Method and apparatus for acoustically characterizing an environment in which an electronic device resides

• US 9,185,199 B2
• Filed: 07/31/2013
• Issued: 11/10/2015
• Est. Priority Date: 03/12/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Google Technology Holdings LLC (Alphabet Inc.)
• Inventors: Zurek, Robert A, Clark, Joel A, Dwyer, Joseph C, Ivanov, Plamen A, Oliveira, Rivanaldo S, Singaraju, Snehitha, Wu, Jincheng, Garcia, Juan C
• Primary Examiner(s): Lee, John J
• Application Number:
  US13/956,076
• Publication Number:
  US 20140274212A1
• Time in Patent Office: 832 Days
• Field of Search: 455/563, 455/569.1, 455/567, 455/570, 455/557, 455/90.1, 455/67.11, 455/67.7, 455/511, 455/41.2, 455/556.1, 704/233, 704/231, 704/243
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G01S 15/08 Systems for measuring distance only indirect measurement G01S15/46
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/06 Creation of reference templates; Training of speech recognition systems, e.g. adaptation to the characteristics of the speaker's voice G10L15/14 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/063 Training
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/065 Adaptation
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/20 Speech recognition techniques specially adapted for robustness in adverse environments, e.g. in noise, of stress induced speech G10L21/02 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2015/228 of application context
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02082 the noise being echo, reverberation of the speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02161 Number of inputs available containing the signal or the noise to be suppressed
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/02 Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation reducing echo effects in line transmission systems H04B3/20; echo suppression in hands-free telephones H04M9/08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0316 by changing the amplitude
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/48 specially adapted for particular use
• CPC Class Codes: H03G 3/32 the control being dependent upon ambient noise level or sound level
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/271 controlled by voice recognition
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/6041 Portable telephones adapted for handsfree use

Abstract

A method and apparatus for adapting acoustic processing in a communication device, and capturing at least one acoustic signal using acoustic hardware of the communication device, characterizing an acoustic environment external to the communication device using the at least one captured acoustic signal, adapting acoustic processing within the communication device based on the characterized acoustic environment.

Claims

1. A method for adapting acoustic processing in a communication device, the method comprising:

capturing, using multiple microphones of the communication device, at least one acoustic signal having captured ambient sound;

determining, for the captured ambient sound, a frequency domain transfer function between a pair of the multiple microphones;

comparing at least a portion of the frequency domain transfer function to stored transfer functions for different acoustic environments to select an acoustic environment; and

adapting acoustic processing within the communication device based on the selected acoustic environment.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein capturing ambient sound comprises capturing user speech.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein adapting the acoustic processing comprises at least one of adapting voice recognition processing or adapting processing of voice calls.

4. A method for adapting acoustic processing in a communication device, the method comprising:

outputting a first acoustic signal from the communication device;

capturing at least one acoustic signal using multiple microphones of the communication device, wherein the at least one acoustic signal includes a plurality of reflections of the first acoustic signal at different angles from a surface external to the communication device;

characterizing an acoustic environment external to the communication device using the at least one captured acoustic signal; and

adapting acoustic processing within the communication device based on the characterized acoustic environment.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein capturing at least one acoustic signal using multiple microphones comprises capturing, using a first microphone, a first reflection of the first acoustic signal from the surface external to the communication device, and wherein characterizing the acoustic environment comprises:

calculating a cross-correlation function between the first acoustic signal output from the communication device and the first reflection of the first acoustic signal from the surface external to the communication device;

determining a set of maximum values of the cross-correlation function;

determining a distance between the communication device and the surface external to the communication device using the set of maximum values.

6. The method of claim 4 wherein capturing at least one acoustic signal using multiple microphones comprises capturing, using a first microphone, a first reflection of the first acoustic signal from the surface external to the communication device, and wherein characterizing the acoustic environment comprises:

comparing a first time delay determined for the first acoustic signal to a second time delay determined for the first reflection of the first acoustic signal to determine a time delay difference;

determining a proximal distance between the communication device and the surface external to the communication device based on the time delay difference.

7. The method of claim 4, wherein characterizing the acoustic environment comprises:

calculating at least one cross-correlation function between the first acoustic signal output from the communication device and at least one of the plurality of reflections of the first acoustic signal from the surface external to the communication device;

determining a set of maximum values of the at least one cross-correlation function;

determining a distance between the communication device and the surface external to the communication device using the set of maximum values.

8. The method of claim 4, wherein characterizing the acoustic environment comprises:

determining a set of frequency band segments of the first acoustic signal and at least one of the plurality of reflections;

determining time of arrival data based on the first acoustic signal and the at least one reflection at each frequency band segment;

calculating the distance between the communication device and the surface external to the communication device using the time of arrival data.

9. The method of claim 4, wherein characterizing the acoustic environment comprises:

determining differences between the first acoustic signal output from the communication device and at least one of the plurality of reflections of the first acoustic signal from the surface external to the communication device;

determining an acoustic absorption characteristic of the surface external to the communication device based on the differences between the first acoustic signal and at least one reflection of the first acoustic signal.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the differences between the first acoustic signal and at least one reflection of the first acoustic signal comprises at least one of:

broadband energy differences;

or

spectral differences.

11. The method of claim 9, wherein characterizing the acoustic environment further comprises determining the acoustic environment based on the acoustic absorption characteristic.

12. The method of claim 4, wherein characterizing the acoustic environment comprises:

measuring at least one impulse response between a speaker of the acoustic hardware, which output the first acoustic signal, and at least one of the multiple microphones that captured the plurality of reflections;

determining that the communication device is in proximity to the surface external to the communication device based on the at least one impulse response.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein the at least one impulse response is measured based on at least one echo path between the speaker and the at least one of the multiple microphones.

14. The method of claim 4 further comprising disabling echo cancellation processing and noise suppression before capturing the at least one reflection of the first acoustic signal and enabling the echo cancellation and noise suppression after characterizing the acoustic environment.

15. The method of claim 4, wherein the first acoustic signal comprises one of:

an audio signal played from a speaker of the acoustic hardware for performing the method;

an inaudible wide-band emission from the communication device;

or

an audible sound emitted while operating the communication device.

16. A communication device configurable based on an acoustic environment, the communication device comprising:

acoustic hardware configured to emit a first acoustic signal and including a plurality of microphones to capture at least one acoustic signal comprising at least one of ambient sound or at least one reflection of the first acoustic signal;

a processor configured to characterize an acoustic environment external to the communication device using the at least one captured acoustic signal; and

an acoustic processing system configured to provide acoustic processing of a received acoustic signal, wherein the acoustic processing system is adaptable based on the characterized acoustic environment.

17. The communication device of claim 16, wherein the acoustic processing system comprises at least one of:

a noise suppression module configured to provide noise suppression of the received acoustic signal;

an echo cancellation module configured to provide echo cancellation of the received acoustic signal;

a reverberation removal module configured to provide de-reverberation of the received acoustic signal; and

a volume control module configured to control the volume of at least one of the plurality of microphones of the acoustic hardware while capturing the received acoustic signal;

or

an equalization module configured to provide equalization for the received acoustic signal, wherein at least one of the noise suppression module, the echo cancellation module, the reverberation removal module, the volume control module, or the equalization module is configured to be adapted based on the characterized acoustic environment.

18. The communication device of claim 16, wherein the processor is further configured to determine, for the captured at least one acoustic signal, a frequency domain transfer function between a pair of the plurality of microphones.

19. The communication device of claim 18, wherein the processor is further configured to compare at least a portion of the frequency domain transfer function to stored transfer functions for different acoustic environments to characterize the acoustic environment.

20. The communication device of claim 16, wherein the acoustic hardware is further configured to capture, using a first microphone of the plurality of microphones, a first reflection of the first acoustic signal, and the processor is further configured to characterize the acoustic environment by:

comparing a first time delay determined for the first acoustic signal to a second time delay determined for the first reflection of the first acoustic signal to determine a time delay difference; and

determining a proximal distance between the communication device and a surface external to the communication device based on the time delay difference.