METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR REMOTELY CONTROLLING A MICROPHONE

• US 20140184796A1
• Filed: 12/27/2012
• Published: 07/03/2014
• Est. Priority Date: 12/27/2012
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Original Assignee: Motorola Solutions, Inc.
• Inventors: Klein, David E., Bekiares, Tyrone D., O'Connell, Kevin J.
• Application Number:
  US13/728,376
• Publication Number:
  US 20140184796A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/148
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/41422 located in transportation means, e.g. personal vehicle arrangements specially adapted for transportation systems in broadcast systems H04H20/62
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/42203 sound input device, e.g. microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/4223 Cameras H04N23/00 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 21/44008 involving operations for analysing video streams, e.g. detecting features or characteristics in the video stream arrangements characterised by components specially adapted for monitoring, identification or recognition of video in broadcast systems H04H60/59
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/18 Closed-circuit television [CCTV] systems, i.e. systems in which the video signal is not broadcast
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/13 Acoustic transducers and sound field adaptation in vehicles
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 29/004 for microphones H04R29/007 takes precedence
• 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 and vehicle-based communication system are provided that control a remote microphone by determining that one or more of the remote microphone and a user of the remote microphone is in a field of view (FOV) of a video camera and, in response, instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio. In various embodiments, the remote microphone may configure itself, or be explicitly instructed to configure itself, to receive ambient audio by adjusting one or more of a beam forming or omni-directional pattern, potentially including noise cancellation algorithms to facilitate reception of ambient audio in contrast to user directed audio. When the one or more of the remote microphone and a user of the remote microphone no longer is in a FOV of the video camera, the method and vehicle-based communication system may instruct the remote microphone to reconfigure itself to receive user directed audio.

Claims

1. A method for controlling a remote microphone, the method comprising:

determining that one or more of the remote microphone and a user of the remote microphone is in a field of view (FOV) of a video camera; and

in response to determining that one or more of the remote microphone and the user is in the FOV, instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio.

2. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to instructing the remote microphone to configure itself, configuring the remote microphone to receive ambient audio.

3. The method of claim 2, wherein configuring the remote microphone to receive ambient audio comprises adjusting a beam pattern of the remote microphone.

4. The method of claim 2, wherein configuring the remote microphone to receive ambient audio comprises adjusting a noise cancellation algorithm at the remote microphone.

5. The method of claim 1, further comprising, in response to instructing the remote microphone to configure itself, receiving ambient audio from the remote microphone.

6. The method of claim 5, further comprising storing the received ambient audio in association with corresponding recorded video images.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

subsequent to determining that one or more of the remote microphone and a user of the remote microphone is in a field of view (FOV), determining that the one or more of the remote microphone and the user of the remote microphone no longer is in the FOV; and

in response to determining that the one or more of the remote microphone and the user of the remote microphone no longer is in the FOV, instructing the remote microphone to reconfigure itself to receive user directed audio.

8. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining whether a user is actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone and wherein instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio comprises instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio in response to determining that the user is not actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone.

9. The method of claim 8, further comprising:

subsequent to instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio, determining that the user is actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone; and

in response to determining that the user is actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone, instructing the remote microphone to reconfigure itself to receive user directed audio.

10. The method of claim 1, further comprising determining a video camera has begun recording video images and wherein instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio comprises instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio in response to determining that the video camera has begun recording video images.

11. A vehicle-based communication system capable of controlling a remote microphone, the vehicle-based communication system comprising:

a video camera; and

a processor that is configured to;

determine, by reference to the video camera, that one or more of the remote microphone and a user of the remote microphone is in a field of view (FOV); and

in response to determining that one or more of the remote microphone and the user is in the FOV, instruct the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio.

12. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio by instructing the remote microphone to adjust the beam forming algorithms.

13. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor is configured to instruct the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio by instructing the remote microphone to adjust a noise cancellation algorithm.

14. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor further is configured to, in response to instructing the remote microphone to configure itself, receive ambient audio from the remote microphone.

15. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 14, wherein the vehicle-based communication system further comprising an at least one memory device and wherein the processor further is configured to store, in the at least one memory device, the received ambient audio in association with corresponding video images recorded by, and received from, the video camera.

16. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor further is configured to:

subsequent to determining that one or more of the remote microphone and a user of the remote microphone is in a field of view (FOV), determine that the one or more of the remote microphone and the user of the remote microphone no longer is in the FOV; and

in response to determining that the one or more of the remote microphone and the user of the remote microphone no longer is in the FOV, instruct the remote microphone to reconfigure itself to receive user directed audio.

17. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor further is configured to determine whether a user is actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone and wherein the processor is configured to instruct the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio by instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio in response to determining that the user is not actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone.

18. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 17, wherein the processor further is configured to:

subsequent to instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio, determine that the user is actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone; and

in response to determining that the user is actively engaged in a communication session using the remote microphone, instruct the remote microphone to reconfigure itself to receive user directed audio.

19. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor further is configured to determine that the video camera has begun recording video images and wherein the processor is configured to instruct the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio by instructing the remote microphone to configure itself to receive ambient audio in response to determining that the video camera has begun recording video images.

20. The vehicle-based communication system of claim 11, wherein the processor resides in the video camera.