Noise suppressing device, mobile phone, noise suppressing method, and recording medium

A noise suppressing method in which a noise suppressing device causing a computer to receive sound signals through at least two sound-receiving units suppresses noise components included in the input sound signals while a current using environment information is being taken, the noise suppressing method causing a computer to execute:

• being used in a plurality of usage patterns in which positional relationships of the at least two sound-receiving units and/or positional relationships between the plurality of sound-receiving units and a target sound source are different from each other;
• detecting a usage pattern when a sound is received;
• converting using environment information used in a noise suppressing process to the sound signal received by the at least two sound-receiving units into using environment information in accordance with the detected usage pattern both before and after usage patterns change;
• performing a noise suppressing process using the converted using environment information to the sound signal;
• estimating a current using environment information in accordance with a current usage pattern, where the converting converts using the environment information representing a using environment estimated by the estimating into using environment information in accordance with the usage pattern detected by the detecting;
• and
• storing pieces of the using environment information representing the using environments in accordance with the usage pattern estimated by the estimating as associating with the usage pattern, wherein the converting converts the using environment information stored in the storing unit into the current using environment information in accordance with the usage pattern detected by the detecting unit,
• wherein the suppressing unit performs the noise suppressing process while the current using environment information is being taken,
• wherein the suppressing performs the noise suppressing process with the current using environment information immediately after the usage patterns change,
• wherein the using environment information is information including at least one of a background noise level, statistic values of a background noise spectrum, information representing speech sections and noise sections, direction information representing a direction to a given sound source, direction information representing a direction to a noise source, an Signal to Noise ratio, and a correction value to correct a variation of sensitivities of the plurality of sound-receiving units.

A tangible and non-transitory computer-readable recording medium storing a computer program to cause a computer to function as a noise suppressing device which suppresses a noise component included in a sound signal obtained by receiving a sound while a current using environment information is being taken,

• the computer program comprising causing the computer to function as:
• detecting a usage pattern when a sound is received;
• converting using environment information used in a noise suppressing process to the sound signal into using environment information in accordance with the detected usage pattern both before and after usage patterns change;
• and
• performing a noise suppressing process using the converted using environment information to the sound signal;
• estimating the current using environment information in accordance with a current usage pattern, where the converting converts using the environment information representing a using environment estimated by the estimating into using environment information in accordance with the usage pattern detected by the detecting;
• and
• storing pieces of the using environment information representing the using environments in accordance with the usage pattern estimated by the estimating as associating with the usage pattern, wherein the converting converts the using environment information stored in the storing unit into current using environment information in accordance with the usage pattern detected by the detecting unit,
• wherein the suppressing unit performs the noise suppressing process while the current using environment information is being taken,
• wherein the suppressing performs the noise suppressing process with the current using environment information immediately after the usage patterns change,
• wherein the using environment information is information including at least one of a background noise level, statistic values of a background noise spectrum, information representing speech sections and noise sections, direction information representing a direction to a given sound source, direction information representing a direction to a noise source, an Signal to Noise ratio, and a correction value to correct a variation of sensitivities of the plurality of sound-receiving units.