Back to results
US 2012/0058803 A1Published application
Decisions on ambient noise suppression in a mobile communications handset device
AssigneeApple Inc.
InventorGuy C. Nicholson
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A method in a communications device includes the following operations. During a call, a process automatically detects that the device has moved from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position. Based on the detection, a noise suppressor that operates upon an uplink signal for the call is signaled to change its noise suppression performance. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
Claims17
A method in a mobile communications handset device, comprising:
- performing ambient noise suppression upon an uplink signal that contains speech of a near-end user of the device, wherein the uplink signal is transmitted to a far-end user during a call and the ambient noise suppression is to reduce amount of background or ambient sound that is also in the uplink signal;
- detecting that the near-end user has moved the device from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position during the call;
- and
- in response to said detection, performing less ambient noise suppression upon the uplink signal so that amount of background or ambient sound in the uplink signal is greater when the device is held in the away-from-the-ear position than in the at-the-ear position.
1 more element
A method in a communications device, comprising:
- detecting automatically, during a call, that the device has moved from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position;
- and
- based on the detection, signaling a noise suppressor that operates upon an uplink signal for the call, to change its noise suppression performance.
A mobile communications handset device comprising:
- a radio;
- an uplink audio signal processor to deliver an uplink audio signal to the radio, the uplink processor having an ambient noise suppressor;
- a downlink audio signal processor to receive a downlink audio signal from the radio;
- and
- decision logic to automatically detect that a user has moved the device from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position, and in response disable the ambient noise suppressor.
2 more elements
A mobile communications handset device comprising:
- a radio;
- a plurality of microphones to produce a plurality of audio pick up signals;
- an uplink audio signal processor to deliver an uplink audio signal to the radio, the uplink processor having a microphone beamformer whose input is coupled to receive the plurality of audio pick up signals and whose output provides the uplink signal;
- a downlink audio signal processor to receive a downlink audio signal from the radio;
- and
- decision logic to automatically detect that a user has moved the device (a) from an at-the-ear position to an away-from-the-ear position and (b) vice versa, and to signal the beamformer to enable (a) far-field microphone beamforming and (b) omnidirectional microphone sensing, respectively.
3 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.