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US 7,127,071 B2Granted
System and process for robust sound source localization
AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsYong Rui, Dinei Florencio
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AssigneeMicrosoft Corporation
InventorsYong Rui, Dinei Florencio
Estimating the term…
A system and process for finding the location of a sound source using direct approaches having weighting factors that mitigate the effect of both correlated and reverberation noise is presented. When more than two microphones are used, the traditional time-delay-of-arrival (TDOA) based sound source localization (SSL) approach involves two steps. The first step computes TDOA for each microphone pair, and the second step combines these estimates. This two-step process discards relevant information in the first step, thus degrading the SSL accuracy and robustness. In the present invention, direct, one-step, approaches are employed. Namely, a one-step TDOA SSL approach and a steered beam (SB) SSL approach are employed. Each of these approaches provides an accuracy and robustness not available with the traditional two-step approaches.
A computer-implemented sound source localization process for finding the location of a sound source using signals output by a microphone array having a plurality of audio sensors, comprising:
A computer-implemented sound source localization process for finding the location of a sound source using signals output by a microphone array having a plurality of audio sensors, comprising:
A sound source localization process for finding the location of a sound source in a 3D space using signals output by a microphone array having a plurality of audio sensors, comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.
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From the US filing history. Foreign family members aren’t listed.
Circuits for transducers: for combining the signals of two or more microphones
Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation: voice signal separating
Number of inputs available containing the signal or the noise to be suppressed: two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the…
Loudspeakers, microphones, gramophone pick-ups or like acoustic electromechanical transducers
Term ended 28 May 2023 (estimated)
1. Technical Field
The invention is related to finding the location of a sound source, and more particularly to a multi-microphone, sound source localization system and process that employs direct approaches utilizing weighting factors that mitigate the effect of both correlated and reverberation noise.
2. Background Art
The specific features, aspects, and advantages of the present invention will become better understood with regard to the following description, appended claims, and accompanying drawings where:
FIG. 1 is a diagram depicting a general purpose computing device constituting an exemplary system for implementing the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart diagramming a first embodiment of a sound source localization process employing a direct 1-TDOA approach according to the present invention
In the following description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, reference is made to the accompanying drawings which form a part hereof, and in which is shown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the invention may be practiced. It is understood that other embodiments may be utilized and structural changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.
1.0 The Computing Environment
Before providing a description of the preferred embodiments of the present invention, a brief, general description of a suitable computing environment in which the invention may be implemented will be described. FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a suitable computing system environment 100. The computing system environment 100 is only one example of a suitable computing environment and is not intended to suggest any limitation as to the scope of use or functionality of the invention. Neither should the computing environment 100 be interpreted as having any dependency or requirement relating to any one or combination of components illustrated in the exemplary operating environment 100.