# US 10,873,806 B2 · Acoustic processing apparatus, acoustic processing system, acoustic processing method, and storage medium > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 10,873,806 B2 - Document ID: US10873806B2 - Status: Granted - Kind: B2 - Application number: 16/549,966 - Filed: 2019-08-23 - Published: 2019-12-12 - Granted: 2020-12-22 - Earliest claimed: 2017-08-30 - Assignees: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha - Applicants: Canon Kabushiki Kaisha - Inventors: Katsumasa Tanaka - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US10873806B2 ## CPC - H04R 3/005: {for combining the signals of two or more microphones (specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407)} - G10L 19/008: Multichannel audio signal coding or decoding using interchannel correlation to reduce redundancy, e.g. joint-stereo, intensity-coding or matrixing - H04R 1/40: by combining a number of identical transducers {(specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/405)} - H04R: LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS (producing sounds with frequency not determined by supply frequency G10K) - G10L: SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING ## Abstract An acoustic processing apparatus includes a detection unit configured to detect a change in a state of a microphone, and a determination unit configured to determine a parameter to be used in acoustic signal generation by a generation unit configured to generate an acoustic signal based on one or more of a plurality of channels of sound collection signals acquired based on sound collection by a plurality of microphones, wherein in a case where a change in at least any of states of the plurality of microphones is detected by the detection unit, the determination unit determines the parameter based on the states of the plurality of microphones after the change. ## Claims ### Claim 1 An audio processing apparatus comprising: one or more hardware processors; and one or more memories which store instructions executable by the one or more hardware processors to cause the audio processing apparatus to perform at least: detecting states of a plurality of microphones; specifying a specific position associated with audio data to be generated by synthesizing collected sound data obtained by two or more microphones at different positions among the plurality of microphones, wherein a sound supposed to be heard at the specific position is produced based on the audio data associated with the specific position; and determining a parameter to be used for synthesizing the collected sound data to generate the audio data associated with the specific position, wherein in accordance with a change in a state of a microphone included in the plurality of microphones, the parameter is determined based on the specific position and states of the plurality of microphones detected after the change. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in accordance with the change in the state of the microphone, the parameter is determined based on states of the plurality of microphones detected before the change in addition to the specific position and the states of the plurality of microphones detected after the change. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein in the detecting, at least one of a position and an orientation of a microphone is detected as the state of the microphone. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determined parameter includes a parameter associated with a combining ratio of the collected sound data obtained by the two or more microphones. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the determined parameter specifies whether to use, in generating the audio data, collected sound data corresponding to the microphone of which the state changes. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a state of a microphone is detected based on information acquired by a sensor provided to the microphone. ### Claim 7 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the audio processing apparatus to perform: generating the audio data by synthesizing the collected sound data based on the determined parameter. ### Claim 8 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the audio processing apparatus to perform: outputting the determined parameter to an apparatus configured to generate the audio data. ### Claim 9 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instructions further cause the audio processing apparatus to perform control to correct a state of a microphone of which a change in the state is detected. ### Claim 10 (depends on 1) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the instructions further comprising: obtaining viewpoint information indicating a viewpoint position corresponding to an image to be played with the audio data, wherein the specific position is specified based on the obtained viewpoint information. ### Claim 11 (depends on 10) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the viewpoint position corresponding to the image is specified as the specific position. ### Claim 12 (depends on 10) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the specific position is specified based on the obtained viewpoint information and a detected state of a microphone. ### Claim 13 (depends on 12) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein in the specifying, whether the viewpoint position is specified as the specific position or another position is specified as the specific position is determined based on a detected state of a microphone. ### Claim 14 (depends on 12) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 12, wherein in the specifying, whether the specific position is to be moved along with the viewpoint position is determined based on a detected state of a microphone. ### Claim 15 (depends on 14) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 14, wherein in the specifying, a fixed position on a moving path of the viewpoint position is specified as the specific position in a case where it is determined that the specific position is not to be moved along with the viewpoint position. ### Claim 16 (depends on 10) The audio processing apparatus according to claim 10, wherein the image to be played with the audio data is a virtual viewpoint image generated based on a plurality of captured images obtained by a plurality of image capturing apparatuses. ### Claim 17 An audio processing method comprising: detecting states of a plurality of microphones; specifying a specific position associated with audio data to be generated by synthesizing collected sound data obtained by two or more microphones at different positions among the plurality of microphones, wherein a sound supposed to be heard at the specific position is produced based on the audio data associated with the specific position; and determining a parameter to be used for synthesizing the collected sound data to generate the audio data associated with the specific position, wherein in accordance with a change in a state of a microphone included in the plurality of microphones, the parameter is determined based on the specific position and states of the plurality of microphones detected after the change. ### Claim 18 (depends on 17) The audio processing method according to claim 17, wherein in accordance with the change in the state of the microphone, the parameter is determined based on states of the plurality of microphones detected before the change in addition to the specific position and the states of the plurality of microphones detected after the change. ### Claim 19 (depends on 17) The audio processing method according to claim 17 further comprising: obtaining viewpoint information indicating a viewpoint position corresponding to an image to be played with the audio data, wherein the specific position is specified based on the obtained viewpoint information. ### Claim 20 A non-transitory storage medium storing a program that causes a computer to execute an audio processing method comprising: detecting states of a plurality of microphones; specifying a specific position associated with audio data to be generated by synthesizing collected sound data obtained by two or more microphones at different positions among the plurality of microphones, wherein a sound supposed to be heard at the specific position is produced based on the audio data associated with the specific position; and determining a parameter to be used for synthesizing the collected sound data to generate the audio data associated with the specific position, wherein in accordance with a change in a state of a microphone included in the plurality of microphones, the parameter is determined based on the specific position and states of the plurality of microphones detected after the change.