, 367/199, 736/49, 736/55, 381/110
• US Class Current: 367/198
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 5/00 Measuring propagation velocity of ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves , e.g. of pressure waves
• CPC Class Codes: G01H 9/00 Measuring mechanical vibrations or ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves by using radiation-sensitive means, e.g. optical means

Abstract

A device and system to remotely detect vocalizations of speech. The skin located on the throat region of a speaking person or a reflective layer on the skin on the throat region vibrates in response to vocalizations of speech by the person. The vibrating skin or reflective layer is reflective of impinging radiation. A laser Doppler vibrometer transmits radiation onto the vibrating skin or the covering reflective layer and receives reflected radiation from the vibrating skin or reflective layer. The laser Doppler vibrometer generates voltage output signals that are representative of the speech causing the vibrations. A target tracker directs the impinging radiation and detects the reflected radiation to pass between the throat region and the laser Doppler vibrometer and includes a processor that removes non-speech signal artifacts from the voltage output signals. An interconnected audio speaker reproduces the speech from the voltage output signals.

Claims

1. A system for remotely detecting vocalizations of speech, said system comprising:

a laser Doppler vibrometer for transmitting radiation onto a throat region of a speaking person and for receiving the radiation reflected from the throat region, said laser Doppler vibrometer generating voltage output signals representative of the vocalizations;

audio speaker means coupled to receive the voltage output signals from said laser Doppler vibrometer for reproducing and transmitting the speech of the vocalizations from the output voltage signals;

means for computing coupled to receive the voltage output signals;

means coupled to said computing means for displaying the received representative signals;

a target tracker including a secondary light source to illuminate the throat region with an infrared tracker signal;

a digital camera receiving optical reflections and generating representative digital image signals of the optical reflections with the digital image signals having pixel position information;

an accelerometer mounted along the axis of the emitted radiation and reflected radiation of said laser Doppler vibrometer to develop signals representative of accelerations of said laser Doppler vibrometer and to couple the acceleration signals to said computing means wherein signals attributed to motion of said laser Doppler vibrometer are separable from the voltage output signals to create resultant output signals that compensate for ambient and non-speech vocalization disturbances;

a controller with said computing means to receive the digital image signals from said digital camera and the voltage output signals from said laser Doppler vibrometer;

a steering mirror module connected to said computing means, said steering mirror module receiving and steering emitted radiation and a tracker beam and the reflected radiation and the optical reflections; and

a beam combiner/focusing optics coupled to said computing means, said steering mirror module, said laser Doppler vibrometer, and said digital camera to gather and focus the emitted radiation, the reflected radiation, the tracker beam and the optical reflections.

2. The system of claim 1 wherein said computing means processes the digital image signals of the digital camera and uses the pixel position information to generate target coordinate control signals, the control signals being used to steer tracker mirrors of said steering mirror module to point the emitted radiation onto the throat region and to pass the reflected radiation from the throat region to said beam combiner/focusing optics.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein said computing means processes the digital image signals and the voltage output signals to generate focusing signals for said beam combiner/focusing optics to adaptively refocus beams passing through said steering mirror module.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein said controller includes at least one interconnected speaker to transmit reproduced speech and a monitor to provide a visual representation of monitored speech.