Audio Zoom

• US 20110129095A1
• Filed: 10/01/2010
• Published: 06/02/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/02/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Inventors: Solbach, Ludger, Avendano, Carlos
• Granted Patent: US 9,210,503 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 381/63
• CPC Class Codes: H04M 1/03 Constructional features of telephone transmitters or receivers, e.g. telephone hand-sets
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/20 Processing of the output signals of the acoustic transducers of an array for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic H04R2203/12 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/21 Direction finding using differential microphone array [DMA]
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

An audio equivalent of a video zoom feature for video recording and communication applications, as well as video post production processes. The audio zoom may operate in conjunction with a video zoom feature or independently. The audio zoom may be achieved by controlling reverberation effects of a signal, controlling a gain of the signal, as well as controlling the width of a directional beam from which is used to select the particular audio component to focus on. The audio zoom may operate in response to user input, such as a user selection of a particular direction, or automatically based a current environment or other factors.

Claims

1. A method for processing a signal, comprising:

receiving one or more acoustic signals by one or more microphones on a device, each acoustic signal associated with a spatial source within an environment

receiving an indication of a spatial area within the environment;

reducing the energy of acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned outside the spatial area; and

adjusting a reverberation level associated with acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned inside the spatial area based on the indication.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the indication is received from a user of the device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the device has two or more microphones and reducing the energy of acoustic signal components includes:

forming a beam based on the received indication, wherein signal component energy is reduced for acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned outside the beam.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein forming the beam includes controlling the width of the beam

5. The method of claim 1, wherein reducing the energy of acoustic signal components is performed by subtractive cancellation

6. The method of claim 1, wherein reducing the energy of acoustic signal components is performed by multiplicative expansion or multiplicative cancellation.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein reducing the energy of acoustic signal components includes selecting a region based on two or more fixed beam patterns.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a reverberation level includes decreasing the reverberation level in response to an indication to decrease the spatial area.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein adjusting a reverberation level includes increasing the reverberation level in response to an indication to increases the spatial area.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising applying a gain to the acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned inside the spatial area

12. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the indication is received from a user of the device.

13. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein the device has two or more microphones and reducing the energy of acoustic signal components includes:

forming a beam based on the received indication, wherein signal component energy is reduced for acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned outside the beam.

14. The computer readable storage medium of claim 3, wherein forming the beam includes controlling the width of the beam

15. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reducing the energy of acoustic signal components is performed by subtractive cancellation

16. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reducing the energy of acoustic signal components is performed by multiplicative expansion or multiplicative cancellation.

17. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein reducing the energy of acoustic signal components includes selecting a region based on two or more fixed beam patterns.

18. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein adjusting a reverberation level includes decreasing the reverberation level in response to an indication to decrease the spatial area.

19. The computer readable storage medium of claim 1, wherein adjusting a reverberation level includes increasing the reverberation level in response to an indication to increases the spatial area.

11. A computer readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program, the program being executable by a processor to perform an audio zoom method, the method comprising:

receiving one or more acoustic signals by one or more microphones on a device, each acoustic signal associated with a spatial source within an environment

receiving an indication of a spatial area within the environment;

reducing the energy of acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned outside the spatial area; and

adjusting a reverberation level associated with acoustic signal components associated with a source positioned inside the spatial area based on the indication.

20. A system for performing noise reduction in an audio signal, the system comprising:

a memory;

a beamformer module stored in the memory and executed by a processor to identify sub-band signals associated with an audio source within a spatial area associated with an audio source to zoom in; and

a reverb module stored in the memory and executed by a processor to cancel at least a portion of the sub-band signals.