Relevance based source selection for far-field voice systems

An electronic device, comprising:

• a microphone array comprising at least one microphone configured to receive an audio signal;
• and
• a source separation module configured to separate the audio signals into an audio stream;
• and
• a source selection module coupled to the microphone array, the source selection module comprising:
• a plurality of probability computation modules, and
• a relevance factor aggregation module configured to:
• obtain, from the plurality of probability computation modules, i) a first probability of a first characteristic present in the audio stream, ii) a second probability of a second characteristic present in the audio stream, and iii) a third probability of a third characteristic present in the audio stream,
• obtain relevance information related to an application, and
• in response to the first probability, the second probability, and the third probability indicating the first characteristic, the second characteristic, and the third characteristic, respectively, are present, provide an indication whether the audio stream is relevant to the application based on a comparison between the relevance information and each of the first characteristic, the second characteristic, and the third characteristic.

A computer-implemented method comprising:

• obtaining, from multiple audio signals, an audio stream;
• obtaining a probability of a presence of a characteristic in the audio stream,
• obtaining relevance information related to an application;
• determining, based on the relevance information, whether the characteristic is relevant to the application;
• in response to the probability indicating the characteristic is present, determining whether the audio stream is relevant to the application;
• and
• in response to the audio stream being relevant to the application, providing the audio stream to the application.