Microphone and voice activity detection (VAD) configurations for use with communication systems

• US 8,467,543 B2
• Filed: 03/27/2003
• Issued: 06/18/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 03/27/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Jawbone Innovations, LLC
• Original Assignee: AliphCom, Inc. (AliphCom Corp.)
• Inventors: Burnett, Gregory C., Petit, Nicolas J., Asseily, Alexander M., Einaudi, Andrew E.
• Primary Examiner(s): Paul, Disler
• Application Number:
  US10/400,282
• Publication Number:
  US 20030228023A1
• Time in Patent Office: 3,736 Days
• Field of Search: 381/94.7, 381/71.6, 381/110, 381/71.7, 381/111, 381/11, 381 91- 92, 381 941- 943, 704/226, 704/233
• US Class Current: 381/94.1
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02165 Two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the other one mainly the speech signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/93 Discriminating between voiced and unvoiced parts of speech signals G10L25/90 takes precedence
• 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 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

Communication systems are described, including both portable handset and headset devices, which use a number of microphone configurations to receive acoustic signals of an environment. The microphone configurations include, for example, a two-microphone array including two unidirectional microphones, and a two-microphone array including one unidirectional microphone and one omnidirectional microphone. The communication systems also include Voice Activity Detection (VAD) devices to provide information of human voicing activity. Components of the communications systems receive the acoustic signals and voice activity signals and, in response, automatically generate control signals from data of the voice activity signals. Components of the communication systems use the control signals to automatically select a denoising method appropriate to data of frequency subbands of the acoustic signals. The selected denoising method is applied to the acoustic signals to generate denoised acoustic signals when the acoustic signal includes speech and noise.

Claims

1. A communications system, comprising:

a voice detection subsystem configured to receive voice activity signals that includes information associated with human voicing activity, the voice detection subsystem configured to automatically generate control signals using the voice activity signals; and

a denoising subsystem coupled to the voice detection subsystem, the denoising subsystem comprising a microphone array including a plurality of microphones, wherein a first microphone of the array is fixed at a first position relative to a mouth, wherein the first position orients a front of the first microphone towards the mouth, wherein a second microphone of the array is fixed at a second position relative to the mouth, wherein the second position orients a front of the second microphone away from the mouth such that the second position forms an angle relative to the first position, wherein the angle is greater than zero degrees, the microphone array providing acoustic signals of an environment to components of the denoising subsystem, components of the denoising subsystem automatically selecting at least one denoising method appropriate to data of at least one frequency subband of the acoustic signals using the control signals and processing the acoustic signals using the selected denoising method to generate denoised acoustic signals, wherein the denoising method includes generating a noise waveform estimate associated with noise of the acoustic signals and subtracting the noise waveform estimate from the acoustic signal when the acoustic signal includes speech and noise,

wherein the voice detection subsystem is configured to receive the voice activity signals using a sensor independent from the microphone array and to output the control signals generated from the voice activity signals to the denoising system, the denoising system configured to use the control signals to denoise the acoustic signals from the microphone array.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice detection subsystem further comprises:

at least one glottal electromagnetic micropower sensor (GEMS) including at least one antenna for receiving the voice activity signals; and

at least one voice activity detector (VAD) algorithm for processing the GEMS voice activity signals and generating the control signals.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice detection subsystem further comprises:

at least one accelerometer sensor in contact with skin for receiving the voice activity signals; and

at least one voice activity detector (VAD) algorithm for processing the accelerometer sensor voice activity signals and generating the control signals.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice detection subsystem further comprises:

at least one skin-surface microphone sensor in contact with skin for receiving the voice activity signals; and

at least one voice activity detector (VAD) algorithm for processing the skin-surface microphone sensor voice activity signals and generating the control signals.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the voice detection subsystem further comprises at least one manually activated voice activity detector (VAD) for generating the voice activity signals.

6. The system of claim 1, further including a portable handset that includes the microphones, wherein the portable handset includes at least one of cellular telephones, satellite telephones, portable telephones, wireline telephones, Internet telephones, wireless transceivers, wireless communication radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and personal computers (PCs).

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the portable handset includes at least one of the voice detection subsystem and the denoising subsystem.

8. The system of claim 1, further including a portable headset that includes the microphones along with at least one speaker device.

9. The system of claim 8, wherein the portable headset couples to at least one communication device selected from among cellular telephones, satellite telephones, portable telephones, wireline telephones, Internet telephones, wireless transceivers, wireless communication radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and personal computers (PCs).

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the portable headset couples to the communication device using at least one of wireless couplings, wired couplings, and combination wireless and wired couplings.

11. The system of claim 9, wherein the communication device includes at least one of the voice detection subsystem and the denoising subsystem.

12. The system of claim 8, wherein the portable headset includes at least one of the voice detection subsystem and the denoising subsystem.

13. The system of claim 8, wherein the portable headset is a portable communication device selected from among cellular telephones, satellite telephones, portable telephones, wireline telephones, Internet telephones, wireless transceivers, wireless communication radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), and personal computers (PCs).

14. The system of claim 1, wherein the first microphone is a unidirectional microphone and the second microphone is a unidirectional microphone.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first microphone and the second microphone are separated by a distance in a range of approximately zero (0) centimeters to 15 centimeters.

16. The system of claim 14, wherein the angle is in a range of approximately greater than zero (0) degrees and one of equal to and less than 180 degrees.

17. The system of claim 14, wherein the angle is in a range of approximately greater than zero (0) degrees and one of equal to and less than 135 degrees.

18. The system of claim 14, wherein the angle is in a range of approximately greater than zero (0) degrees and one of equal to and greater than 90 degrees.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the first microphone is an omnidirectional microphone and the second microphone is a unidirectional microphone.

20. The system of claim 19, wherein the first microphone and the second microphone are separated by a distance approximately in a range of zero (0) centimeters to 15 centimeters.

21. The system of claim 19, wherein the angle is approximately in a range of 30 degrees to 180 degrees.

22. The system of claim 19, wherein the angle is approximately in a range of 60 degrees to 180 degrees.

23. The system of claim 19, wherein the angle is approximately in a range of 90 degrees to 180 degrees.

24. The system of claim 1, wherein the first microphone is a unidirectional microphone and the second microphone is an omnidirectional microphone.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the first microphone and the second microphone are separated by a distance approximately in a range of zero (0) centimeters to 15 centimeters.

26. A communications system, comprising:

a voice detection subsystem configured to receive voice activity signals that include information associated with human voicing activity, the voice detection subsystem configured to automatically generate control signals using the voice activity signals;

a denoising subsystem coupled to the voice detection subsystem, the denoising subsystem comprising a microphone array including a plurality of microphones, wherein a first microphone of the array is fixed at a first position relative to a mouth, wherein the first position orients a front of the first microphone towards the mouth, wherein a second microphone of the array is fixed at a second position relative to the mouth, wherein the second position orients a front of the second microphone away from the mouth such that the second position forms an angle relative to the first position, wherein the angle is greater than zero degrees, the microphone array providing acoustic signals of an environment to components of the denoising subsystem, components of the denoising subsystem automatically selecting at least one denoising method appropriate to data of at least one frequency subband of the acoustic signals using the control signals and processing the acoustic signals using the selected denoising method to generate denoised acoustic signals, wherein the denoising method includes generating a noise waveform estimate associated with noise of the acoustic signals and subtracting the noise waveform estimate from the acoustic signal when the acoustic signal includes speech and noise,

wherein the voice detection subsystem is configured to receive the voice activity signals using a sensor independent from the microphone array and to output the control signals generated from the voice activity signals to the denoising system, the denoising system configured to use the control signals to denoise the acoustic signals from the microphone array; and

a portable headset comprising the plurality of microphones and at least one speaker device, wherein the portable headset couples to at least one communication device selected from among cellular telephones, satellite telephones, portable telephones, wireline telephones, Internet telephones, wireless transceivers, wireless communication radios, personal digital assistants (PDAs), personal computers (PCs), and at least one of the voice detection subsystem and the denoising subsystem.