US 12,621,623 B2Granted

Locating a moving acoustic source

AssigneeOrange

InventorsSrdan Kitic, Jérôme Daniel

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Abstract

Processing sound signals acquired by at least one microphone, to locate a sound source emitting from a plurality of discrete positions at respective discrete points in time, in a space comprising at least one planar reflective surface. The method includes: obtaining: a first vector u → 0 ( k ) determining a direction of a first acoustic path, direct between the source and the microphone, a second vector u → n ( k ) representing a second acoustic path resulting from a specular reflection and arriving at the microphone, and a delay τ n ( k ) of second path at the microphone, compared to the direct path; exploiting a property of the specular reflection according to which a Euclidean distance between two positions of the source at two discrete points in time is equal to a Euclidean distance between two respective positions of images of the source and derived from one or more same reflections, respectively at said two discrete points in time.

Claims17

Dependent claims

A method for processing sound signals acquired by at least one microphone, in order to locate at least one sound source emitting from a plurality of discrete positions at respective discrete points in time, in a space comprising at least one planar reflective surface, the method being implemented by a device and comprising:

receiving the sound signals;
obtaining from the sound signals at least, for each point in time k:
a first vector
u
→
0
(
k
)
determining a direction of a first acoustic path, direct between the source and the microphone,
at least a second vector
u
→
n
(
k
)
representing a second acoustic path resulting from at least one specular reflection and arriving at the microphone,
at least one delay
τ
n
(
k
)
of the second path at the microphone, compared to the direct first acoustic path;
and
exploiting at least one property of the specular reflection, according to which a Euclidean distance between two positions of the source at two discrete points in time is equal to a Euclidean distance between two respective positions of images of the source and derived from one or a plurality of same reflections, respectively at said two discrete points in time, in order to determine at least one position of the source relative to the microphone respectively at said plurality of discrete points in time, as a function of, for each point in time k:
the first vector
u
→
0
(
k
)
in order to determine a direction of the direct first acoustic path, and
both the delay
τ
n
(
k
)
and the second vector
u
→
n
(
k
)
,
in order to associate a distance d(k) between the source and the microphone with this direction of the direct first acoustic path.

47 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Facts

Application: 18/839,172Filed 13 Feb 2023
Priority: FR 220147518 Feb 2022
Published: US 2025/0159424 A115 May 2025
Granted: 5 May 2026
Term ends: Not estimatedThe source records don’t support an estimate.

Classification9 codes

G01S 5/22
Using ultrasonic, sonic or infrasonic waves: position of source determined by co-ordinating a plurality of position lines defined by…
H04S 7/00
Indicating arrangements
H04R 1/326
For obtaining desired directional characteristic only: for microphones
H04R 5/027
Stereophonic arrangements: spatial or constructional arrangements of microphones, e.g. in dummy heads