Stereo separation and directional suppression with omni-directional microphones

• US 9,820,042 B1
• Filed: 05/02/2016
• Issued: 11/14/2017
• Est. Priority Date: 05/02/2016
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd. (Samsung Group)
• Original Assignee: Knowles Electronics Llc (Knowles Corporation)
• Inventors: Ray, Jonathon, Woodruff, John, Sakri, Shailesh, Verma, Tony
• Primary Examiner(s): King, Simon
• Application Number:
  US15/144,631
• Publication Number:
  US 20170318387A1
• Time in Patent Office: 561 Days
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 1/326 for microphones H04R1/34 and H04R1/40 take precedence
• 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 2499/11 Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 2499/15 Transducers incorporated in visual displaying devices, e.g. televisions, computer displays, laptops
• 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 1/002 Non-adaptive circuits, e.g. manually adjustable or static, for enhancing the sound image or the spatial distribution control circuits for electronic adaptation of the sound field H04S7/30

Abstract

Systems and methods for stereo separation and directional suppression are provided. An example method includes receiving a first audio signal, representing sound captured by a first microphone associated with a first location, and a second audio signal, representing sound captured by a second microphone associated with a second location. The microphones comprise omni-directional microphones. The distance between the first and second microphones is limited by the size of a mobile device. A first channel signal of a stereo signal is generated by forming, based on the first and second audio signals, a first beam at the first location. A second channel signal of the stereo signal is generated by forming, based on the first and second audio signals, a second beam at the second location. First and second directions, associated respectively with the first and second beams, are fixed relative to a line between the first and second locations.

Claims

1. A method for providing stereo separation and directional suppression, the method comprising:

configuring a processor to receive at least a first audio signal and a second audio signal, the first audio signal representing sound captured by a first microphone associated with a first location and the second audio signal representing sound captured by a second microphone associated with a second location, the first microphone and the second microphone comprising omni-directional microphones of a mobile device, the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone being limited by the size of the mobile device;

configuring the processor to generate a first channel signal of a stereo audio signal by forming, based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, a first beam at the first location; and

configuring the processor to generate a second channel signal of the stereo audio signal by forming, based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, a second beam at the second location,

wherein forming one or both of the first beam and the second beam includes;

attenuating the first audio signal by a first attenuation factor;

subtracting the attenuated first audio signal from the second audio signal to produce a first summed signal;

attenuating the first summed signal by a second attenuation factor; and

subtracting the attenuated first summed signal from the first audio signal to produce a second summed signal.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first microphone is located at the top of the mobile device and the second microphone is located at the bottom of the mobile device.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein a first direction, associated with the first beam, and a second direction, associated with the second beam, are determined during processing to form the first and second beams.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein:

forming the first beam includes reducing signal energy of acoustic signal components associated with sources off the first beam; and

forming the second beam includes reducing signal energy of acoustic signal components associated with further sources off the second beam.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein reducing energy components is performed by a subtractive suppression.

6. The method of claim 4, further comprising configuring the processor to receive at least one other acoustic signal representing sound captured by another microphone associated with another location, the other microphone comprising an omni-directional microphone, and the forming the first beam and the forming the second beam each being further based on the at least one other acoustic signal.

7. The method of claim 6, wherein the other microphone is located at a position on the mobile device other than on a line between the first microphone and the second microphone.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein a first audio source at the first location is associated with the first microphone by the first audio source being located closer to the first microphone.

9. The method of claim 8, wherein a second audio source at the second location is associated with the second microphone by the second audio source being located closer to the second microphone.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the first microphone and the second microphone include microphones having an acoustic overload point (AOP) higher than a predetermined sound pressure level.

11. The method of claim 10, wherein the pre-determined sound pressure level is 120 decibels.

12. The method of claim 1, wherein the first and second attenuation factors are determined based on a direction of an audio source of one or both of the first audio signal and the second audio signal.

13. A system for stereo separation and directional suppression, the system comprising:

at least one processor; and

a memory communicatively coupled with the at least one processor, the memory storing instructions, which when executed by the at least one processor, perform a method comprising;

receiving at least a first audio signal and a second audio signal, the first audio signal representing sound captured by a first microphone associated with a first location and the second audio signal representing sound captured by a second microphone associated with a second location, the first microphone and the second microphone comprising omnidirectional microphones of a mobile device, the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone being limited by the size of the mobile device;

generating a first channel signal of a stereo audio signal by forming, based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, a first beam at the first location; and

generating a second channel signal of the stereo audio signal by forming, based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, a second beam at the second location,

wherein forming one or both of the first beam and the second beam includes;

attenuating the first audio signal by a first attenuation factor;

subtracting the attenuated first audio signal from the second audio signal to produce a first summed signal;

attenuating the first summed signal by a second attenuation factor; and

subtracting the attenuated first summed signal from the first audio signal to produce a second summed signal.

14. The system of claim 13, wherein the first microphone is located at the top of the mobile device and the second microphone is located at the bottom of the mobile device.

15. The system of claim 13, wherein a first direction associated with the first beam and a second direction associated with the second beam are determined during processing to form the first and second beams.

16. The system of claim 13, wherein:

forming the first beam includes reducing signal energy of acoustic signal components associated with sources off the first beam; and

forming the second beam includes reducing signal energy of acoustic signal components associated with further sources off the second beam.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein reducing energy components is performed by a subtractive suppression.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the method further comprises receiving at least one other acoustic signal representing sound captured by another microphone associated with another location, the other microphone comprising an omni-directional microphone, and the forming the first beam and the forming the second beam each being further based on the other acoustic signal.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the other microphone is located at a position on the mobile device other than on a line between the first microphone and the second microphone.

20. The system of claim 13, wherein the first audio source at the first location is associated with the first microphone by the first audio source being located closer to the first microphone, and the second audio source at the second location is associated with the second microphone by the second audio source being located closer to the second microphone.

21. The system of claim 13, wherein the first microphone and the second microphone include microphones having an acoustic overload point (AOP) greater than a predetermined sound pressure level.

22. The system of claim 21, wherein the pre-determined sound pressure level is 120 decibels.

23. The system of claim 13, wherein the first and second attenuation factors are determined based on a direction of an audio source of one or both of the first audio signal and the second audio signal.

24. A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon instructions, which when executed by at least one processor, perform steps of a method for stereo separation and directional suppression, the method comprising:

receiving at least a first audio signal and a-second audio signal, the first audio signal representing sound captured by a first microphone associated with a first location and the second audio signal representing sound captured by a second microphone associated with a second location, the first microphone and the second microphone comprising omnidirectional microphones of a mobile device, the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone being limited by the size of the mobile device;

generating a first channel signal of a stereo audio signal by forming, based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, a first beam at the first location; and

generating a second channel signal of the stereo audio signal by forming, based on the first audio signal and the second audio signal, a second beam at the second location,

wherein forming one or both of the first beam and the second beam includes;

attenuating the first audio signal by a first attenuation factor;

subtracting the attenuated first audio signal from the second audio signal to produce a first summed signal;

attenuating the first summed signal by a second attenuation factor; and

subtracting the attenuated first summed signal from the first audio signal to produce a second summed signal.