Selection of system parameters based on non-acoustic sensor information

• US 8,712,069 B1
• Filed: 07/26/2010
• Issued: 04/29/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 04/19/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Audience Corporation
• Inventors: Murgia, Carlo, Goodwin, Michael M., Santos, Peter, Massie, Dana
• Primary Examiner(s): Chin, Vivian
• Assistant Examiner(s): FAHNERT, FRIEDRICH
• Application Number:
  US12/843,819
• Time in Patent Office: 1,373 Days
• Field of Search: 381/26, 381 91- 92, 381/95, 381/17, 381/71.1, 381/71.9, 381/71.11, 381/71.12, 381/71.14, 381/103, 700/94, 704/226, 704/205, 702 92- 99, 702/135, 702141-143, 702149-159, 702189-199
• US Class Current: 381/71.1
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/20 Processing of the output signals of the acoustic transducers of an array for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic H04R2203/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

An audio processing system processes an audio signal that may come from one or more microphones. The audio processing system may use information from one or more non-acoustic sensors to improve a variety of system characteristics, including responsiveness and quality. Especially those audio processing systems that use spatial information, for example to separate multiple audio sources, are undesirably susceptible to changes in the relative position of any audio sources, the audio processing system itself, or any combination thereof. Using the non-acoustic sensor information may decrease this susceptibility advantageously in an audio processing system.

Claims

1. A method for audio processing, comprising:

receiving a first acoustic signal from a first microphone;

receiving a second acoustic signal from a second microphone;

receiving information from a first non-acoustic sensor; and

executing a module by a processor, the module executable to determine a set of parameters to use to modify the first acoustic signal based at least in part on the first acoustic signal, the second acoustic signal, and the first non-acoustic sensor information;

wherein the modifying is performed using at least one of noise suppression, echo cancellation, audio source separation, and equalization.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a plurality of frequency sub-bands, and wherein modifying is performed per frequency sub-band.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the first non-acoustic sensor is selected from the group consisting of a motion sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, a gyroscope, a level sensor, a compass, a GPS unit, and an accelerometer.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the first non-acoustic sensor measures a spatial position of a microphone relative to a spatial position of an audio source.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising receiving information from a second non-acoustic sensor, wherein the determining of the set of parameters is further based on analysis of the information from the second non-acoustic sensor;

the first non-acoustic sensor and the second non-acoustic sensor each being selected from the group consisting of a motion sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, a gyroscope, a level sensor, a compass, a GPS unit, and an accelerometer.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein modifying is further based on noise suppression via null processing.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters include a respective gain for one or more of the first and second acoustic signals.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the parameters include an inter-level difference equalization.

9. The method of claim 6, wherein the parameters include directionality coefficients.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the information of the first non-acoustic sensor includes proximity variations that indicate active speech.

11. A system for audio processing, comprising:

a first microphone that transduces a first acoustic signal, wherein the first acoustic signal includes a desired component and an undesired component;

a second microphone that transduces a second acoustic signal;

a first non-acoustic sensor that provides non-acoustic information; and

one or more executable modules for determining a set of parameters to use to modify the first acoustic signal based on the first acoustic signal, the second acoustic signal, and non-acoustic sensor information;

wherein the modifying is performed using at least one of noise suppression, echo cancellation, audio source separation, and equalization.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein an executable module of the one or more executable modules further includes reducing the undesired component of the first acoustic signal.

13. The system of claim 11, wherein an executable module of the one or more executable modules further includes analyzing the first acoustic signal.

14. The system of claim 11, wherein the first non-acoustic sensor is selected from the group consisting of a motion sensor, a light sensor, a proximity sensor, a gyroscope, a level sensor, a compass, a GPS unit, and an accelerometer.

15. The system of claim 11, wherein the first non-acoustic sensor measures a spatial position of the first microphone relative to a spatial position of a source of the acoustic signal.

16. The system of claim 11, wherein an executable module of the one or more executable modules implements noise reduction via signal component subtraction.

17. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform a method for audio processing, the method comprising:

receiving a first acoustic signal from a first microphone;

receiving a second acoustic signal from a second microphone;

receiving information from a first non-acoustic sensor; and

determining a set of parameters to use for modifying the first acoustic signal based at least in part on the first acoustic signal, the second acoustic signal, and the first non-acoustic sensor information;

wherein the modifying is performed using at least one of noise suppression, echo cancellation, audio source separation, and equalization.

18. The non-transitory computer readable storage medium of claim 17, wherein modifying is further based on noise reduction via signal component subtraction.