Signal source separation
First Claim
1. An audio signal separation system for signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the system comprising:
- a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone unit includinga plurality of acoustic ports, each port for sensing an acoustic environment at a spatial location relative to microphone unit, a minimum spacing between the spatial locations being less than 3 millimeters,a plurality of microphone elements, each coupled to an acoustic port of the plurality of acoustic ports to acquire a signal based on an acoustic environment at the spatial location of said acoustic port, andcircuitry coupled to the microphone elements configured to provide one or more microphone signals together representing a representative acquired signal and a variation among the signals acquired by the microphone elements; and
an audio processor configured to process the one or more microphone signals from the microphone unit to output one or more separated signals comprising signals separated according to corresponding one or more sources of said signals from the representative acquired signal,wherein the audio processor is configured to process the one or more microphone signals using direction of arrival information determined from the variation among the acquired signals and using signal structure of the one or more sources.
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Abstract
In one aspect, a microphone with closely spaced elements is used to acquire multiple signals from which a signal from a desired source is separated. The signal separation approach uses a combination of direction-of-arrival information or other information determined from variation such as phase, delay, and amplitude among the acquired signals, as well as structural information for the signal from the source of interest and/or for the interfering signals. Through this combination of information, the elements may be spaced more closely than may be effective for conventional beamforming approaches. In some examples, all the microphone elements are integrated into a single a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS).
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Citations
38 Claims
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1. An audio signal separation system for signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the system comprising:
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a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone unit including a plurality of acoustic ports, each port for sensing an acoustic environment at a spatial location relative to microphone unit, a minimum spacing between the spatial locations being less than 3 millimeters, a plurality of microphone elements, each coupled to an acoustic port of the plurality of acoustic ports to acquire a signal based on an acoustic environment at the spatial location of said acoustic port, and circuitry coupled to the microphone elements configured to provide one or more microphone signals together representing a representative acquired signal and a variation among the signals acquired by the microphone elements; and an audio processor configured to process the one or more microphone signals from the microphone unit to output one or more separated signals comprising signals separated according to corresponding one or more sources of said signals from the representative acquired signal, wherein the audio processor is configured to process the one or more microphone signals using direction of arrival information determined from the variation among the acquired signals and using signal structure of the one or more sources. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23)
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24. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions configured to, when executed, control a processor to perform signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the instructions comprising:
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processing one or more microphone signals acquired by a plurality of microphone elements of a microphone unit and together representing a representative acquired signal and a variation among the signals acquired by the microphone elements to output one or more separated signals comprising signals separated according to corresponding one or more sources of said signals from the representative acquired signal, wherein the one or more microphone signals are processed using direction of arrival information determined from the variation among the acquired signals and using signal structure of the one or more sources by; forming an approximation of the representative acquired signal, the approximation having a hidden multiple-source structure assuming that the representative acquired signal was generated by a number of distinct acoustic sources indexed by s=1, . . . , S and each acoustic source of the one or more sources is associated with a subset of prototype frequency distributions indexed by z=1, . . . , Z so that the approximation can be factorized into constituent parts, performing a plurality of iterations of adjusting components of a model of the approximation to match the representative acquired signal, and generating the one or more separated signals using the constituent parts of the approximation corresponding to the one or more sources. - View Dependent Claims (25, 26, 27)
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28. A method for performing signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the method comprising:
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processing one or more microphone signals acquired by a plurality of microphone elements of a microphone unit and together representing a representative acquired signal and a variation among the signals acquired by the microphone elements to output one or more separated signals comprising signals separated according to corresponding one or more sources of said signals from the representative acquired signal, wherein the one or more microphone signals are processed using direction of arrival information determined from the variation among the acquired signals and using signal structure of the one or more sources by; forming an approximation of the representative acquired signal, the approximation having a hidden multiple-source structure assuming that the representative acquired signal was generated by a number of distinct acoustic sources indexed by s=1, . . . , S and each acoustic source of the one or more sources is associated with a subset of prototype frequency distributions indexed by z=1, . . . , Z so that the approximation can be factorized into constituent parts, performing a plurality of iterations of adjusting components of a model of the approximation to match the representative acquired signal, and generating the one or more separated signals using the constituent parts of the approximation corresponding to the one or more sources. - View Dependent Claims (29)
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30. An audio signal separation system for signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the system comprising:
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a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone unit comprising a plurality of acoustic ports provided at different spatial locations and configured to acquire acoustic signals comprising contributions from a plurality of acoustic sources; and a signal processing unit configured to process the acquired signals to separate contributions from a first acoustic source of the plurality of acoustic sources from contributions from other acoustic sources of the plurality of acoustic sources, wherein processing comprises processing the acquired signals using direction of arrival information determined from a variation among the signals acquired via different acoustic ports and using signal structure of one or more acoustic sources of the plurality of acoustic sources by; forming an approximation of the representative acquired signal, the approximation having a hidden multiple-source structure assuming that the representative acquired signal was generated by a number of distinct acoustic sources indexed by s=1, . . . , S and each acoustic source of the one or more sources is associated with a subset of prototype frequency distributions indexed by z=1, . . . , Z so that the approximation can be factorized into constituent parts, performing a plurality of iterations of adjusting components of a model of the approximation to match the representative acquired signal, and generating the one or more separated signals using the constituent parts of the approximation corresponding to the one or more sources. - View Dependent Claims (31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36)
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37. A non-transitory machine-readable storage medium storing instructions configured to, when executed, control a processor to perform signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the instructions comprising:
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processing signals representative of acoustic signals comprising contributions from a plurality of acoustic sources, the acoustic signals acquired by a plurality of acoustic ports of a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone unit, to separate contributions from a first acoustic source of the plurality of acoustic sources from contributions from other acoustic sources of the plurality of acoustic sources, wherein the signals are processed using direction of arrival information determined from a variation among the signals acquired via different acoustic ports and using signal structure of one or more acoustic sources of the plurality of acoustic sources by; forming an approximation of the acquired signals, the approximation having a hidden multiple-source structure assuming that the representative acquired signals were generated by a number of distinct acoustic sources indexed by s=1, . . . , S and each acoustic source of the one or more sources is associated with a subset of prototype frequency distributions indexed by z=1, . . . , Z so that the approximation can be factorized into constituent parts, performing a plurality of iterations of adjusting components of a model of the approximation to match the acquired signals, and separating the contributions from the first acoustic source using the constituent parts of the approximation corresponding to the first acoustic source.
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38. A method for performing signal separation according to source in an acoustic signal, the method comprising:
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processing signals representative of acoustic signals comprising contributions from a plurality of acoustic sources, the acoustic signals acquired by a plurality of acoustic ports of a micro-electrical-mechanical system (MEMS) microphone unit, to separate contributions from a first acoustic source of the plurality of acoustic sources from contributions from other acoustic sources of the plurality of acoustic sources, wherein the signals are processed using direction of arrival information determined from a variation among the signals acquired via different acoustic ports and using signal structure of one or more acoustic sources of the plurality of acoustic sources by; forming an approximation of the acquired signals, the approximation having a hidden multiple-source structure assuming that the representative acquired signals were generated by a number of distinct acoustic sources indexed by s=1, . . . , S and each acoustic source of the one or more sources is associated with a subset of prototype frequency distributions indexed by z=1, . . . , Z so that the approximation can be factorized into constituent parts, performing a plurality of iterations of adjusting components of a model of the approximation to match the acquired signals, and separating the contributions from the first acoustic source using the constituent parts of the approximation corresponding to the first acoustic source.
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Specification