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US 11,575,990 B2Granted
Communication system for multiple acoustic zones
AssigneeCerence Operating Company
InventorsTobias Herbig, Markus Buck, Meik Pfeffinger
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An communication system supports communication paths within an environment by receiving speech signals of a speaker and playing it back for one or more listeners. Signal processing tasks are split into a microphone related part and into a loudspeaker related part. A sound processing system suitable for use in an environment having multiple acoustic zones includes a plurality of microphone communication instances coupled and a plurality of loudspeaker instances.
Claims19
A sound processing system, comprising:
- a plurality of microphone instances to receive audio signals from corresponding ones of the plurality of microphones, each of which is configured to receive sound from a corresponding one of a plurality of acoustic zones, wherein a number of the acoustic zones is at least three;
- a plurality of loudspeaker instances to generate signals for corresponding ones of loudspeakers, each of which is configured to transmit sound into a corresponding one of the plurality of acoustic zones;
- and
- a routing matrix to provide signal paths from at least one of the microphone instances to at least two of the loudspeaker instances,
- wherein the routing matrix is configured to determine an active one of the microphone instances and make inactive the loudspeaker instance for the acoustic zone corresponding to the active microphone instance,
- the routing matrix further configured to determine an equalizer setting from each path from each active one of the microphones to each active one of the loudspeakers such that a number of equalizer settings is one less than a number of loudspeakers, and
- wherein the routing matrix is further configured to suppress microphone signals from non-active ones of the zones.
4 more elements
A method, comprising:
- receiving audio signals from a plurality of microphones at a corresponding one of a plurality of microphone instances, wherein each of the microphones is configured to receive sound from a corresponding one of a plurality of acoustic zones, wherein a number of the acoustic zones is at least three;
- generating signals, by a plurality of loudspeaker instances, for corresponding ones of loudspeakers, each of which is configured to transmit sound into a corresponding one of the plurality of acoustic zones;
- routing of signal paths from at least one of the microphone instances to at least two of the loudspeaker instances by determining an active one of the microphone instances and making inactive the loudspeaker instance for the acoustic zone corresponding to the active microphone instance;
- and
- determining an equalizer setting from each path from each active one of the microphones to each active one of the loudspeakers such that a number of equalizer settings is one less than a number of loudspeakers.
2 more elements
A sound processing system, comprising:
- first, second, third and fourth microphone instances to receive audio signals from corresponding ones of the plurality of microphones, each of which is configured to receive sound from a corresponding one of a plurality of acoustic zones, wherein a number of the acoustic zones is at least three;
- first, second, third, and fourth loudspeaker instances to generate signals for corresponding ones of loudspeakers, each of which is configured to transmit sound into a corresponding one of the plurality of acoustic zones;
- and
- a routing matrix to provide signal paths from at least one of the first, second, third, and fourth microphone instances to at least two of the first, second, third, and fourth loudspeaker instances, wherein the routing matrix is configured to determine an active one of the first, second, third, and fourth microphone instances and make inactive one of the first, second, third, and fourth loudspeaker instance for the acoustic zone corresponding to the active microphone instance, the routing matrix further configured to determine an equalizer setting from each path from each active one of the first, second, third, and fourth microphones to each active one of the first, second, third, and fourth loudspeakers such that a number of equalizer settings is one less than a number of loudspeakers.
1 more element
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.