Bone conduction headphone speech enhancement systems and methods
AssigneeGoogle Inc.
InventorsSteve Rui, Govind Kannan, Trausti Thormundsson
Life of this patent
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Abstract
Systems and methods for enhancing a headset user's own voice include at least two outside microphones, an inside microphone, audio input components operable to receive and process the microphone signals, a voice activity detector operable to detect speech presence and absence in the received and/or processed signals, and a cross-over module configured to generate an enhanced voice signal. The audio processing components includes a low frequency branch comprising low pass filter banks, a low frequency spatial filter, a low frequency spectral filter and an equalizer, and a high frequency branch comprising highpass filter banks, a high frequency spatial filter, and a high frequency spectral filter.
Claims20
A method comprising:
- receiving a plurality of external microphone signals from a plurality of external microphones configured to sense external sounds through air conduction;
- receiving an internal microphone signal from an internal microphone configured to sense a bone conduction sound from a user during speech;
- processing the external microphone signals and the internal microphone signal through a lowpass process comprising filtering by a low frequency spatial filter, filtering by a low frequency spectral filter, and generating one or more lowpass processed signals based at least in part on an output of the low frequency spectral filter;
- processing the external microphone signals, and not the internal microphone signal, through a highpass process to generate one or more highpass processed signals, the highpass process comprising:
- obtaining high frequency voice and error estimates based at least in part on filtering a second set of signals corresponding to the external microphone signals by a high frequency spatial filter;
- and
- obtaining a second output of a high frequency spectral filter based at least in part on filtering the high frequency voice and error estimates by the high frequency spectral filter;
- and
- mixing at least one of the one or more lowpass processed signals and at least one of the one or more highpass processed signals to generate an enhanced voice signal.
A system comprising:
- a plurality of external microphones configured to sense external sounds through air conduction and generate external microphone signals corresponding to the sensed external sounds;
- an internal microphone configured to sense a bone conduction sound from a user during speech and generate an internal microphone signal corresponding to the sensed bone conduction sound;
- a lowpass processing branch configured to process the external microphone signals and the internal microphone signal through a lowpass process comprising filtering by a low frequency spatial filter, filtering by a low frequency spectral filter, and generating one or more lowpass processed signals based at least in part on an output of the low frequency spectral filter;
- a highpass processing branch configured to process the external microphone signals, and not the internal microphone signal through a highpass process to generate one or more highpass processed signals, the highpass process comprising:
- obtaining high frequency voice and error estimates based at least in part on filtering a second set of signals corresponding to the external microphone signals by a high frequency spatial filter;
- and
- obtaining a second output of a high frequency spectral filter based at least in part on filtering the high frequency voice and error estimates by the high frequency spectral filter;
- and
- a crossover module configured to mix at least one of the one or more lowpass processed signals and at least one of the one or more highpass processed signals to generate an enhanced voice signal.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.