System and method for audio scene understanding of physical object sound sources

A method of operating an audio monitoring system comprising:

• generating with a sound sensor audio data corresponding to sound produced by an action performed by an object in a first scene around the sound sensor;
• identifying with a processor a type of object in the first scene that generated the sound with reference to the audio data;
• identifying with the processor the action taken by the object to generate a sound event with reference to the audio data;
• generating with the processor a timestamp corresponding to a time of the detection of the sound;
• updating with the processor a scene state model corresponding to a plurality of sound events generated by a plurality of objects in the first scene around the sound sensor with reference to the identified type of object, action taken by the object, and the timestamp;
• identifying with the processor one sound event in the plurality of sound events for the first scene with reference to the first scene state model and a predetermined scene grammar stored in a memory;
• and
• generating with the processor an output corresponding to the one sound event.

An audio monitoring system comprising:

• a sound sensor configured to generate audio data corresponding to sound produced by an action performed by an object in a first scene around the sound sensor;
• an output device;
• and
• a processor operatively connected to the sound sensor, the output device, and a memory, the processor being configured to:
• identifying a type of object in the first scene that generated the sound with reference to the audio data;
• identify the action taken by the object to generate a sound event with reference to the audio data;
• generate a timestamp corresponding to a time of the detection of the sound;
• update a scene state model corresponding to a plurality of sound events generated by a plurality of objects in the first scene around the sound sensor with reference to the identified type of object, action taken by the object, and the timestamp;
• identify one sound event in the plurality of sound events for the first scene with reference to the first scene state model and a predetermined scene grammar stored in the memory;
• and
• generate an output corresponding to the one sound event.