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US 11,778,368 B2Granted
Auto focus, auto focus within regions, and auto placement of beamformed microphone lobes with inhibition functionality
AssigneeShure Acquisition Holdings, Inc.
InventorsDusan Veselinovic, Mathew T. Abraham, Michael Ryan Lester, Avinash K. Vaidya
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Abstract
Array microphone systems and methods that can automatically focus and/or place beamformed lobes in response to detected sound activity are provided. The automatic focus and/or placement of the beamformed lobes can be inhibited based on a remote far end audio signal. The quality of the coverage of audio sources in an environment may be improved by ensuring that beamformed lobes are optimally picking up the audio sources even if they have moved and changed locations.
Claims30
A method, comprising:
- determining whether an inactive lobe of a plurality of lobes of an array microphone in an environment is available for deployment;
- when it is determined that the inactive lobe is available, locating the inactive lobe based on location data of sound activity;
- and
- when it is determined that the inactive lobe is not available:
- selecting one of a plurality of deployed lobes to move;
- and
- relocating the selected deployed lobe based on the location data of the sound activity.
4 more elements
An array microphone system, comprising:
- a plurality of microphone elements, each of the plurality of microphone elements configured to detect sound and output an audio signal;
- a beamformer in communication with the plurality of microphone elements, the beamformer configured to generate one or more beamformed signals based on the audio signals of the plurality of microphone elements, wherein the one or more beamformed signals correspond with one or more lobes each positioned at a location in an environment;
- an audio activity localizer in communication with the plurality of microphone elements, the audio activity localizer configured to determine coordinates of new sound activity in the environment;
- and
- a lobe auto-placer in communication with the audio activity localizer and the beamformer, the lobe auto-placer configured to:
- receive the coordinates of the new sound activity;
- determine whether the coordinates of the new sound activity are near an existing lobe, wherein the existing lobe comprises one of the one or more lobes;
- when the coordinates of the new sound activity are determined to not be near the existing lobe:
- determine whether an inactive lobe is available;
- when it is determined that the inactive lobe is available, select the inactive lobe;
- when it is determined that the inactive lobe is not available, select one of the one or more lobes;
- and
- transmit the coordinates of the new sound activity to the beamformer to cause the beamformer to update the location of the selected lobe to the coordinates of the new sound activity.
10 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.