US 8,149,728 B2 · System and method for evaluating performance of microphone for long-distance speech recognition in robot

Abstract

A system and method for evaluating performance of a microphone for long-distance speech recognition, which enables a robot to receive and respond to voices. A robot, which includes a network robot, must correctly recognize speech in order to recognize the user and to perceive its surroundings, objective evaluation criteria are required for choosing a microphone to be used in the robot. The methods include measuring a degree of attenuation of the voice, measuring a degree of distortion of the voice, and simultaneously measuring the degree of attenuation of the voice and the degree of distortion of the voice. A standard for the choice of a microphone, which can be digitalized, for a speech recognition function of a robot, permits choice of a microphone which has good sensitivity and can pick up voices without distortion when used at a large distance.

Claims15

Dependent claims

A system for evaluating performance of a microphone for long-distance speech recognition in a robot, the system comprising:

a reference voice database for storing a voice signal required for performance evaluation of at least two microphones;
a measurement value calculator for calculating both attenuation and distortion of the input voice signal at the same time, when the voice signal from the reference voice database is input to a reference microphone and a target microphone from among the at least two microphones;
a comparator for comparing a value calculated by the measurement value calculator with a reference value;
and
a microphone chooser for determining whether to choose the target microphone according to a result of the comparison;
wherein a respective preamplifier for each of the microphones is adjusted to have a same value of gain so that an evaluation measure of performance of all the microphones does not depend on a variance in gain of a particular preamplifier, and wherein the microphones are arranged at different distances from the reference microphone;
and
a reference voice DB generator for generating the reference voice database by determining a distance from a speaker to a reference microphone and the target microphone, and for recording a voice signal according to each microphone.

5 more elements

A method for evaluating performance of a microphone for long-distance speech recognition in a robot, the method comprising the steps of:

storing a voice signal required for performance evaluation of at least two microphones;
inputting the voice signal to a reference microphone and a target microphone among the at least two microphones;
calculating both attenuation and distortion of the voice signal at the same time when the voice signal is input;
comparing the calculated result with a reference value;
and
determining whether to choose the target microphone according to a result of the comparison;
and
wherein attenuation of the voice signal is calculated by using a voice attenuation ratio between the reference microphone and the target microphone;
wherein a respective preamplifier for each of the microphones is adjusted to have a same value of gain so that an evaluation measure of performance of all the microphones does not depend on a variance in gain of a particular preamplifier and wherein the microphones are arranged at different distances from the reference microphone;
and
wherein the reference value is determined by generating a reference voice database by determining a distance from a speaker to the reference microphone and the target microphone, and for recording a voice signal according to each microphone.

8 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and method for evaluating performance of microphone for long-distance speech recognition in robot

Life of this patent

System and method for evaluating performance of microphone for long-distance speech recognition in robot

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims15