Microphone array with time-frequency source discrimination
AssigneesSony Corporation, Sony Electronics Inc.
InventorsLars C. Almstrand, Courtney Konopka
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Abstract
A 3D microphone array is provided for, e.g., sending sound to a speech recognition (SR) engine. To increase SNR while minimizing the computational load on the SR engine, the array processor compares received time-frequency profiles from various sources of sound to a model hypothesis provided by the SR engine, and sends on to the SR engine only those profiles that are similar to the model hypothesis. If desired, sources of sound can also be discriminated against on the basis of energy level and spatial location within a room.
Claims26
A microphone array system, comprising:
- plural microphones;
- and
- at least one array processor receiving signals from the microphones, the array processor executing logic including:
- receiving at least one model time-frequency acoustic hypothesis;
- and
- based at least in part on the model time-frequency acoustic hypothesis, selectively outputting signals representing at least one acoustic source to at least one client component.
A method for alleviating processing load on a speech recognition system by screening signals from acoustic sources in a space, comprising:
- comparing at least one signal from at least one acoustic source in the space to at least one acoustic model;
- and
- based at least in part on the comparing act, selectively sending the signal to the speech recognition system.
A device embodying means for processing acoustic signals received from at least one source in at least one volume, comprising:
- means for comparing signals from sources in the volume to at least one time-frequency hypothesis;
- and
- means, responsive to the means for comparing, for sending signals to the speech recognition system.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.