Systems and methods for determining the condition of multiple microphones

• US 9,301,073 B2
• Filed: 03/08/2013
• Issued: 03/29/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 06/08/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Original Assignee: Apple Inc.
• Inventors: Krishnaswamy, Arvindh, Yeh, David T., Merimaa, Juha O., Ramprashad, Sean A.
• Primary Examiner(s): Huber, Paul
• Application Number:
  US13/790,380
• Publication Number:
  US 20130329896A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,117 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 1/1
• 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 29/004 for microphones H04R29/007 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/005 Microphone arrays
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/00 Circuits for transducers , loudspeakers or microphones

Abstract

Systems and methods for determining the operating condition of multiple microphones of an electronic device are disclosed. A system can include a plurality of microphones operative to receive signals, a microphone condition detector, and a plurality of microphone condition determination sources. The microphone condition detector can determine a condition for each of the plurality of microphones by using the received signals and accessing at least one microphone condition determination source.

Claims

1. A method for determining the operating conditions of microphones of an electronic device, the method comprising:

receiving signals from a plurality of microphones;

providing a plurality of microphone condition determination sources including (a) a priori database of stored patterns of signals in a free-field state and an interference state, and (b) a pattern recognizer that recognizes patterns in the received signals;

recognizing patterns in the received signals using the pattern recognizer;

comparing the patterns in the received signals with patterns of signals in the free-field state and the interference state stored in the priori database; and

determining an operating condition of at least one of the plurality of microphones based on the comparison, the operating condition being one of the free-field state or the interference state.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the patterns of signals in the free field state stored in the priori database includes self-generated noise.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the patterns of signals in the interference state stored in the priori database includes a signal response of an occluded microphone.

4. The method of claim 1 further comprising

receiving device centric data;

and

using the device centric data to determine a likelihood of microphone occlusion.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the device centric data comprises orientation data of the device.

6. The method of claim 4, wherein the device centric data comprises at least one of ambient light data and proximity data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of microphones comprises three or more microphones located on different planes of the device.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises at least one of an internally running process, an echo pattern recognizer, a microphone subset correlator, and device centric data.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises a microphone subset correlator, the microphone subset correlator being operative to compare subsets of the received signals.

10. A system comprising:

a plurality of microphones in an electronic device configured to receive signals;

a microphone condition detector; and

a plurality of microphone condition determination sources, the microphone condition detector being configured to access the plurality of microphone condition determination sources in conjunction with the received signals to determine an operating condition for each of the plurality of microphones,

wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources includes (a) a priori database of stored patterns of signals in a free-field state and an interference state, and (b) a pattern recognizer that recognizes patterns in the received signals,

wherein the operating condition comprises one of the free-field state and the interference state.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of microphones comprises three microphones.

12. The system of claim 11, wherein a first one of the three microphones is disposed on a first plane of the device, and wherein a second one of the three microphones is disposed on a second plane of the device different from the first plane.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein a third one of the three microphones is disposed on a third plane of the device different from each of the first and second planes.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first plane is substantially parallel to the second plane, and wherein a third plane is substantially orthogonal to each of the first and second planes.

15. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises at least one of an internally running processes, echo pattern recognizer, a microphone subset correlator, and device centric data.

16. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises a sensor that provides device centric data.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the device centric data comprises at least one of orientation data of the device, ambient light data, and proximity data.

18. The system of claim 10, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises a microphone subset correlator, the correlator being operative to compare subsets of signals received by the microphones.

19. An electronic device comprising:

a plurality of microphones;

a plurality of microphone condition determination sources including (a) a priori database of stored patterns of signals in a free-field state and an interference state, and (b) a pattern recognizer that recognizes patterns in the received signals; and

a microphone condition detector configured to;

receive signals transmitted from the microphones;

access the plurality of microphone determination sources; and

in conjunction with the received signals, determine an operating condition for each of the plurality of microphones,

wherein the operating condition comprises one of the free-field state and the interference state.

20. The device of claim 19 wherein the patterns of signals in the free field state stored in the priori database includes self-generated noise and the patterns of signals in the interference state stored in the priori database includes a signal response of an occluded microphone.

21. The device of claim 19, wherein the plurality of microphones comprises three or more microphones located on different planes of the device.

22. The device of claim 19, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises at least one of an internally running process, an echo pattern recognizer, a microphone subset correlator, and device centric data.

23. The device of claim 19, wherein the plurality of microphone condition determination sources comprises a microphone subset correlator, the microphone subset correlator being operative to compare subsets of the received signals.