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US 9,961,437 B2Granted
Dome shaped microphone array with circularly distributed microphones
AssigneeSignal Essence, LLC
InventorsHugh Joseph McLaughlin, Caleb Henry Crome
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A sound sensing device may include a housing having a dome-shaped shell and a baseplate. The housing may have a symmetrically shaped perimeter. The dome-shaped shell may have an arcuate cross section characterized by tangent lines that monotonically increase in slope from a top of the dome-shaped shell toward a bottom of the dome-shaped shell. At least three sound ports may be provided between an interior volume of the housing and an exterior surrounding of the housing, and disposed symmetrically and peripherally about the perimeter of the housing. The sound ports may be located at most 1 cm above the support surface.
Claims30
A sound sensing device comprising:
- a housing having a dome-shaped shell and a baseplate to house electronic components of the sound sensing device, the housing having a rotationally symmetric perimeter, the dome-shaped shell having an arcuate cross section characterized by tangent lines that monotonically increase in slope from a top of the dome-shaped shell toward a bottom of the dome-shaped shell;
- at least six sound ports formed between an interior volume of the housing and an exterior surrounding of the housing, and disposed symmetrically and peripherally about the perimeter of the housing, the sound ports located at most 1 cm above a support surface;
- and
- at least six microphones contained within the housing, the microphones disposed symmetrically and peripherally about the perimeter of the housing, each microphone arranged proximate a respective sound port to receive an acoustic signal via the respective sound port,
- wherein microphone signals from the microphones are combined together to produce an output signal representative of a sound source for any direction of the sound source,
- wherein each of the microphone signals is converted into overlapping subband signals, wherein a plurality of subband beams are generated using subband signals from each of the microphone signals, the plurality of subband beams including:
- a plurality of first subband beams, each of which is hybrid of a delay and sum beam and a differential beam that is generated using subband signals, from the microphone signals of all the microphones, that are in a first frequency range;
- a second subband beam that is a delay and sum beam comprising non-zero positive coefficients generated using subband signals, from the microphone signals of one or more of the microphones, that are in a second frequency range, and
- a third subband beam comprising a subband signal from the microphone signal of a primary direction microphone whose location on the housing is representative of a direction of the sound source, wherein the dome shape creates a higher pressure for sound, arriving at the primary direction microphone, that is substantially orthogonal to the support surface at an edge of the dome-shaped shell,
- wherein the plurality of subband beams are combined to produce the output signal.
7 more elements
A sound sensing device comprising:
- a housing having a dome-shaped shell and a baseplate to house electronic components of the sound sensing device, the housing having a perimeter in a shape of a circle or a regular polygon with at least six sides, the dome-shaped shell having a cross section characterized by a substantially constant change in slope, the housing having a diameter of about 15 centimeters and a height of about 3.3 centimeters;
- a loudspeaker centrally disposed at a top of the dome-shaped shell;
- at least six sound ports formed between an interior volume of the housing and an exterior surrounding of the housing, and disposed symmetrically and peripherally about the perimeter of the housing, the sound ports located at most 1 centimeter above a support surface as measured from respective centers thereof;
- and
- at least six microphones contained within the housing, the microphones disposed symmetrically and peripherally about the perimeter of the housing, each microphone connected to a respective sound port,
- wherein microphone signals from the microphones are combined together to produce an output signal representative of a sound source for any direction of the sound source,
- wherein each of the microphone signals is converted into overlapping subband signals, wherein a plurality of subband beams are generated using subband signals from each of the microphone signals, the plurality of subband beams including:
- a plurality of first subband beams, each of which is hybrid of a delay and sum beam and a differential beam that is generated using subband signals, from the microphone signals of all the microphones, that are in a first frequency range;
- a second subband beam that is a delay and sum beam comprising non-zero positive coefficients generated using subband signals, from the microphone signals of one or more of the microphones, that are in a second frequency range, and
- a third subband beam comprising a subband signal from the microphone signal of a primary direction microphone whose location on the housing is representative of a direction of the sound source, wherein the dome shape creates a higher pressure for sound, arriving at the primary direction microphone, that is substantially orthogonal to the support surface at an edge of the dome-shaped shell,
- wherein the plurality of subband beams are combined to produce the output signal.
8 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.