Sound field spatial stabilizer with structured noise compensation

• US 9,743,179 B2
• Filed: 02/01/2016
• Issued: 08/22/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 06/20/2013
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc. (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Hetherington, Phillip Alan
• Primary Examiner(s): FISCHER, MARK L
• Application Number:
  US15/012,056
• Publication Number:
  US 20160150317A1
• Time in Patent Office: 568 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/01 Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2430/03 Synergistic effects of band splitting and sub-band processing
• 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
• CPC Class Codes: H04S 7/00 Indicating arrangements; Control arrangements, e.g. balance control

Abstract

In a system and method for maintaining the spatial stability of a sound field a balance gain may be calculated for two or more microphone signals. The balance gain may be associated with a spatial image in the sound field. Signal values may be calculated for each of the microphone. The signal values may be signal estimates or signal gains calculated to improve a characteristic of the microphone signals. The differences between the signal values associated with each microphone signal may be limited although some difference between signal values may be allowable. One or more microphone signals are adjusted responsive to the two or more balance gains and the signal gains to maintain the spatial stability of the sound field. The adjustments of one or more microphone signals may include mixing of two or more microphone. The signal gains are applied to the two or more microphone signals.

Claims

1. A method comprising:

determining a spatial image of a sound field received by two or more microphone signals, the determining the spatial image of the sound field comprising measuring an energy level of each of the two or more microphone signals, where each of the two or more microphone signals is from a corresponding one of two or more microphones;

detecting structured noise content in at least one of the two or more microphone signals; and

generating two or more output signals with a circuit by combining at least a portion of a first signal of the two or more microphone signals with a second signal of the two or more microphone signals responsive to the detected structured noise content in the at least one of the two or more microphone signals, where the generating the two or more output signals comprises causing a ratio of energy levels between two of the two or more output signals to match a ratio of the energy levels between two of the two or more microphone signals.

2. The method of claim 1, where generating the two or more output signals further comprises:

combining at least a portion of the second signal of the two or more microphone signals with the first signal of the two or more microphone signals responsive to the detected structured noise content in the at least one of the two or more microphone signals.

3. The method of claim 1, where the determining the spatial image of the sound field received by the two or more microphone signals is responsive to differences between energy levels of the two or more microphone signals.

4. The method of claim 1, where the determining the spatial image of the sound field received by the two or more microphone signals includes calculating balance gains for each of the two or more microphone signals.

5. The method of claim 1, where the detected structured noise content includes any one or more of:

undesirable signal content, wind noise, transient noise, repetitive noise, rain noise and engine noise.

6. The method of claim 1, where the detected structured noise content includes any one or more of tonal noise and impulsive noise.

7. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

calculating one or more signal values for each of the two or more microphone signals, where each of the one or more signal values is characterized as a background noise estimate or one or more signal gains associated with a noise reduction process.

8. The method of claim 7, where a weighting of the at least the portion of the first signal of the two or more microphone signals combined with the second signal of the two or more microphone signals is responsive to the calculated one or more signal values for each of the first signal and the second signal.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising generating a set of sub-bands for each of the two or more microphone signals according to a critical, octave, mel or bark band spacing technique.

10. A system comprising:

a balance calculator hardware configured to determine a spatial image of a sound field received by two or more microphone signals based on a measurement of one or more energy levels for each of the two or more microphone signals, where each of the two or more microphone signals is from a corresponding one of two or more microphones;

a structured noise detector hardware configured to detect structured noise content in at least one of the two or more microphone signals;

a channel mixer hardware configured to combine at least a portion of a first signal of the two or more microphone signals with a second signal of the two or more microphone signals responsive to the detected structured noise content in the at least one of the two or more microphone signals; and

a plurality of gain filters configured to maintain the determined spatial image of the sound field received by the two or more microphone signals in a plurality of output signals by a gain adjustment of the two or more output signals in which a ratio of the energy levels between two of the two or more microphone signals is maintained between two of the two or more output signals, wherein the gain filters are configured to supply the channel mixer hardware or the channel mixer hardware is configured to supply the gain filters, and wherein the gain filters are configured to generate the output signals if the channel mixer hardware is configured to supply the gain filters and the channel mixer hardware is configured to generate the output signals if the gain filters are configured to supply the channel mixer hardware.

11. The system of claim 10, where the balance calculator hardware is configured to determine the spatial image of the sound field received by the two or more microphone signals based on differences between energy levels of the two or more microphone signals.

12. The system of claim 10, where the balance calculator hardware is configured to determine the spatial image of the sound field received by the two or more microphone signals based on a corresponding balance gain calculated for each of the two or more microphone signals.

13. The system of claim 10, where the detected structured noise content includes any one or more of:

undesirable signal content, wind noise, transient noise, repetitive noise, rain noise and engine noise.

14. The system of claim 10, where the detected structured noise content includes any one or more of tonal noise and impulsive noise.

15. The system of claim 10, further comprising:

two or more signal value generators configured to calculate one or more signal values for each of the two or more microphone signals, where each of the one or more signal values is characterized as a background noise estimate or one or more signal gains associated with a noise reduction process.

16. The system of claim 15 further comprising a gain adjuster configured to determine a weight to be applied to the at least the portion of the first signal of the two or more microphone signals and combine the weight with the second signal of the two or more microphone signals responsive to the calculated one or more signal values for each of the first signal and the second signal.

17. The system of claim 10, further comprising a subband filter configured to generate a set of sub-bands for each of the two or more microphone signals according to a critical, octave, mel or bark band spacing technique.

18. A non-transitory computer readable medium comprising program instructions for causing a processor to:

determine a spatial image of a sound field received by two or more microphone signals, where each of the two or more microphone signals is from a corresponding one of two or more microphones;

detect structured noise content for at least one of the two or more microphone signals;

generate two or more output signals based on a combination of at least a portion of a first signal of the two or more microphone signals with a second signal of the two or more microphone signals responsive to the structured noise content detected for the at least one of the two or more microphone signals; and

maintain the determined spatial image of the sound field received by the two or more microphone signals in the two or more output signals by causing a ratio of energy levels between two of the two or more output signals to match a ratio of the energy levels between two of the two or more microphone signals.