ACTIVE NOISE CANCELLATION APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR IMPROVING VOICE RECOGNITION PERFORMANCE

• US 20170032806A1
• Filed: 07/29/2015
• Published: 02/02/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 07/29/2015
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Original Assignee: Harman International Industries Incorporated (Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd.)
• Inventors: HAMPIHOLI, Vallabha Vasant, KONJETI, Srikanth
• Granted Patent: US 9,704,509 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17813 characterised by the analysis of the acoustic paths, e.g. estimating, calibrating or testing of transfer functions or cross-terms
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17854 the filter being an adaptive filter
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17857 Geometric disposition, e.g. placement of microphones
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17883 the reference signal being derived from a machine operating condition, e.g. engine RPM or vehicle speed
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 11/17885 additionally using a desired external signal, e.g. pass-through audio such as music or speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/1082 Microphones, e.g. systems using "virtual" microphones
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/1282 Automobiles
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3028 Filtering, e.g. Kalman filters or special analogue or digital filters
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3044 Phase shift, e.g. complex envelope processing
• CPC Class Codes: G10K 2210/3225 Radio or other sources used in ANC for transfer function estimation; Means to avoid interference between desired signals, e.g. from a car stereo, and the ANC signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/20 Speech recognition techniques specially adapted for robustness in adverse environments, e.g. in noise, of stress induced speech G10L21/02 takes precedence
• 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 21/02 Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation reducing echo effects in line transmission systems H04B3/20; echo suppression in hands-free telephones H04M9/08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0208 Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/84 for discriminating voice from noise
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2410/05 Noise reduction with a separate noise microphone
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

In at least one embodiment, a vehicle active noise cancellation (ANC) apparatus including an ANC controller is disclosed. The ANC controller is operably coupled to at least one error microphone. The ANC controller is configured to receive a first signal indicative of environmental noise that propagates through a vehicle cabin and that is received at a voice recognition (VR) microphone and to generate a noise cancellation wave to remove the environmental noise, the noise cancellation wave being received at the VR microphone. The ANC controller is configured to receive an audio output from the at least one error microphone that is at least indicative of the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave received at the VR microphone and to apply at least one correction filter to the audio output to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone.

Claims

1. A vehicle active noise cancellation (ANC) apparatus comprising:

an ANC controller including memory for being operably coupled to at least one error microphone, the ANC controller being configured to;

receive a first signal indicative of environmental noise that propagates through a vehicle cabin and that is received at a voice recognition (VR) microphone;

generate a noise cancellation wave to remove the environmental noise, the noise cancellation wave being received at the VR microphone;

receive an audio output from the at least one error microphone that is at least indicative of the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave received at the VR microphone; and

apply at least one correction filter from the memory to the audio output to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone.

2. The vehicle ANC apparatus of claim 1 wherein the ANC controller includes a virtual error microphone that is generated during a tuning phase to characterize the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is present at the VR microphone when the at least one error microphone is placed at a location proximate to the VR microphone.

3. The vehicle ANC apparatus of claim 2 wherein the tuning phase corresponds to a vehicle being driven at a plurality of different speeds and on a plurality of roads.

4. The vehicle ANC apparatus of claim 1 wherein the at least one correction filter corresponds to at least one of amplitude, frequency, and phase.

5. The vehicle ANC apparatus of claim 1 wherein the ANC controller includes a normalize circuit configured to apply at least one of an amplitude and frequency to each output of the at least one correction filter.

6. The vehicle ANC apparatus of claim 1 wherein the ANC controller includes an adder circuit to receive an output from the at least one correction filter and to receive an output from a transfer function.

7. The vehicle ANC apparatus of claim 6 wherein the adder circuit is configured to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone based on the adder circuit adding the output from the at least one correction filter and the output from the transfer function.

8. A method for performing active noise cancellation (ANC) in a vehicle, the method comprising:

receiving a first signal indicative of environmental noise that propagates through a vehicle cabin at a voice recognition (VR) microphone;

generating a noise cancellation wave to remove the environmental noise,

receiving the noise cancellation wave at the VR microphone;

receiving an audio output from at least one error microphone positioned in the vehicle that is at least indicative of the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave received at the VR microphone; and

applying at least one correction filter to the audio output to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone.

9. The method of claim 8 further comprising electrically generating a virtual VR error microphone during a tuning phase to characterize the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is present at the VR microphone when the at least one error microphone is placed at a location proximate to the VR microphone.

10. The method of claim 9 wherein the tuning phase corresponds to a vehicle being driven at a plurality of different speeds and on a plurality of roads.

11. The method of claim 8 wherein the at least one correction filter corresponds to at least one of amplitude, frequency, and phase.

12. The method of claim 8 further comprising normalizing each output of the at least one correction filter by applying at least one of an amplitude and a frequency to each output of the at least one correction filter.

13. The method of claim 8 further comprising receiving an output from the at least one correction filter and an output from a transfer function.

14. The method of claim 13 further comprising adding the output from the at least one correction filter and to the output from the transfer function to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone.

15. An active noise cancellation (ANC) apparatus comprising:

a memory; and

an ANC controller including a virtual voice recognition (VR) error microphone generated in a tuning phase that is stored on the memory, the ANC controller for being operably coupled to at least one error microphone, the ANC controller being configured to;

receive a first signal indicative of environmental noise that propagates through an enclosure and that is received at a physical VR microphone;

generate a noise cancellation wave to remove the environmental noise, the noise cancellation wave being received at the VR microphone;

receive an audio output from the at least one error microphone that is at least indicative of the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave received at the VR microphone; and

apply at least one correction filter from the memory to the audio output to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone.

16. The ANC apparatus of claim 15 wherein the virtual VR error microphone is indicative of an actual error microphone that is positioned at a location about the VR microphone in a vehicle during the tuning phase.

17. The ANC apparatus of claim 15 wherein the tuning phase corresponds to a vehicle being driven at a plurality of different speeds and on a plurality of roads.

18. The ANC apparatus of claim 15 wherein the ANC controller includes a normalize circuit configured to apply at least one of an amplitude and frequency to each output of the at least one correction filter.

19. The ANC apparatus of claim 15 wherein the ANC controller includes an adder circuit to receive an output from the at least one correction filter and to receive an output from a transfer function.

20. The ANC apparatus of claim 19 wherein the adder circuit is configured to remove the environmental noise and the noise cancellation wave that is received at the VR microphone based on the adder circuit adding the output from the at least one correction filter and the output from the transfer function.