US 10,255,898 B1 · Audio noise reduction using synchronized recordings

Abstract

Audio recorded by a cellphone or other portable recording device (e.g., audio recorded as part of a video recording of a play or other event) is often of low quality, due to the limitations of the portable recording device. Multiple audio recordings, made during the same period of time and near the same location, can be combined to generate an improved-quality audio recording of an event. The audio recordings may be accessible to a server that selects the audio recordings and performs the combination. To protect the privacy of persons whose audio is used, more than a minimum number of recordings could be combined and/or no more than a threshold amount of any one recording could be used to generate a combined recording. Additionally, a provided ‘clean’ recording could include more than a threshold amount of the audio provided by a user or device that requests such a ‘clean’ recording.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A method comprising:

receiving a target audio signal from a requestor device, wherein the target audio signal comprises information indicative of sound sampled during a first period of time, wherein the first period of time comprises a plurality of time segments;
obtaining a set of source audio signals, wherein each of the source audio signals comprises information indicative of sound sampled during at least a portion of the first period of time;
for each time segment of the target audio signal, generating a respective segment of clean audio based on temporally-corresponding segments of the audio signals of the set of source audio signals;
smoothing the generated segments of clean audio to generate a smoothed audio signal;
combining the target audio signal with the smoothed audio signal to generate an output audio signal;
and
transmitting an indication of the output audio signal to the requestor device.

4 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium, having stored thereon program instructions that, upon execution by a computing device, cause the computing device to perform operations comprising:

receiving a target audio signal from a requestor device, wherein the target audio signal comprises information indicative of sound sampled during a first period of time, wherein the first period of time comprises a plurality of time segments;
obtaining a set of source audio signals, wherein each of the source audio signals comprises information indicative of sound sampled during at least a portion of the first period of time;
for each time segment of the target audio signal, generating a respective segment of clean audio based on temporally-corresponding segments of the audio signals of the set of source audio signals;
smoothing the generated segments of clean audio to generate a smoothed audio signal;
combining the target audio signal with the smoothed audio signal to generate an output audio signal;
and
transmitting an indication of the output audio signal to the requestor device.

4 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Audio noise reduction using synchronized recordings

Life of this patent

Audio noise reduction using synchronized recordings

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20