ACOUSTIC ENHANCEMENT BY LEVERAGING METADATA TO MITIGATE THE IMPACT OF NOISY ENVIRONMENTS

• US 20170372720A1
• Filed: 08/22/2017
• Published: 12/28/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 10/31/2014
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Original Assignee: AT&T Intellectual Property I LP (AT&T, Inc.)
• Inventors: Bowen, Donald J., Dimitriadis, Dimitrios B., Ji, Lusheng, Schroeter, Horst J.
• Granted Patent: US 10,170,133 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• 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 21/0208 Noise filtering

Abstract

A system for cloud acoustic enhancement is disclosed. In particular, the system may leverage metadata and cloud-computing network resources to mitigate the impact of noisy environments that may potentially interfere with user communications. In order to do so, the system may receive an audio stream including an audio signal associated with a user, and determine if the audio stream also includes an interference signal. The system may determine that the audio stream includes the interference signal if a portion of the audio stream correlates with metadata that identifies the interference signal. If the audio stream is determined to include the interference signal, the system may cancel the interference signal from the audio stream by utilizing the metadata and the cloud-computing network resources. Once the interference signal is cancelled, the system may transmit the audio stream including the audio signal associated with the user to an intended destination.

Claims

1. A system, comprising:

a memory that stores instructions;

a processor that executes the instructions to perform operations, the operations comprising;

determining that an audio stream includes an interference signal if a first portion of the audio stream correlates with metadata that identifies the interference signal;

cancelling, if the audio stream is determined to include the interference signal, the interference signal from the audio stream, wherein the interference signal is cancelled from the audio stream by utilizing orientation data corresponding to a device of a user associated with the audio stream and a location of an interferer utilizing an interfering device that outputted the interference signal; and

transmitting, after cancelling the interference signal, a remaining portion of the audio stream to an intended destination.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise receiving the audio stream.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise obtaining the orientation data corresponding to the device of the user.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprising determining that the remaining portion of the audio stream includes an audio signal associated with the user.

5. The system of claim 4, wherein the operations further comprise determining that the remaining portion of the audio stream includes the audio signal based on detecting a speech pattern corresponding to the user in the audio stream.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise cancelling the interference signal from the audio stream based on a type of the interfering device.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise cancelling the interference signal from the audio stream based on a noise profile.

8. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise cancelling the interference signal from the audio stream based on a pattern of usage of the interfering device.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise cancelling the interference signal from the audio stream based on the metadata.

10. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise identifying an acoustic parameter for processing the audio stream.

11. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise transmitting, if the audio stream does not include the interference signal, the audio stream directly to the intended destination without performing the cancelling.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise cancelling the interference signal by utilizing spatial filtering.

13. The system of claim 1, wherein the operations further comprise obtaining sensor data from a sensor of the device of the user.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the operations further comprising cancelling the interference signal by utilizing the sensor data.

15. A method, comprising:

determining, by utilizing instructions from a memory that are executed by a processor, that an audio stream includes an interference signal if a first portion of the audio stream correlates with metadata that identifies the interference signal;

cancelling, if the audio stream is determined to include the interference signal, the interference signal from the audio stream, wherein the interference signal is cancelled from the audio stream by utilizing orientation data corresponding to a device of a user associated with the audio stream and a pattern of usage of an interfering device that outputted the interference signal; and

transmitting, after cancelling the interference signal, a remaining portion of the audio stream to an intended destination.

16. The method of claim 15, further comprising transmitting, if the audio stream does not include the interference signal, the audio stream directly to the intended destination without performing the cancelling.

17. The method of claim 15, further comprising cancelling the interference signal by utilizing sensor data obtained from a sensor.

18. The method of claim 15, further comprising identifying an acoustic parameter for processing the audio stream.

19. The method of claim 15, further comprising determining that the remaining portion of the audio stream includes an audio signal associated with the user.

20. A computer-readable device comprising instructions, which when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

determining that an audio stream includes an interference signal if a first portion of the audio stream correlates with metadata that identifies the interference signal;

cancelling, if the audio stream is determined to include the interference signal, the interference signal from the audio stream, wherein the interference signal is cancelled from the audio stream based on a pattern of usage of an interfering device that outputted the interference signal; and

transmitting, after cancelling the interference signal, a remaining portion of the audio stream to an intended destination.