Adaptively filtering a microphone signal responsive to vibration sensed in a user's face while speaking
First Claim
1. An electronic device comprising:
- a microphone that is configured to generate a microphone signal responsive to incident sound, the microphone signal including a user speech component and a background noise component;
a housing enclosing the microphone, wherein the housing is positioned adjacent to and extends along a cheek of a user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone to generate the speech component of the microphone signal and while positioning another portion of the housing adjacent to the user'"'"'s ear;
a vibration sensor enclosed by the housing that is configured to sense vibration of an external portion of the user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone and to generate a vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the sensed vibration;
a vibration characterization unit enclosed by the housing that is configured to generate speech characterization data that characterize at least one of the frequency components of the vibration signal that is associated with the speech component of the microphone signal; and
an adaptive sound filter enclosed by the housing that filters the microphone signal using filter coefficients that are tuned in response to the speech characterization data to generate a filtered speech signal with an attenuated background noise component relative to the user speech component of the microphone signal.
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Accused Products
Abstract
Electronic devices and methods are disclosed that adaptively filter a microphone signal responsive to vibration that is sensed in the face of a user speaking into a microphone of the device. An electronic device can include a microphone, a vibration sensor, a vibration characterization unit, and an adaptive sound filter. The microphone generates a microphone signal that can include a user speech component and a background noise component. The vibration sensor senses vibration of the face while a user speaks into the microphone, and generates a vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the sensed vibration. The vibration characterization unit generates speech characterization data that characterize at least one of the frequency components of the vibration signal that is associated with the speech component of the microphone signal. The adaptive sound filter filters the microphone signal using filter coefficients that are tuned in response to the speech characterization data to generate a filtered speech signal with an attenuated background noise component relative to the user speech component from the microphone signal.
40 Citations
21 Claims
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1. An electronic device comprising:
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a microphone that is configured to generate a microphone signal responsive to incident sound, the microphone signal including a user speech component and a background noise component; a housing enclosing the microphone, wherein the housing is positioned adjacent to and extends along a cheek of a user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone to generate the speech component of the microphone signal and while positioning another portion of the housing adjacent to the user'"'"'s ear; a vibration sensor enclosed by the housing that is configured to sense vibration of an external portion of the user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone and to generate a vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the sensed vibration; a vibration characterization unit enclosed by the housing that is configured to generate speech characterization data that characterize at least one of the frequency components of the vibration signal that is associated with the speech component of the microphone signal; and an adaptive sound filter enclosed by the housing that filters the microphone signal using filter coefficients that are tuned in response to the speech characterization data to generate a filtered speech signal with an attenuated background noise component relative to the user speech component of the microphone signal. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12)
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13. A method comprising:
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operating a circuit to sense vibration of an external portion of a user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into a microphone and to generate a vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the sensed vibration, wherein the microphone is enclosed by a housing that extends along a cheek of the user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone and while positioning another portion of the housing adjacent to the user'"'"'s ear; generating speech characterization data that characterize at least one of the frequency components of the vibration signal that is associated with a speech component of a microphone signal generated by the microphone responsive to incident sound; and adaptively filtering the microphone signal using filter coefficients that are tuned in response to the speech characterization data to generate a filtered speech signal with an attenuated background noise component relative to the speech component of the microphone signal. - View Dependent Claims (14, 15, 16)
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17. An electronic device comprising:
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a microphone that is configured to generate a microphone signal responsive to incident sound, the microphone signal including a user speech component and a background noise component; a housing enclosing the microphone, the housing positioned adjacent to and extending along a cheek of a user'"'"'s face who is speaking into the microphone while positioning another portion of the housing adjacent to the user'"'"'s ear, the housing having a raised edge portion that projects away from a major portion of a front surface of the housing to urge contact with an external portion of the user'"'"'s face who is speaking into the microphone; a vibration sensor attached to an inner surface of the raised edge portion of the housing and configured to sense vibration conducted from the external portion of the face of the user through the housing to the vibration sensor and to generate a vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the sensed vibration; a vibration characterization unit that includes a plurality of band pass filters, each configured to pass-through a different narrow frequency bandwidth component of the vibration signal; and an adaptive sound filter that filters the microphone signal using filter coefficients that are tuned in response to the magnitude of each of the narrow frequency bandwidth components passed through the respective band pass filters to generate a filtered speech signal with an attenuated background noise component relative to the user speech component of the microphone signal. - View Dependent Claims (18)
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19. An electronic device comprising:
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a microphone that is configured to generate a microphone signal responsive to incident sound, the microphone signal including a user speech component and a background noise component; a housing enclosing the microphone, wherein the housing is positioned adjacent to and extends along a cheek of a user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone to generate the speech component of the microphone signal and while positioning another portion of the housing adjacent to the user'"'"'s ear; a vibration sensor that is configured to sense vibration of an external portion of the user'"'"'s face while the user speaks into the microphone and to generate a vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the sensed vibration, wherein the vibration sensor comprises; a light source that is configured to generate coherent light that is modulated by a known signal waveform to illuminate adjacent external facial skin of the user speaking into the microphone; a light sensor that is configured to generate a sensed light signal in response to sensing reflection of the light from the adjacent external facial skin, the sensed light signal being modulated by vibration of the illuminated external facial skin; and a comparison circuit that is configured to compare the known signal waveform to the sensed light signal to generate the vibration signal containing frequency components that are indicative of the vibration of the illuminated external facial skin of the user; a vibration characterization unit that is configured to generate speech characterization data that characterize at least one of the frequency components of the vibration signal that is associated with the speech component of the microphone signal; and an adaptive sound filter that filters the microphone signal using filter coefficients that are tuned in response to the speech characterization data to generate a filtered speech signal with an attenuated background noise component relative to the user speech component of the microphone signal. - View Dependent Claims (20, 21)
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Specification