Calibrating at least one system microphone

• US 8,126,156 B2
• Filed: 12/02/2008
• Issued: 02/28/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. (HP Inc.)
• Inventors: Ingalls, David R, Hu, Deqing, Grasley, Scott, Corbett, Tim, Cook, Lori A
• Primary Examiner(s): Williams, A O
• Application Number:
  US12/326,269
• Publication Number:
  US 20100135501A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,183 Days
• Field of Search: 381/58, 381/59, 381/107, 381/66, 381/74, 381/92, 381/63, 381/314
• US Class Current: 381/58
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/301 Automatic calibration of stereophonic sound system, e.g. with test microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/305 Electronic adaptation of stereophonic audio signals to reverberation of the listening space H04S7/301 takes precedence

Abstract

A system including at least one system microphone, a processor connected to computer readable memory and the at least one system microphone, a measurement microphone connected to the processor, at least one audio speaker, a signal generator connected to the processor and configured to produce signals from the at least one audio speaker for both the measurement microphone and the at least one system microphone to measure the response of the at least one audio speaker, and a device manager application executable from the computer readable memory and configured to perform the steps of calibrating the at least one audio speaker with the measurement microphone using the signals of the signal generator based on the response of the at least one audio speaker thereby creating at least one calibrated audio speaker and calibrating the at least one system microphone with the at least one calibrated audio speaker using the signals of the signal generator.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

at least one system microphone;

a processor connected to computer readable memory and the at least one system microphone;

a measurement microphone connected to the processor;

at least one audio speaker;

a signal generator connected to the processor and configured to produce signals from the at least one audio speaker for both the measurement microphone and the at least one system microphone to measure the response of the at least one audio speaker; and

a device manager application executable from the computer readable memory and configured to perform the steps of;

calibrating the at least one audio speaker with the measurement microphone using the signals of the signal generator based on the response of the at least one audio speaker thereby creating at least one calibrated audio speaker; and

calibrating the at least one system microphone with the at least one calibrated audio speaker using the signals of the signal generator.

2. The system of claim 1 further comprising at least one configuration file accessible by the processor configured to include at least one from the group consisting of a dimensions of an environment value, a noise level value, reverberation value, a deviation of allowance for at least one audio speaker target value, and a deviation of allowance for at least one system microphone target value.

3. The system of claim 2 wherein the device manager application further includes the steps of:

utilizing the measurement microphone to measure at least one impulse response from the signal generator to determine the dimensions of an environment including the at least one system microphone and the at least one audio speaker; and

calibrating a dimensions of an environment value of the at least one audio speaker to match the dimensions of the environment value in the configuration file.

4. The system of claim 3 wherein the device manager application further includes the steps of:

instructing the at least one audio speaker to output at least one signal in at least one direction; and

calculating the strength of the impulse response and the amount of time for the signal to return within the environment to the measurement microphone.

5. The system of claim 2 wherein the device manager application further includes the steps of:

utilizing the measurement microphone to scan at least one signal for a frequency response and a frequency spike to determine at least one noise level value; and

calibrating a gain value of the at least one audio speaker to match the noise level value in the configuration file.

6. The system of claim 2 wherein the device manager application further includes the steps of:

utilizing the measurement microphone to scan at least one signal for a reverberation to determine an amount of echo in the environment; and

calibrating a gain value of the at least one audio speaker to match the reverberation value in the configuration file.

7. The system of claim 2 wherein the device manager application further includes the steps of considering a deviation of allowance for at least one audio speaker target value when calibrating the at least one audio speaker.

8. The system of claim 2 wherein the device manager application further includes the steps of considering a deviation of allowance for at least one system microphone target value when calibrating the at least one system microphone.

9. The system of claim 1 wherein the measurement microphone may be fixed in a stationary position embedded into system.

10. A method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone comprising:

instructing a signal generator to output at least one signal from at least one audio speaker;

measuring the at least one signal from the at least one audio speaker with a measuring microphone;

creating at least one calibrated audio speaker by calibrating a gain of the at least one audio speaker in response to the measuring microphone measuring the at least one signal; and

creating at least one calibrated system microphone by calibrating a gain of the at least one system microphone in response to the at least one system microphone measuring the at least one signal from the at least one calibrated audio speaker.

11. The method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone of claim 10 further comprising performing an initial conformity test on the measurement microphone by examining a calibration history of the at least one audio speaker and the at least one system microphone.

12. The method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone of claim 11 wherein performing the initial conformity test on the measurement microphone further includes determining whether a number of calibrations and a frequency of calibrations on the at least one audio speaker and the at least one system microphone from the calibration history of the at least one audio speaker and the at least one system microphone exceed a calibration number threshold value and a calibration frequency threshold value.

13. The method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone of claim 10 further comprising creating at least one noise level values, reverberation values, and dimensions of an environment values from the measurement microphone measuring the at least one signal.

14. The method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone of claim 13 further comprising calibrating a gain of the at least one audio speaker further in response to at least one from the group consisting of a noise level value, a reverberation value, a dimensions of an environment, and a deviation of allowance for at least one audio speaker target value.

15. The method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone of claim 13 further comprising calibrating a gain of the at least one system microphone further in response to at least one from the group consisting of a noise level value, a reverberation value, a dimensions of an environment, and a deviation of allowance for at least one system microphone target value.

16. The method for automatically calibrating at least one system microphone of claim 10 further comprising monitoring and calibrating the gain of the at least one audio speaker and the gain of the at least one system microphone in response to the measurement microphone measuring the at least one signal from the at least one audio speaker during a teleconference.

17. A computer-readable program in a computer-readable medium comprising:

a software-based device manager application;

wherein the software-based device manager application is configured to measure at least one sound pressure level for at least one signal produced from at least one audio speaker with a measuring microphone;

wherein the at least one signal is used to create at least one audio speaker measurement value and the software-based device manager application is configured to calibrate the at least one audio speaker with the at least one audio speaker measurement value;

further wherein the software-based device manager application is configured to measure the at least one sound pressure level for at least one signal produced from a calibrated audio speaker with at least one system microphone; and

further wherein the software-based device manager application is configured to calibrate the at least one system microphone with at least one system microphone measurement value in response to the at least one signal outputted from the calibrated audio speaker.

18. The computer-readable program in the computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the software-based device manager application is configured to access a configuration file and adjust a gain of the at least one audio speaker in response to an audio speaker target value in the configuration file.

19. The computer-readable program in the computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the software-based device manager application is configured to access a configuration file and adjust a gain of the at least one system microphone in response to a system microphone target value in the configuration file.

20. The computer-readable program in the computer-readable medium of claim 17, wherein the software-based device manager application is configured to calibrate a gain of the at least one audio speaker and a gain of the at least one system microphone in response to at least one from the group consisting of a size of the environment, a number of audio speakers, a number of system microphones, a number of users, and a position of at least one user.