Systems and methods for improving the signal to noise ratio for audio input in a computing system

A computing device, including:

• a plurality of physical components including a substantially enclosed housing;
• at least one audio input recording device located outside the substantially enclosed housing for recording an audio signal from outside the substantially enclosed housing during a time period and generating a first sound signal based thereon;
• at least one audio input recording device located inside the substantially enclosed housing for recording the audio signal from inside the substantially enclosed housing during the time period and generating a second sound signal based thereon, wherein for the first sound signal, the ratio of the audio signal to a noise signal arising from noise characteristics of at least one physical component of the plurality of physical components is greater than the ratio of the audio signal to the noise signal for the second sound signal;
• and
• at least one signal processing component configured to load a noise profile stored in the computing device, the noise profile indicative of noise characteristics of the computing device as established at the time of manufacturer of the computing device, the signal processing component further configured to generate an estimated noise signal from the noise profile and the second sound signal and the computing device configured to process the estimated noise signal and the first sound signal to remove the estimated noise signal thereby generating a third sound signal representative of the audio signal, wherein ratio of the audio signal to noise signal associated with the third sound signal is higher than the ratios for both the first and second sound signals.

Signal processing electronics for processing sound signals in a computing device containing a plurality of physical components including a substantially enclosed housing, the signal processing electronics receiving as input a first sound signal recorded from outside the substantially enclosed housing of the computing device and a second sound signal recorded from inside the substantially enclosed housing of the computing device, comprising:

• circuitry for loading a noise profile stored in the computing device, the noise profile indicative of noise characteristics of the computing device as established at the time of manufacturer of the computing device;
• circuitry for generating an estimated noise signal from the noise profile and the second sound signal;
• and
• circuitry for processing the estimated noise signal and the first sound signal to remove the estimated noise signal thereby generating a third sound signal, wherein the signal to noise ratio associated with the third sound signal is higher than the signal to noise ratio of the computing device associated with the first sound signal.

A processor operatively coupled to a computing readable storage medium including computer readable instructions for improving the signal to noise ratio for an audio input signal relative to the noise characteristics of an operating computing device recording the audio input signal, when executed, the computer readable storage medium carry out the following methods:

• recording a first sound signal based on the audio input signal with at least one audio input recording device located outside a substantially enclosed housing of the computing device;
• recording a second sound signal based on the audio input signal with at least one audio input recording device located inside the substantially enclosed housing of the computing device;
• loading a noise profile stored in the computing device, the noise profile indicative of noise characteristics of the computing device as established at the time of manufacturer of the computing device;
• generating an estimated noise signal from the noise profile and the second sound signal;
• and
• processing the estimated noise signal and the first sound signal to remove the estimated noise signal thereby generating a third sound signal, wherein the signal to noise ratio associated with the third sound signal is higher than the signal to noise ratio of the computing device associated with the first sound signal.