Audio capture apparatus

• US 9,820,037 B2
• Filed: 08/04/2016
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/14/2012
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Nokia Technologies Oy (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Virolainen, Jussi
• Primary Examiner(s): Gauthier, Gerald
• Application Number:
  US15/228,408
• Publication Number:
  US 20160345092A1
• Time in Patent Office: 467 Days
• Field of Search: 381 17, 381 92, 381303, 381 57, 381 72, 381 74, 381310, 257 57, 257428, 34028605, 340540, 340552, 345156, 345473, 348 1408, 348 46, 348 47, 367121, 370261, 382154, 386200, 386278, 4554561, 7042001, 715800, 725 10
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/008 Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/15 Conference systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/08 Mouthpieces; Microphones; Attachments therefor
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2203/00 Details of circuits for transducers, loudspeakers or microphones covered by H04R3/00 but not provided for in any of its subgroups
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/10 General applications
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/04 for correcting frequency response
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 2400/15 Aspects of sound capture and related signal processing for recording or reproduction
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/303 Tracking of listener position or orientation

Abstract

An apparatus comprising: an audio signal analyzer configured to analyze at least one audio signal to determine at least one audio component with an associated orientation parameter; a reference definer configured to define at least one of: a reference orientation for an apparatus; and a reference position for the apparatus; a directional determiner configured to determine a direction value based on the reference orientation/position for the apparatus and at least one of: an orientation of the apparatus; a position of the apparatus; an orientation of a further apparatus co-operating with the apparatus; and a position of the further apparatus; and a directional processor configured to process at least one associated directional parameter for the at least one audio component dependent on the direction value.

Claims

1. An apparatus comprising at least one processor and at least one memory including computer code for one or more programs, the at least one memory and the computer code configured to with the at least one processor cause the apparatus to at least:

analyze at least one audio signal recorded by a recording apparatus to determine at least one audio component with an associated orientation parameter;

define at least one of a reference orientation for the recording apparatus and a reference position for the recording apparatus;

determine a direction value based on the at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position for the recording apparatus, and at least one of a current orientation of the recording apparatus, a current position of the recording apparatus, an orientation of a playback apparatus and a position of the playback apparatus;

process at least one associated directional parameter for the at least one audio component dependent on the determined direction value to compensate for at least one of orientation changes of the recording apparatus during the recording of the at least one audio signal, position changes of the recording apparatus during the recording of the at least one audio signal, orientation changes of the playback apparatus, and position changes of the playback apparatus; and

generating at least one output signal depending on the at least one audio signal and the processed at least one associated directional parameter.

2. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer code configured to with the at least one processor cause the apparatus to further store the processed at least one associated directional parameter.

3. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer code configured to with the at least one processor cause the apparatus to further generate at least one audio signal depending on the processed at least one associated directional parameter for playing on the playback apparatus.

4. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus comprises one of the recording apparatus and the playback apparatus.

5. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is separate from the recording apparatus and the playback apparatus.

6. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one audio signal is recorded from a microphone array;

and wherein the determined direction value is further determined based on at least one of an orientation of the microphone array and a position of the microphone array.

7. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the determined direction value is determined based on at least one of:

an orientation change of the recording apparatus with respect to at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position; and

an orientation change of the playback apparatus with respect to at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position.

8. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the at least one memory and the computer code configured to with the at least one processor cause the apparatus to further:

identify at least two separate audio channels;

generate at least one audio signal frame comprising a selection of audio signal samples from the at least two separate audio channels;

convert the at least one audio signal frame by a time-to-frequency domain conversion to generate a frequency domain representation of the at least one audio signal frame for the at least two separate audio channels;

filter the frequency domain representation into at least two sub-band frequency domain representations for the at least two separate audio channels;

compare at least two sub-band frequency domain representation for the at least two separate audio channels to determine a common audio component; and

determine an orientation parameter for the common audio component relative to the recording apparatus.

9. The apparatus as claimed in claim 1, wherein the apparatus is the recording apparatus, and further comprising at least one sensor to determine at least one of the reference orientation, the reference position, the current orientation of the recording apparatus, the current position of the recording apparatus, the orientation of the playback apparatus and the position of the playback apparatus.

10. A method, comprising the steps of:

analyzing at least one audio signal recorded by a recording apparatus to determine at least one audio component with an associated orientation parameter;

defining at least one of a reference orientation for the recording apparatus and a reference position for the recording apparatus;

determining a direction value based on the at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position for the recording apparatus, and at least one of a current orientation of the recording apparatus, a current position of the recording apparatus, an orientation of a playback apparatus and a position of the playback apparatus;

processing at least one associated directional parameter for the at least one audio component dependent on the determined direction value to compensate for at least one of orientation changes of the recording apparatus during the recording of the at least one audio signal, position changes of the recording apparatus during the recording of the at least one audio signal, orientation changes of the playback apparatus, and position changes of the playback apparatus; and

generating at least one output signal depending on the at least one audio signal and the processed at least one associated directional parameter.

11. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the step of storing the processed at least one associated directional parameter.

12. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the step of generating at least one audio signal depending on the processed at least one associated directional parameter for playing on the playback apparatus.

13. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the at least one audio signal is recorded from a microphone array;

and wherein the determined direction value is further determined based on at least one of an orientation of the microphone array and a position of the microphone array.

14. The method as claimed in claim 10, wherein the determined direction value is determined based on at least one of:

an orientation change of the recording apparatus with respect to at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position; and

an orientation change of the playback apparatus with respect to at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position.

15. The method as claimed in claim 10, further comprising the steps of:

identifying at least two separate audio channels;

generating at least one audio signal frame comprising a selection of audio signal samples from the at least two separate audio channels;

converting the at least one audio signal frame by a time-to-frequency domain conversion to generate a frequency domain representation of the at least one audio signal frame for the at least two separate audio channels;

filtering the frequency domain representation into at least two sub-band frequency domain representations for the at least two separate audio channels;

comparing at least two sub-band frequency domain representation for the at least two separate audio channels to determine a common audio component; and

determining an orientation parameter for the common audio component relative to the recording apparatus.

16. A computer program product embodied in a non-transitory computer memory and comprising instructions the execution of which by a processor results in performing operations that comprise:

analyzing at least one audio signal recorded by a recording apparatus to determine at least one audio component with an associated orientation parameter;

defining at least one of a reference orientation for the recording apparatus and a reference position for the recording apparatus;

determining a direction value based on the at least one of the reference orientation and the reference position for the recording apparatus, and at least one of a current orientation of the recording apparatus, a current position of the recording apparatus, an orientation of a playback apparatus and a position of the playback apparatus;

processing at least one associated directional parameter for the at least one audio component dependent on the determined direction value to compensate for at least one of orientation changes of the recording apparatus during the recording of the at least one audio signal, position changes of the recording apparatus during the recording of the at least one audio signal, orientation changes of the playback apparatus, and position changes of the playback apparatus; and

generating at least one output signal depending on the at least one audio signal and the processed at least one associated directional parameter.

17. The computer program product as claimed in claim 16, further comprising performing storing the processed at least one associated directional parameter.

18. The computer program product as claimed in claim 16, further comprising performing generating at least one audio signal depending on the processed at least one associated directional parameter for playing on the playback apparatus.

19. The computer program product as claimed in claim 16, wherein the at least one audio signal is recorded from a microphone array;

and wherein the determined direction value is further determined based on at least one of an orientation of the microphone array and a position of the microphone array.

20. The method as claimed in claim 16, further comprising performing:

identifying at least two separate audio channels;

generating at least one audio signal frame comprising a selection of audio signal samples from the at least two separate audio channels;

converting the at least one audio signal frame by a time-to-frequency domain conversion to generate a frequency domain representation of the at least one audio signal frame for the at least two separate audio channels;

filtering the frequency domain representation into at least two sub-band frequency domain representations for the at least two separate audio channels;

comparing at least two sub-band frequency domain representation for the at least two separate audio channels to determine a common audio component; and

determining an orientation parameter for the common audio component relative to the recording apparatus.