Dual Microphone System and Method for Enhancing Voice Quality

Abstract

Techniques to enhance voice signals in a dual microphone system are disclosed. According to one aspect of the present invention, there are at least two microphones that are positioned in a pre-configured array. Two audio signals x1(k) and x2(k) are received and coupled to an adjusting module that is provided to control the gain of each of the audio signals x1(k) and x2(k) to minimize signal differences between the two signals. A separation module is provided to receive matched audio signals x′1(k) and x′2(k) from the adjusting module. The separation module separates the audio signals x′1(k) and x′2(k) to obtain a first audio signal s(k) containing mainly the voice and a second audio signal n(k) containing mainly the noise. An adaptive filtering module is provided to eliminate the noise component in the audio signal s(k) to obtain an estimated voice signal e_s(k) with a higher S/N ratio. Furthermore, the adaptive filtering module can be also configured to suppress echo in the audio signal s(k) at same time. The voice signal e_s(k) may be further coupled to a single-channel voice enhancement module that is configured to eliminate any residual of the noise component in the voice signal e_s(k) according to the differences between the voice signal and the noise signal in time domain and frequency domain, whereby, the S/N ratio is further enhanced.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.