Microphone-based orientation sensors and related techniques
First Claim
1. An orientation detector comprising:
- a first microphone transducer having a first position, a second microphone transducer having a second position, and a reference microphone transducer spaced from the first microphone transducer and the second microphone transducer, wherein each microphone transducer is configured to emit a respective signal in correspondence with an acoustic signal received by the respective microphone transducer;
a separation unit; and
an orientation processor configured to determine an orientation of the first microphone transducer, the second microphone transducer, or both, relative to a source of the acoustic signal based on a comparison of a first computed signal-separation associated with the first microphone transducer and the reference microphone transducer to a second computed signal-separation associated with the second microphone transducer and the reference microphone transducer;
wherein the separation unit generates the first computed signal-separation and the second computed signal-separation.
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Accused Products
Abstract
An orientation detector can have a first microphone, a second microphone, and a reference microphone spaced from the first microphone and the second microphone. An orientation processor can be configured to determine an orientation of the first microphone, the second microphone, or both, relative to a user'"'"'s mouth based on a comparison of a relative strength of a first signal associated with the first microphone to a relative strength of a second signal associated with the second microphone. A channel selector in a speech enhancer can select one signal from among several signals based at least in part on the orientation determined by the orientation processor. A mobile communication handset can include a microphone-based orientation detector of the type disclosed herein.
107 Citations
20 Claims
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1. An orientation detector comprising:
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a first microphone transducer having a first position, a second microphone transducer having a second position, and a reference microphone transducer spaced from the first microphone transducer and the second microphone transducer, wherein each microphone transducer is configured to emit a respective signal in correspondence with an acoustic signal received by the respective microphone transducer; a separation unit; and an orientation processor configured to determine an orientation of the first microphone transducer, the second microphone transducer, or both, relative to a source of the acoustic signal based on a comparison of a first computed signal-separation associated with the first microphone transducer and the reference microphone transducer to a second computed signal-separation associated with the second microphone transducer and the reference microphone transducer; wherein the separation unit generates the first computed signal-separation and the second computed signal-separation. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A communication handset comprising:
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a chassis having a front side, a back side, a top edge, and a bottom edge; a first microphone and a second microphone spaced apart from the first microphone, wherein the first and the second microphones are positioned on or adjacent to the bottom edge of the chassis; a reference microphone facing the back side of the chassis and positioned closer to the top edge than to the bottom edge; and an orientation detector configured to detect an orientation of the chassis relative to an acoustic source based at least in part on a strength of a signal from the first microphone relative to a signal from the reference microphone compared to a strength of a signal from the second microphone relative to the signal from the reference microphone. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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Specification