Contextual switching of microphones

• US 9,668,048 B2
• Filed: 01/29/2016
• Issued: 05/30/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 01/30/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Inventors: Sakri, Shailesh, Dhanapalan, Ajay Kumar, Rao, Harsha Inna Kedage
• Primary Examiner(s): ADDY, THJUAN KNOWLIN
• Application Number:
  US15/011,287
• Publication Number:
  US 20160227336A1
• Time in Patent Office: 487 Days
• Field of Search: 381 58, 381 714, 381 66, 381 7114, 381 711, 381 718, 381 92, 381 941, 455570
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 9/08 Two-way loud-speaking telephone systems with means for conditioning the signal, e.g. for suppressing echoes for one or both directions of traffic
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/05 Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone
• 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

Provided are systems and methods for contextual switching of microphones in audio devices. An example method includes detecting a change in conditions for capturing an acoustic signal by at least two microphones. A configuration is associated with the at least two microphones. The example method provides determining that the change in conditions has been stable for a pre-determined period of time. In response to the determination, the method changes the configuration associated with the at least two microphones. The conditions may include an absence or presence of far-end speech, reverberation, low/high signal-to-noise ratio, low/high signal-to-echo ratio, type of background noise, and so on. The changing of the configuration includes assigning a primary microphone and a secondary microphone based on a change in conditions. Based on the changed configuration, tuning parameters may be adjusted for noise suppression and acoustic echo cancellation.

Claims

1. A method for contextual switching of microphones, the method comprising:

detecting a change of conditions for capturing an acoustic signal by at least two microphones, a configuration being associated with the at least two microphones, wherein detecting the change includes detecting presence of at least one of far-end speech, type of background noise, sensitivities of the at least two microphones, seals of the at least two microphones, level of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the acoustic signal, and level of signal-to-echo ratio (SER) in the acoustic signal;

determining that the change of the conditions has occurred for a pre-determined period of time; and

in response to the determining, changing the configuration associated with the at least two microphones.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the configuration includes having a first microphone, of the at least two microphones, assigned to function as a primary microphone and having a second microphone, of the at least two microphones, assigned to function as a secondary microphone.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the primary microphone is the microphone, of the at least two microphones, closest to a target talker.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein the changing the configuration comprises:

assigning the first microphone to function as the secondary microphone; and

assigning the second microphone to function as the primary microphone.

5. The method of claim 2, further comprising adjusting tuning parameters for noise suppression (NS) based on the changed configuration.

6. The method of claim 2, further comprising adjusting tuning parameters for acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) based on the changed configuration.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the change of the conditions includes detecting that a first microphone, of the at least two microphones, is occluded and a second microphone, of the at least two microphones, is not occluded.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein the detecting that the first microphone is occluded is based on detecting the energy level of the first microphone, and the detecting that the second microphone is not occluded is based on detecting the energy level of the second microphone.

9. The method of claim 7, wherein the changing the configuration includes assigning the second microphone to function as a primary microphone.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the detecting the change of the conditions includes detecting presence of a reverberation.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the at least two microphones comprise at least three microphones, and wherein, in response to the detecting of the presence of the reverberation, the changing the configuration includes selecting a first microphone and a second microphone from the at least three microphones for capturing the acoustic signal, the first and the second microphones being separated by a distance that is a maximum distance between any pair of the at least three microphones.

19. The method of claim 1, wherein based upon detection of the far-end speech, changing the configuration comprises, switching one of the at least two microphones that is farthest from a loudspeaker to be a primary microphone.

20. The method of claim 1, wherein the pre-determined period of time is in a range between and including twenty milliseconds and fifty milliseconds.

12. A system for contextual switching of microphones, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled with the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions, which, when executed by the at least processor, perform a method comprising;

detecting a change of conditions for capturing an acoustic signal by at least two microphones, a configuration being associated with the at least two microphones, wherein detecting the change includes detecting presence of at least one of far-end speech, type of background noise, sensitivities of the at least two microphones, seals of the at least two microphones, level of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the acoustic signal, and level of signal-to-echo ratio (SER) in the acoustic signal;

determining that the change of the conditions has occurred for a predetermined period of time; and

in response to the determination, changing the configuration associated with the at least two microphones.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the configuration includes having a first microphone, of the at least two microphones, assigned to function as a primary microphone and having a second microphone, of the at least two microphones, assigned to function as a secondary microphone.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the primary microphone is the microphone, of the at least two microphones, closest to a target talker.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein the changing the configuration comprises:

assigning the first microphone to function as the secondary microphone; and

assigning the second microphone to function as the primary microphone.

16. The system of claim 13, further comprising adjusting tuning parameters for noise suppression (NS) based on the changed configuration.

17. The system of claim 13, further comprising adjusting tuning parameters for acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) based on the changed configuration.

18. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions, which, when executed by at least one processor, perform steps of a method, the method comprising:

detecting a change of conditions for capturing an acoustic signal by at least two microphones, a configuration being associated with the at least two microphones, wherein detecting the change includes detecting presence of at least one of far-end speech, type of background noise, sensitivities of the at least two microphones, seals of the at least two microphones, level of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) in the acoustic signal, and level of signal-to-echo ratio (SER) in the acoustic signal;

determining that the change of the conditions has occurred for a pre-determined period of time; and

in response to the determining, changing a configuration associated with the at least two microphones.