Multi-channel speech compression system and method

A non-transitory computer program product residing on a non-transitory computer readable medium having a plurality of instructions stored thereon which, when executed by a processor, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

• encoding audio encounter information of a reference audio acquisition device of a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system, thus defining encoded reference audio encounter information;
• estimating, via a machine vision system, location information for an acoustic source within an acoustic environment;
• accessing an acoustic relative transfer function codebook for the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system, wherein the acoustic relative transfer function codebook includes a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions between the reference audio acquisition device and the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system, wherein each of the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions is associated with a unique identifier for being uniquely identifiable from the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions of the acoustic relative transfer function codebook based upon, at least in part, the location information and speakers within the acoustic environment, wherein the acoustic relative transfer function codebook for the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system includes a data structure configured to store mapping characteristics for mapping speech signals obtained by the reference audio acquisition device to speech signals of another audio acquisition device of the plurality of audio acquisition devices;
• selecting one or more acoustic relative transfer functions from the acoustic relative transfer function codebook based upon, at least in part, the location information;
• and
• transmitting the encoded reference audio encounter information and a representation of the selected one or more acoustic relative transfer functions.

A computing system comprising:

• a memory storing programming instructions;
• and
• a processor configured to execute the programming instructions stored in the memory, wherein the programming instructions, upon execution by the processor, cause the system to:
• encode audio encounter information of a reference audio acquisition device of a plurality of audio acquisition devices of an audio recording system, thus defining encoded reference audio encounter information;
• estimate, via a machine vision system, location information for an acoustic source within an acoustic environment;
• access an acoustic relative transfer function codebook for the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system, wherein the acoustic relative transfer function codebook includes a plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions between the reference audio acquisition device and the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system, wherein each of the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions is associated with a unique identifier for being uniquely identifiable from the plurality of acoustic relative transfer functions of the acoustic relative transfer function codebook based upon, at least in part, the location information and speakers within the acoustic environment, and wherein the acoustic relative transfer function codebook for the plurality of audio acquisition devices of the audio recording system includes a data structure configured to store mapping characteristics for mapping speech signals obtained by the reference audio acquisition device to speech signals of another audio acquisition device of the plurality of audio acquisition devices;
• select one or more acoustic relative transfer functions from the acoustic relative transfer function codebook based upon, at least in part, the location information;
• and
• transmit the encoded reference audio encounter information and the selected one or more acoustic relative transfer functions corresponding to the encoded reference audio information.