System and method for temporal and power based zone detection in speaker dependent microphone environments

• US 10,332,545 B2
• Filed: 11/28/2017
• Issued: 06/25/2019
• Est. Priority Date: 11/28/2017
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Cerence Operating Company (Cerence Inc.)
• Original Assignee: Nuance Communications, Inc. (Microsoft Corporation)
• Inventors: Matheja, Timo, Buck, Markus, Graf, Simon
• Primary Examiner(s): Yen, Eric
• Application Number:
  US15/823,874
• Publication Number:
  US 20190164568A1
• Time in Patent Office: 574 Days
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/22 Procedures used during a speech recognition process, e.g. man-machine dialogue
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02165 Two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the other one mainly the speech signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2025/783 based on threshold decision
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2025/786 Adaptive threshold
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/21 the extracted parameters being power information
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/84 for discriminating voice from noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/003 Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/005 Audio distribution systems for home, i.e. multi-room use
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2227/009 Signal processing in [PA] systems to enhance the speech intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 27/00 Public address systems circuits for preventing acoustic reaction H04R3/02; circuits for distributing signals to loudspeakers H04R3/12; monitoring or testing arrangements for public address systems H04R29/007; amplifiers H03F
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A method, computer program product, and computer system for receiving, by a computing device, a speech signal from a speaker via a plurality of microphone zones. A temporal cue based confidence may be determined for at least a portion of the plurality of microphone zones. A power cue based confidence may be determined for at least a portion of the plurality of microphone zones. A microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which to use an output signal of the speaker may be identified based upon, at least in part, a combination of the temporal cue based confidence and the power cue based confidence.

Claims

1. A computer-implemented method comprising:

receiving, by a computing device, a speech signal from a speaker via a plurality of microphone zones;

determining temporal cue based confidence for at least a portion of the plurality of microphone zones;

determining power cue based confidence for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones, wherein the at least the portion includes at least two zones of the plurality of zones;

identifying a microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which the speech signal originates from the speaker, based upon, at least in part, a combination of the temporal cue based confidence determined for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones and the power cue based confidence determined for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones; and

using the speech signal from the identified microphone zone as an output signal in a speech system;

wherein the identifying includes comparing the temporal cue based confidence and the power cue based confidence, and wherein the identifying further includes selecting the temporal cue based confidence to identify the microphone zone when the temporal cue based confidence is higher than the power cue based confidence.

2. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the identifying the microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which the speech signal originates from the speaker further includes selecting the power cue based confidence to identify the microphone zone when the power cue based confidence is higher than the temporal cue based confidence.

3. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, a signal-to-noise ratio.

4. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, evaluation of a sign of an imaginary part of a delta phase in different frequency sub-bands in a sub-band domain.

5. The computer-implemented method of claim 1 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, an observed delay being one of greater than and less than a pre-defined delay.

6. A computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable storage medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed across one or more processors, causes at least a portion of the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving a speech signal from a speaker via a plurality of microphone zones;

determining temporal cue based confidence for at least a portion of the plurality of microphone zones;

determining power cue based confidence for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones, wherein the at least the portion includes at least two zones of the plurality of zones;

identifying a microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which the speech signal originates from the speaker, based upon, at least in part, a combination of the temporal cue based confidence determined for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones and the power cue based confidence determined for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones; and

using the speech signal from the identified microphone zone as an output signal in a speech system;

wherein the identifying includes comparing the temporal cue based confidence and the power cue based confidence, and wherein the identifying further includes selecting the temporal cue based confidence to identify the microphone zone when the temporal cue based confidence is higher than the power cue based confidence.

7. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the identifying the microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which the speech signal originates from the speaker further includes selecting the power cue based confidence to identify the microphone zone when the power cue based confidence is higher than the temporal cue based confidence.

8. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, a signal-to-noise ratio.

9. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, evaluation of a sign of an imaginary part of a delta phase in different frequency sub-bands in a sub-band domain.

10. The computer program product of claim 6 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, an observed delay being one of greater than and less than a pre-defined delay.

11. A computing system including one or more processors and one or more memories configured to perform operations comprising:

receiving a speech signal from a speaker via a plurality of microphone zones;

determining temporal cue based confidence for at least a portion of the plurality of microphone zones;

determining power cue based confidence for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones, wherein the at least the portion includes at least two zones of the plurality of zones;

identifying a microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which the speech signal originates from the speaker, based upon, at least in part, a combination of the temporal cue based confidence determined for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones and the power cue based confidence determined for the at least the portion of the plurality of microphone zones; and

using the speech signal from the identified microphone zone as an output signal in a speech system;

wherein the identifying includes comparing the temporal cue based confidence and the power cue based confidence, and wherein the identifying further includes selecting the temporal cue based confidence to identify the microphone zone when the temporal cue based confidence is higher than the power cue based confidence.

12. The computing system of claim 11 wherein the identifying the microphone zone of the plurality of microphone zones from which the speech signal originates from the speaker further includes selecting the power cue based confidence to identify the microphone zone when the power cue based confidence is higher than the temporal cue based confidence.

13. The computing system of claim 11 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, a signal-to-noise ratio.

14. The computing system of claim 11 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, evaluation of a sign of an imaginary part of a delta phase in different frequency sub-bands in a sub-band domain.

15. The computing system of claim 11 wherein the temporal cue based confidence is based upon, at least in part, an observed delay being one of greater than and less than a pre-defined delay.