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System and method for listener controlled beamforming

  • US 9,729,994 B1
  • Filed: 08/11/2014
  • Issued: 08/08/2017
  • Est. Priority Date: 08/09/2013
  • Status: Active Grant
First Claim
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1. A method to provide assistive listening for a plurality of listeners in an environment comprising a plurality of acoustics sources, the method comprising:

  • receiving, at one or more microphone arrays located in an environment, an acoustic signal from each of a plurality of acoustic sources located in the environment, wherein one or more of the plurality of acoustic sources are mobile acoustic sources;

    transmitting the acoustic signal received from each of the plurality of acoustic sources located in the environment to an acoustic beam forming processor;

    determining, at the acoustic beamforming processor, a location of each of the plurality of acoustic sources in the environment;

    transmitting, from the acoustic beamforming processor, the location of each of the plurality of acoustic sources in the environment to one or more listener-controlled interface devices located in the environment, wherein each of the one or more listener-controlled interface devices are located distant from the acoustic beamforming processor;

    displaying the location of each of the plurality of acoustic sources in the environment on the one or more listener-controlled interface devices;

    selecting a target location of a mobile acoustic source from the locations displayed on the one or more listener-controlled interface devices;

    processing, at the acoustic beamforming processor, the acoustic signals from each of the plurality of acoustic sources to generate a steered beam pattern focused at the target location of the mobile acoustic source selected on each of the one or more listener-controlled interface devices;

    transmitting, from the acoustic beamforming processor, the steered beam pattern to one or more of the listener-controlled interface devices based upon the target location of the mobile acoustic source selected on the listener-controlled interface device;

    tracking, at the acoustic beamforming device, the movement of the target location of the mobile acoustic source using a an acoustic tracking algorithm; and

    adjusting, at the acoustic beamforming device, the steered beam pattern based upon the movement of the target location of the mobile acoustic source.

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