Sound pick-up apparatus and method

A sound pick-up apparatus comprising:

• a noise reduction unit configured to estimate background noise included in an input signal input from a microphone array, to acquire the estimated background noise as estimated noise, to use the acquired estimated noise to reduce a noise component of the input signal, and to acquire a noise-reduced signal;
• a directionality formation unit configured to acquire, on the basis of the noise-reduced signal, a first non-target area sound having directionality formed in a direction other than a target area direction, and a target area direction sound having directionality formed in the target area direction;
• a target area sound extraction unit configured to extract a second non-target area sound from the target area direction by using the target area direction sound, and to further use the second non-target area sound and the target area direction sound to acquire a target area sound from a sound source in the target area;
• a mixing level calculation unit configured to calculate a sound volume level of a mixing signal to mix with the target area sound on the basis of power of the estimated noise, power of the first non-target area sound, and power of the second non-target area sound;
• a mixing level adjustment unit configured to adjust a sound volume level of the input signal to mix with the mixing signal, and a sound volume level of the estimated noise to mix with the mixing signal on the basis of the sound volume level of the mixing signal which is calculated by the mixing level calculation unit;
• and
• a signal mixing unit configured to generate and output a mixed target area sound in which the input signal that is adjusted to have the sound volume level calculated by the mixing level adjustment unit and the estimated noise that is adjusted to have the sound volume level calculated by the mixing level adjustment unit are mixed with the target area sound.