METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING MICROPHONE BEAMFORMING

• US 20120065973A1
• Filed: 09/13/2011
• Published: 03/15/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Original Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.
• Inventors: Cho, Sung-Jae, Kim, Hyun-Soo
• Granted Patent: US 9,330,673 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/246
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 40/20 Movements or behaviour, e.g. gesture recognition recognition of facial expressions G06V40/16
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/25 using position of the lips, movement of the lips or face analysis
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 17/00 Speaker identification or verification techniques
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/00 Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility G10L19/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/406 microphones
• 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 29/005 Microphone arrays

Abstract

A method and apparatus for performing microphone beamforming. The method includes recognizing a speech of a speaker, searching for a previously stored image associated with the speaker, searching for the speaker through a camera based on the image, recognizing a position of the speaker, and performing microphone beamforming according to the position of the speaker.

Claims

1. A method of performing microphone beamforming, the method comprising:

recognizing a speech of a speaker;

searching for a previously stored image associated with the speaker;

searching for the speaker through a camera based on the image;

recognizing a position of the speaker; and

performing microphone beamforming according to the position of the speaker.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the recognizing of the speech of the speaker comprises:

receiving a speech signal from the speaker;

extracting a section including a predetermined speech signal from the speech signal; and

identifying the speaker based on the section.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein the identifying of the speaker comprises identifying the speaker by comparing the predetermined speech signal with speech signals that are previously acquired from one or more speakers and stored.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the searching of the speaker comprises extracting an object corresponding to the speaker from image data acquired through the camera by comparing the image data acquired through the camera with previously stored image data associated with one or more speakers.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the recognizing of the position comprises determining whether the position of the speaker is changed to a changed position based on information about the object,

wherein the performing of the microphone beamforming comprises adaptively performing the microphone beamforming according to the changed position if the position of the speaker is changed to the changed position.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the performing of the microphone beamforming comprises amplifying a speech generated in an area, from among a plurality of areas, where the speaker is located, and decreasing speeches generated in other areas.

7. An apparatus for performing microphone beamforming, the apparatus comprising:

a speech recognizing unit configured to recognize a speech of a speaker;

an image searching unit configured to search for a previously stored image associated with the speaker which is;

a speaker searching unit configured to search for the speaker through a camera based on the image;

a position recognizing unit configured to recognize a position of the speaker; and

a beamforming performing unit configured to perform microphone beamforming according to the position of the speaker.

8. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the speech recognizing unit comprises:

a speech signal receiving unit configured to receive a speech signal from the speaker;

a speech extracting unit configured to extract a section including a predetermined speech signal from the speech signal; and

an identifying unit configured to identify the speaker based on the section.

9. The apparatus of claim 8, wherein the identifying unit identifies the speaker by comparing the predetermined speech signal with speech signals that are previously acquired from one or more speakers and stored.

10. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the speaker searching unit extracts an object corresponding to the speaker from image data acquired through the camera by comparing the image data acquired through the camera with previously stored image data associated with one or more speakers.

11. The apparatus of claim 9, wherein the position recognizing unit determines whether the position of the speaker is changed to a changed position based on the image acquired through the camera,

wherein the beamforming performing unit adaptively performs microphone beamforming according to the changed position.

12. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the beamforming performing unit amplifies a speech generated in an area, from among a plurality of areas, where the speaker is located, and decreases speeches in other areas.

13. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the image searching unit searches for the previously stored image in a database in the apparatus.

14. The apparatus of claim 7, wherein the image searching unit searches for the previously stored image using a search engine on a network.

15. A computer-readable recording medium encoded with computer-executable instructions that when executed cause a data processing system to perform the steps of:

recognizing a speech of a speaker;

searching for a previously stored image associated with the speaker;

searching for the speaker through a camera based on the image;

recognizing a position of the speaker; and

performing microphone beamforming according to the position of the speaker.

16. The computer-readable recording medium of claim 15, wherein the recognizing of the speech of the speaker comprises:

receiving a speech signal from the speaker;

extracting a section including a predetermined speech signal from the speech signal; and

identifying the speaker based on the section.

17. The computer-readable recording medium of claim 16, wherein the identifying of the speaker comprises identifying the speaker by comparing the predetermined speech signal with speech signals that are previously acquired from one or more speakers and stored.

18. The computer-readable recording medium of claim 15, wherein the searching of the speaker comprises extracting an object corresponding to the speaker from image data acquired through the camera by comparing the image data acquired through the camera with previously stored image data associated with one or more speakers.

19. The computer-readable recording medium of claim 18, wherein the recognizing of the position comprises determining whether the position of the speaker is changed to a changed position based on information about the object,

wherein the performing of the microphone beamforming comprises adaptively performing the microphone beamforming according to the changed position if the position of the speaker is changed to the changed position.

20. The computer-readable recording medium of claim 15, wherein the performing of the microphone beamforming comprises amplifying a speech generated in an area, from among a plurality of areas, where the speaker is located, and decreasing speeches generated in other areas.