Echo Cancellation Or Suppression Patents (Class 379/406.01)
-
Patent number: 11922949Abstract: Techniques for improving the power consumption of a device without impacting or with minimal impact to operations of the device are described. In an example, the device includes a processor. The device receives, while the processor is operating in a first power mode, first input data corresponding to first audio detected by a microphone. Based at least in part on the first input data, the device detects a sound event or ambient noise. Based at least in part on a detection of the ambient noise only, the device causes processor to operate in a second power mode in which the processor consumes less power than in the first power mode.Type: GrantFiled: August 17, 2020Date of Patent: March 5, 2024Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.Inventors: Aditya Sharadchandra Joshi, Dibyendu Nandy
-
Patent number: 11895266Abstract: A system for detecting three-way calls in a monitored telephone conversation includes a speech recognition processor that transcribes the monitored telephone conversation and associates characteristics of the monitored telephone conversation with a transcript thereof, a database to store the transcript and the characteristics associated therewith, and a three-way Call detection processor to analyze the characteristics of the conversation and to detect therefrom the addition of one or more parties to the conversation. The system preferably includes at least one domain-specific language model that the speech recognition processor utilizes to transcribe the conversation. The system may operate in real-time or on previously recorded conversations. A query and retrieval system may be used to retrieve and review call records from the database.Type: GrantFiled: February 18, 2022Date of Patent: February 6, 2024Assignee: DSI-ITI, Inc.Inventor: Andreas M. Olligschlaeger
-
Patent number: 11888545Abstract: Facilitating echo cancellation within communication networks is contemplated, such as but not necessarily limited to facilitating echo cancellation within full-duplex (FDX) communication networks. The echo cancellation may optionally be performed with an echo canceller included as part of or otherwise associated with an FDX node used to facilitate interfacing signaling between a digital domain and an analog domain of a FDX or other communication network.Type: GrantFiled: May 31, 2021Date of Patent: January 30, 2024Assignee: Cable Television Labories, Inc.Inventors: Thomas Holtzman Williams, Belal Hamzeh, Luis Alberto Campos
-
Patent number: 11875779Abstract: Disclosed is a voice activity detection (VAD) device and method capable of referring to an environment detection result and thereby selecting one of multiple VAD results as a basis for determining whether a voice activity occurs. The VAD device includes an environment detection circuit, a VAD circuit, and a voice activity decision circuit. The environment detection circuit is configured to process an audio input signal and thereby generate an environment detection result. The VAD circuit is configured to analyze the audio input signal with multiple VAD algorithms and thereby generate multiple VAD results. The voice activity decision circuit is configured to select one of the multiple VAD results according to the environment detection result.Type: GrantFiled: September 3, 2021Date of Patent: January 16, 2024Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATIONInventor: Yi-Cheng Huang
-
Patent number: 11830495Abstract: In one aspect, a playback deice is configured to identify in an audio stream, via a second wake-word engine, a false wake word for a first wake-word engine that is configured to receive as input sound data based on sound detected by a microphone. The first and second wake-word engines are configured according to different sensitivity levels for false positives of a particular wake word. Based on identifying the false wake word, the playback device is configured to (i) deactivate the first wake-word engine and (ii) cause at least one network microphone device to deactivate a wake-word engine for a particular amount of time. While the first wake-word engine is deactivated, the playback device is configured to cause at least one speaker to output audio based on the audio stream. After a predetermined amount of time has elapsed, the playback device is configured to reactivate the first wake-word engine.Type: GrantFiled: January 9, 2023Date of Patent: November 28, 2023Assignee: Sonos, Inc.Inventors: Connor Kristopher Smith, Charles Conor Sleith, Kurt Thomas Soto
-
Patent number: 11823706Abstract: A method of detecting human voice activity includes determining a presence of human voice in a frame of audio signal using a plurality of features extracted from the frame of audio signal. The extracted features can include a number of zero-crossings, a periodicity metric, an energy ratio between a low frequency band and a high frequency band, and an envelope-to-floor ratio (EFR) in the frame of audio signal. Each of the features is associated with predefined criteria indicative of a presence of human voice, and based on comparisons of the features to the respective predefined criteria, the voice activity detector determines whether the frame of audio signal includes a human voice.Type: GrantFiled: October 14, 2019Date of Patent: November 21, 2023Assignee: Meta Platforms, Inc.Inventors: Jun Yang, Joshua Bingham
-
Patent number: 11716116Abstract: A method includes: generating a first signal according to a digital signal; filtering the first signal according to first filter coefficients of first filter to generate a second signal; adding a first reference signal with the second signal to generate a third signal; performing digital-to-analog conversion according to the first and third signals to generate and output an echo signal; performing analog-to-digital conversion according to the echo signal to generate a fourth signal; generating a fifth signal according to the digital signal and the fourth signal; and updating the first filter coefficients according to the fifth signal.Type: GrantFiled: April 1, 2022Date of Patent: August 1, 2023Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATIONInventors: Hsuan-Ting Ho, Liang-Wei Huang, Po-Han Lin, Chia-Lin Chang
-
Patent number: 11689399Abstract: Examples relate to a transmit apparatus, a receive apparatus, a method for transmitting, a method for receiving and computer readable storage media for transmitting and/or receiving in a communication network. A transmit apparatus for transmitting discontinuous time-frequency operation, DTFO, signals in a communication network comprises a transmitter configured to transmit a DTFO signal comprising monitoring symbols and regular DTFO symbols in the communication network.Type: GrantFiled: January 14, 2021Date of Patent: June 27, 2023Assignee: Intel CorporationInventors: Vladimir Oksman, Rainer Strobel
-
Patent number: 11682375Abstract: A speaker system includes a wearable speaker capable of outputting a first sound which is a voice of a communication partner of a talker and a second sound, a microphone, and a sound processing device which processes a sound output from the wearable speaker and a sound picked up by the microphone. The sound processing device generates a reference signal by synthesizing a first signal indicating the first sound and a second signal indicating the second sound, outputs the first signal and the second signal to the wearable speaker, obtains a sound pickup signal including the voice of the talker from the microphone, performs, on the sound pickup signal, a process of cancelling the sound component output from the wearable speaker by using the reference signal, and outputs the sound pickup signal on which the cancellation process has been performed.Type: GrantFiled: August 6, 2019Date of Patent: June 20, 2023Assignee: PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.Inventors: Udeni Sangakkara, Takuto Takizawa, Eiji Saitou, Yukiharu Wakiguchi, Minoru Umesako
-
Patent number: 11677879Abstract: Some disclosed teleconferencing methods may involve detecting a howl state during a teleconference. The teleconference may involve two or more teleconference client locations and a teleconference server. The teleconference server may be configured for providing full-duplex audio connectivity between the teleconference client locations. The howl state may be a state of acoustic feedback involving two or more teleconference devices in a teleconference client location. Detecting the howl state may involve an analysis of both spectral and temporal characteristics of teleconference audio data. Some disclosed teleconferencing methods may involve determining which client location is causing the howl state. Some such methods may involve mitigating the howl state and/or sending a howl state detection message.Type: GrantFiled: March 10, 2022Date of Patent: June 13, 2023Assignee: DOLBY LABORATORIES LICENSING CORPORATIONInventors: Kai Li, David Gunawan, Feng Deng, Qianqian Fang
-
Patent number: 11616530Abstract: An echo canceller system includes a data transmitter circuit and an echo canceller circuit. The data transmitter circuit is configured to receive a transmitted signal. The echo canceller circuit includes a first filter. The first filter is configured to generate a first filtered signal according to the transmitted signal and a filter coefficient vector. The filter coefficient vector is updated according to a high-frequency leakage process. The echo canceller circuit is further configured to generate an echo cancelling signal according to the first filtered signal. The data transmitter circuit is further configured to generate an output signal according to a received signal and the echo cancelling signal.Type: GrantFiled: July 8, 2021Date of Patent: March 28, 2023Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORPORATIONInventors: Hsuan-Ting Ho, Liang-Wei Huang, Kuei-Ying Lu, Chia-Lin Chang
-
Patent number: 11601710Abstract: Approaches provide for processing a communications signal, such as a wideband communications signal. For example, a communications signal can be received at an access device, such as a cable modem or a wireless transceiver/radio. The access device can include components operable to process the communications signal to enable access to, for example, video, data, voice, high-speed Internet services. At least some of the components include an echo cancellation component among other components to cancel interference (e.g., ACI, ALI). For example, the echo cancellation component can use trained filters and samples of the upstream signal, echoed samples of the transmitted signal, feedback signals of the echoed signal, etc., to estimate one or more types of interference. Thereafter, the estimated interference can be used to cancel interference at the access device.Type: GrantFiled: April 2, 2020Date of Patent: March 7, 2023Assignee: SiTune CorporationInventors: Marzieh Veyseh, Mahdi Khoshgard, Vahid M Toosi, Saeid Mehrmanesh
-
Patent number: 11589154Abstract: A system for detecting parasitic oscillation in a wearable audio device that includes an electro-acoustic transducer that is configured to develop sound for a user, a housing that holds the transducer, at least one of a feedforward microphone that is configured to detect sound outside of the housing and output a feedforward microphone signal and a feedback microphone that is configured to detect sound inside of the housing and output a feedback microphone signal, and an opening in the housing that emits sound pressure from the transducer. The system includes a parasitic oscillation detector that is configured to determine a fundamental frequency of at least one of the feedforward and feedback microphone signals and compare an amplitude of the determined fundamental frequency to a threshold level, to determine parasitic oscillation.Type: GrantFiled: August 25, 2021Date of Patent: February 21, 2023Assignee: BOSE CORPORATIONInventor: Emery M. Ku
-
Patent number: 11557278Abstract: A method includes receiving audio data corresponding to an utterance spoken by a user that includes a command for a digital assistant to perform a long-standing operation, activating a set of one or more warm words associated with a respective action for controlling the long-standing operation, and associating the activated set of one or more warm words with only the user. While the digital assistant is performing the long-standing operation, the method includes receiving additional audio data corresponding to an additional utterance, identifying one of the warm words from the activated set of warm words, and performing speaker verification on the additional audio data. The method further includes performing the respective action associated with the identified one of the warm words for controlling the long-standing operation when the additional utterance was spoken by the same user that is associated with the activated set of one or more warm words.Type: GrantFiled: December 10, 2020Date of Patent: January 17, 2023Assignee: Google LLCInventors: Matthew Sharifi, Victor Carbune
-
Patent number: 11553274Abstract: The present application relates to a system and method for providing autoregressive based residual echo suppression in the STFT domain in a bidirectional vehicle communications system including receiving, from a communications processor, a speaker signal for coupling to a speaker, receiving, from a microphone, a microphone signal wherein the microphone signal includes a voice signal and a residual echo signal, transforming the signals to the STFT domain generating an estimated power spectral density of the residual echo signal in response to a prior power spectral density of a prior residual echo signal, isolating the voice signal from the microphone signal by multiplying the estimated residual echo gain generated using the estimated power spectral density of the residual echo signal with the microphone signal, transforming the signals back to the time domain and coupling the voice signal to the communications processor.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2020Date of Patent: January 10, 2023Assignee: GM GLOBAL TECHNOLOGY OPERATIONS LLCInventor: Amos Schreibman
-
Patent number: 11553276Abstract: An audio codec circuit includes a voltage detecting circuit, an output processing circuit, a digital-to-analog conversion circuit, and an audio amplifying circuit. The voltage detecting circuit is configured to detect an input voltage of an input power. The output processing circuit obtains a first output compensation value according to the input voltage, an output circuit parameter, and a first output spec. The output processing circuit processes a digital audio and compensates the processed audio by the first output compensation value. The digital-to-analog conversion circuit is configured to perform digital-to-analog conversion on the compensated audio to obtain an analog audio. The audio amplifying circuit is configured to amplify the analog audio and output the amplified audio.Type: GrantFiled: January 22, 2021Date of Patent: January 10, 2023Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.Inventors: Tsung-Peng Chuang, Cheng-Pin Chang
-
Patent number: 11514928Abstract: A device implementing a system for processing speech in an audio signal includes at least one processor configured to receive an audio signal corresponding to at least one microphone of a device, and to determine, using a first model, a first probability that a speech source is present in the audio signal. The at least one processor is further configured to determine, using a second model, a second probability that an estimated location of a source of the audio signal corresponds to an expected position of a user of the device, and to determine a likelihood that the audio signal corresponds to the user of the device based on the first and second probabilities.Type: GrantFiled: December 9, 2019Date of Patent: November 29, 2022Assignee: Apple Inc.Inventors: Mehrez Souden, Ante Jukic, Jason Wung, Ashrith Deshpande, Joshua D. Atkins
-
Patent number: 11503415Abstract: Methods and systems for signal processing an audio signal in a hearing device to detect when feedback path change occurs and controlling an adaptive feedback canceler to remove the feedback are provided. The hearing device includes a receiver and a microphone. An exemplary method includes detecting whether a tonal signal is caused by a feedback path change by estimating a product of a subband error signal and a subband output signal generated in response to a subband audio input signal; estimating a fast metric based on the estimated product and estimating a slow metric; and applying or maintaining an adaptation rate to the adaptive feedback canceler of the hearing device, wherein the adaptation rate applied or maintained is selected based upon a value of the difference between the fast and slow metrics compared to a threshold value.Type: GrantFiled: April 23, 2021Date of Patent: November 15, 2022Assignee: Eargo, Inc.Inventors: Bryant E. Sorensen, Brenton Steele
-
Patent number: 11495241Abstract: Provided are an echo delay time estimation method and system thereof, wherein the echo delay time estimation method is executed by the echo delay time estimation system with the following steps: receiving a testing signal and a received signal and executing a time to frequency analysis to generate a testing signal spectrogram and a received signal spectrogram; respectively executing a characteristic signal dynamic detection calculation for the testing signal spectrogram and the received signal spectrogram to generate a testing signal characteristic dynamic vector and a received signal characteristic dynamic vector; executing a cross-correlated vector estimation for the testing signal characteristic dynamic vector and the received signal characteristic dynamic vector to generate a cross-correlated vector; and calculating an echo delay time according to the cross-correlated vector.Type: GrantFiled: March 18, 2021Date of Patent: November 8, 2022Assignee: QNAP Systems, Inc.Inventor: Wei-Wei Hsiung
-
Patent number: 11490202Abstract: A signal processing device includes an echo estimation device, a captured signal buffer device and a delay estimation device. The echo estimation device generates an echo estimation signal according to a reference signal and a set of reflection path simulation coefficients and compensates the echo estimation signal according to a first delay to generate a compensated echo estimation signal. The captured signal buffer device buffers a captured signal captured by microphone device and outputs the captured signal according to a second delay to generate a compensated captured signal. The delay estimation device estimates an amount of delay adjustment according to the compensated echo estimation signal and the compensated captured signal and updates the first delay or the second delay according to the amount of delay adjustment. A difference between an upper bound and a lower bound of the first delay is smaller than or equal to 1.Type: GrantFiled: July 13, 2021Date of Patent: November 1, 2022Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.Inventor: Mu-Chen Wu
-
Patent number: 11457309Abstract: A method for operating a beamforming microphone array for use in a predetermined area is provided herein, the method comprising: receiving acoustic audio signals at each of a plurality of microphones, converting the same to an electrical mic audio signal, and outputting each of the plurality of electrical mic audio signals; generating a user location data signal by a wave sensor system, and outputting the user location data signal, wherein the user location data signal includes location information of one or more people within the predetermined area; receiving both the user location data signal and plurality of echo-corrected mic audio signals at an adaptive beamforming device; and adapting one or more beams by the adaptive beamforming device based on the user location data signal and plurality of mic audio signals wherein each of the one or more beams acquires sound from one or more specific locations in the predetermined area.Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 2020Date of Patent: September 27, 2022Assignee: Crestron Electronics, Inc.Inventor: Mark LaBosco
-
Patent number: 11404073Abstract: A system configured to improve double-talk detection. The system inputs microphone signals into an adaptive filter and determines whether double talk is present based on how the adaptive filter adapts to the microphone signals. For example, when an audible sound is detected, the adaptive filter updates the filter coefficients that correspond to a time difference of arrival of the audible sound. Thus, the device may detect single-talk conditions (e.g., a single peak in the filter coefficients) or double-talk conditions (e.g., two peaks in the filter coefficients). In addition, the device may track a location of the local speech or remote speech over time based on the time difference of arrival.Type: GrantFiled: December 13, 2018Date of Patent: August 2, 2022Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.Inventor: Xianxian Zhang
-
Patent number: 11373669Abstract: An acoustic processing method includes extracting a feature amount from a first audio signal representing sound collected by a microphone, receiving a second audio signal from a different device on a far-end side, determining a gain of the second audio signal based on the extracted feature amount, and adjusting the second audio signal based on the determined gain of the second audio signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 2, 2020Date of Patent: June 28, 2022Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATIONInventors: Tetsuto Kawai, Yusuke Kadowaki, Yoshifumi Oizumi
-
Patent number: 11356142Abstract: A transceiver circuit includes an ADC and an echo-cancellation circuit, wherein the echo-cancellation circuit includes a steady circuit, a transient circuit and an output circuit. In the operations of the transceiver circuit, the ADC is configured to perform an analog-to-digital conversion operation on an analog input signal to generate a digital input signal. The steady circuit is configured to generate a steady echo response according to a transmitting signal. The transient circuit is configured to generate an echo response adjustment signal according to a phase change of a clock signal used by the transmitting signal. The output circuit is configured to generate an output signal according to the digital input signal, the steady echo response, and the echo response adjustment signal.Type: GrantFiled: October 23, 2020Date of Patent: June 7, 2022Assignee: Realtek Semiconductor Corp.Inventors: Hsuan-Ting Ho, Liang-Wei Huang
-
Patent number: 11348595Abstract: A system and method that enhances spoken utterances and provides entertainment by capturing one or more microphone signals containing echo and decomposing the one or more microphone signals into a plurality of signal paths through a synthesizer that adds or makes non-linear modifications to some of the captured one or more microphone signals. The system and method and estimates multiple echo paths from each of the one the one or more microphones. The system and method processes the captured microphone signals in response to the estimated plurality of echo paths by subtracting the echo contributions of each of the plurality of echo paths from the captured one or more microphone signals. The system and method also provide signal separation and post processing functions that renders speech recognition gaming applications.Type: GrantFiled: December 7, 2017Date of Patent: May 31, 2022Assignees: BlackBerry Limited, 2236008 Ontario Inc.Inventors: Phillip Alan Hetherington, Shreyas Anand Paranjpe, Leonard Charles Layton
-
Patent number: 11335357Abstract: Audio systems and methods are provided that enhance a portion of audio content relative to other portions of the audio content. The systems and methods select the portion to be enhanced and calculate an intelligibility metric of the selected portion, such as a dialogue portion. The systems and methods determine a gain based at least in part upon the intelligibility metric and apply the gain to the selected portion to provide an enhanced portion. The systems and methods provide an audio signal, based at least in part upon the enhanced portion, to an output for conversion to an acoustic signal, such as by an acoustic transducer.Type: GrantFiled: August 14, 2018Date of Patent: May 17, 2022Assignee: BOSE CORPORATIONInventor: Joseph Gaalaas
-
Patent number: 11301504Abstract: A bias compensation method, system, and computer program product include modifying a behavior of a first analytic engine service with a second analytic engine service, where the first service accepts user submitted data and communicates an assessment of the data in a form of a label associated with the corresponding submitted data, where the second service accepts an input and communicates an assessment in a form of a label associated with the corresponding input, and where a behavior model of the first service and the second service includes a discrepancy between the output labels by each service with respect to true labels of data accepted, further including composing a new analytic engine service from the first service and the second service to optimize a service bias in terms of a test dataset based on the behavior model and the known true assessments.Type: GrantFiled: September 28, 2018Date of Patent: April 12, 2022Assignee: INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATIONInventors: Jonathan Hudson Connell, II, Nalini K. Ratha, Sharathchandra Pankanti
-
Patent number: 11240766Abstract: Wireless communications systems and methods related to mitigating maximum permissible exposure (MPE) constraints based on user equipment (UE) feedback are provided. A first wireless communication device transmits, to a second wireless communication device, a plurality of reports, each report indicating an allowable transmission power level at the first wireless communication device satisfying an MPE parameter. The first wireless communication device receives, from the second wireless communication device, a first configuration based on an MPE profile associated with the first wireless communication device in response to the plurality of reports. The first wireless communication device transmits, to the second wireless communication device, a first communication signal over a first beam based on the first configuration.Type: GrantFiled: January 24, 2019Date of Patent: February 1, 2022Assignee: QUALCOMM IncorporatedInventors: Vasanthan Raghavan, Sundar Subramanian, Ashwin Sampath, Junyi Li
-
Patent number: 11211061Abstract: Voice control in a multi-talker and multimedia environment is disclosed. In one aspect, there is provided a method comprising: receiving a microphone signal for each zone in a plurality of zones of an acoustic environment; generating a processed microphone signal for each zone in the plurality of zones of the acoustic environment, the generating including removing echo caused by audio transducers in the acoustic environment from each of the microphone signals, and removing interference from each of the microphone signals; and performing speech recognition on the processed microphone signals.Type: GrantFiled: January 7, 2019Date of Patent: December 28, 2021Assignee: 2236008 Ontario Inc.Inventors: Xueman Li, Mark Robert Every, Darrin Kenneth John Fry
-
Patent number: 11206162Abstract: The method includes transmitting by a first remote communication unit an upstream symbol with a first structure onto a first communication line at a reference time point trf, wherein the reference time point trf is determined based on a time of reception of a downstream symbol with the first structure tFDX_DS_RX and a first propagation delay over the first communication line tPD1, as trf=tFDX_DS_RX?tPD1; transmitting by a second remote communication unit an upstream symbol with a second structure onto the second communication line at tTDD_US_TX=trf?tPD2 during a time interval assigned for upstream transmission on the second communication line, wherein tPD2 is a second propagation delay over the second communication line, so that the upstream symbol with the second structure transmitted by the second remote communication unit arrives at the access node at the reference time point trf.Type: GrantFiled: September 10, 2018Date of Patent: December 21, 2021Assignee: NOKIA TECHNOLOGIES OYInventors: Jochen Maes, Yannick Lefevre, Werner Coomans
-
Patent number: 11206004Abstract: Automatic equalization for consistent headphone may take place in a playback mode of operation in which ANC is turned off and there is no direct feedback from an internal microphone (to the input of a speaker). An automatic user content equalization process is active during that mode of operation which adapts a filter AEQ to restore a flat or other desired frequency response at the output of the speaker despite variation in headphone fit. An estimate of a transfer function of a path S is determined, wherein the path S is from i) the input of the speaker of the headphone to the internal microphone signal. The filter AEQ is adapted based on the estimate of the transfer function of the path S while it filters user content audio that drives the input of the speaker of the headphone. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.Type: GrantFiled: September 16, 2020Date of Patent: December 21, 2021Assignee: APPLE INC.Inventor: Navneet Gandhi
-
Patent number: 11200908Abstract: A method for improving voice quality is provided herein. The method includes receiving acoustic signals from a microphone array; receiving sensor signals from an accelerometer sensor of the headset; generating, by a beamformer, a speech output signal and a noise output signal according to the acoustic signals; best-estimating the speech output signal according to the sensor signals to generate a best-estimated signal; and generating a mixed signal according to the speech output signal and the best-estimated signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 30, 2020Date of Patent: December 14, 2021Assignee: FORTEMEDIA, INC.Inventors: Qing-Guang Liu, Xiaoyan Lu
-
Patent number: 11170760Abstract: Systems and methods for detecting speech activity. The system includes an audio source and an electronic processor. The electronic processor is configured to receive a first audio signal from the audio source, buffer the first audio signal, add random noise to the buffered first audio signal, and filter the first audio stream to create a filtered signal. The electronic processor then determines a signal entropy of each frame of the filtered signal, determines an average signal entropy of a first plurality of frames of the filtered signal occurring at a beginning of the filtered signal, and compares the signal entropy of each frame of the filtered signal to the average signal entropy. Based on the comparison, the electronic processor determines a first speech endpoint located in a first frame of the filtered signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 21, 2019Date of Patent: November 9, 2021Assignee: Robert Bosch GmbHInventors: Pongtep Angkititrakul, HyeongSik Kim
-
Patent number: 11164592Abstract: A system that performs automatic gain control (AGC) using different decay rates. The system may select a slow decay rate to track a loudness level within speech (e.g., within an utterance), improving audio quality and maintaining dynamic range for an individual voice, while selecting a fast decay rate to track the loudness level after a gap of silence (e.g., no voice activity detected for a duration of time) or during large level changes (e.g., actual speech loudness is lower than estimated speech loudness for a duration of time). This improves an accuracy of the loudness estimate and therefore a responsiveness of the automatic gain control, resulting in an improved user experience.Type: GrantFiled: May 9, 2019Date of Patent: November 2, 2021Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.Inventors: Biqing Wu, Phil Hetherington, Carlo Murgia, Rong Hu
-
Patent number: 11120795Abstract: A method for noise cancellation, the method may include detecting a voice trigger or receiving an indication regarding an occurrence of a voice trigger; searching, based at least on a timing of occurrence of the voice trigger, for at least one of a noise-period and a voice-period; when finding a noise period then updating one or more noise parameters based on one or more features of sensed audio signals received during the noise period; when finding a voice period then updating one or more voice parameters based on one or more features of sensed audio signals received during the voice period; estimating, based on the one or more noise parameters and the one or more voice parameters, a probability that voice is present at one or more subsequent periods; and cancelling noise at the one or more subsequent periods, based on the voice presence probability.Type: GrantFiled: June 19, 2019Date of Patent: September 14, 2021Assignee: DSP GROUP LTD.Inventor: Adoram Erell
-
Patent number: 11122160Abstract: Apparatuses, methods, systems, and program products are disclosed for detecting and correcting audio echo. An apparatus includes a processor and a memory that stores code executable by the processor. The code is executable by the processor to detect audio that is received through an audio channel of a first user during a conference call being echoed through an audio channel of a second user in the conference call. The code is executable by the processor to identify the second user associated with the audio channel that is echoing the audio of the first user. The code is executable by the processor to perform a corrective action associated with the second user to prevent audio that is received from the first user from being echoed through the audio channel of the second user.Type: GrantFiled: July 8, 2020Date of Patent: September 14, 2021Assignee: Lenovo (Singapore) PTE. LTD.Inventors: Matthew Fardig, Tobias Christensen, Shawn Sharp, Joshua Smith
-
Patent number: 11070913Abstract: A beamforming microphone array is described herein, comprising: a plurality of microphones each of which is adapted to receive an acoustic audio signal and convert the same to a microphone (mic) audio signal; a wave sensor system adapted to determine locations of one or more people within a predetermined area about the beamforming microphone array and output the same as user location data signal; and an adaptive beamforming circuit adapted to receive the user location data signal and plurality of mic audio signals and perform adaptive beamforming on the plurality of mic audio signals that takes into account the received user location data signal to adapt a plurality of beam signals, one for each of the microphones, to acquire sound from one or more specific locations in the predetermined area; and a plurality of acoustic echo cancellation devices, one for each of the beam signal outputs from the adaptive beamforming circuit, wherein each of the plurality of acoustic echo cancellation devices is adapted to recType: GrantFiled: February 26, 2020Date of Patent: July 20, 2021Assignee: Crestron Electronics, Inc.Inventor: Mark LaBosco
-
Patent number: 11046256Abstract: An audio system, including an accelerometer positioned to produce an accelerometer signal representative of road noise within a vehicle cabin; a microphone disposed within the vehicle cabin such that the microphone receives the road noise and produces a microphone signal having a road-noise component; and a road-noise canceler, comprising a road-noise cancellation filter, configured to receive the accelerometer signal and the microphone signal and to minimize the road-noise component of the microphone signal according to the accelerometer signal, to produce an estimated microphone signal.Type: GrantFiled: June 17, 2019Date of Patent: June 29, 2021Assignee: Bose CorporationInventors: Ankita D. Jain, Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Ben John Feng
-
Patent number: 11025297Abstract: Facilitating echo cancellation within communication networks is contemplated, such as but not necessarily limited to facilitating echo cancellation within full-duplex (FDX) communication networks. The echo cancellation may optionally be performed with an echo canceller included as part of or otherwise associated with an FDX node used to facilitate interfacing signaling between a digital domain and an analog domain of a FDX or other communication network.Type: GrantFiled: November 2, 2017Date of Patent: June 1, 2021Assignee: Cable Television Laboratories, Inc.Inventors: Thomas Holtzman Williams, Belal Hamzeh, Luis Alberto Campos
-
Patent number: 11019426Abstract: A beamforming microphone array is described herein, comprising: a plurality of microphones each of which is adapted to receive an acoustic audio signal and convert the same to a microphone (mic) audio signal; a wave sensor system adapted to determine locations of one or more people within a predetermined area about the beamforming microphone array and output the same as user location data signal; and an adaptive beamforming circuit adapted to receive the user location data signal and plurality of mic audio signals and perform adaptive beamforming on the plurality of mic audio signals that takes into account the received user location data signal to adapt one or more beams to acquire sound from one or more specific locations in the predetermined area.Type: GrantFiled: February 26, 2020Date of Patent: May 25, 2021Inventor: Mark LaBosco
-
Patent number: 11018634Abstract: A circuit includes a digital-to-analog conversion circuit, an amplifying circuit, a mixing circuit, and an analog-to-digital converter. The digital-to-analog conversion circuit is configured to receive and convert audio data in the digital domain and output audio data in the analog domain. The audio data includes a main-tone component. The amplifying circuit is configured to output an audio signal according to the audio data in the analog domain. The mixing circuit is configured to eliminate the main-tone component according to the audio data in the analog domain and the audio signal and to output a feedback signal. The analog-to-digital converter is configured to convert the feedback signal from the analog domain to the digital domain.Type: GrantFiled: July 7, 2020Date of Patent: May 25, 2021Assignee: REALTEK SEMICONDUCTOR CORP.Inventor: Chih-Kang Chien
-
Patent number: 11003709Abstract: What is described is a method for associating noises of at least one signal class (like disturbing noise) of a plurality of signal classes (like disturbing noise and non-disturbing noise). The method has the steps of “receiving environmental noises” and “establishing whether the environmental noises or a set of parameters derived from the environmental noises fulfill/s a predefined rule which describes the signal class of the plurality of signal classes”. Starting from this, the steps of “logging that the predefined rule has been fulfilled”, “recording the environmental noises received for a migrating time window”, “deriving a set of parameters from the environmental noises for the migrating time window and storing the set of parameters” or “emitting an activation signal for another device for associating a noise” are performed.Type: GrantFiled: December 28, 2017Date of Patent: May 11, 2021Assignee: Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.Inventors: Thomas Sporer, Tobias Clauss, Judith Liebetrau, Sara Kepplinger, Hanna Lukashevich, Dietmar Kepplinger
-
Patent number: 10999418Abstract: A controller for an acoustic echo canceller includes a noise estimator configured to estimate a level of noise that is comprised in a microphone signal relative to an echo component, estimated by the acoustic echo canceller, comprised in the microphone signal. The controller further includes a control module configured to control the acoustic echo canceller in dependence on that estimate.Type: GrantFiled: July 3, 2019Date of Patent: May 4, 2021Assignee: Imagination Technologies LimitedInventors: Senthil Kumar Mani, Sowmya Mannava
-
Patent number: 10978087Abstract: A signal processing method performs echo reduction processing on at least one of a collected sound signal of a first microphone, a collected sound signal of a second microphone, or both the collected sound signal of the first microphone and the collected sound signal of the second microphone, and calculates a correlated component between the collected sound signal of the first microphone and the collected sound signal of the second microphone, using a collected sound signal of which echo has been reduced by the an echo reduction processing.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2019Date of Patent: April 13, 2021Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATIONInventors: Tetsuto Kawai, Kohei Kanamori, Takayuki Inoue
-
Patent number: 10937442Abstract: A signal processing method performs echo reduction processing on at least one of a collected sound signal of a first microphone, a collected sound signal of a second microphone, or both the collected sound signal of the first microphone and the collected sound signal of the second microphone, and calculates a correlated component between the collected sound signal of the first microphone and the collected sound signal of the second microphone, using a collected sound signal of which echo has been reduced by the an echo reduction processing.Type: GrantFiled: December 3, 2019Date of Patent: March 2, 2021Assignee: YAMAHA CORPORATIONInventors: Tetsuto Kawai, Kohei Kanamori, Takayuki Inoue
-
Patent number: 10872594Abstract: According to an embodiment, a noise cancellation method comprises updating a first far-end channel filter according to a first variance yielded based on an input signal and a first far-end signal included in the input signal, providing a first output signal obtained by removing a first far-end noise signal from the input signal through the first far-end channel filter, updating a second far-end channel filter according to a second variance yielded based on the first output signal and a second far-end signal included in the input signal, and providing a second output signal obtained by removing a second far-end noise signal from the first output signal through the second far-end channel filter.Type: GrantFiled: February 1, 2019Date of Patent: December 22, 2020Inventors: Hyung Min Park, Byung Joon Cho
-
Patent number: 10854186Abstract: A device-management system performs audio processing, such as acoustic echo cancellation or beamforming, in a computing-resource allocation corresponding to a functionally limited device. The device-management system may be a locally-connected network device that is in communication with one or more user devices; the device-management system may also or instead be a remote device that communicates with the user devices using the locally-connected network device. The device-management system may receive audio data from one or more microphones of one or more user devices. To perform acoustic echo cancellation, the device-management system may receive and process time data corresponding to a time of output of audio by the user device.Type: GrantFiled: July 22, 2019Date of Patent: December 1, 2020Assignee: Amazon Technologies, Inc.Inventors: Sanjay Devireddy, Kenneth Edward Cecka, Adam Stevens, Sebastian Pierce-Durance, Naveen Kumar Devaraj, Po-Chen Paul Yang, Federico Dan Rozenberg, Pete Baldridge, Pranov Rai, Todd Greenwalt, Yusuf Goren, Rajiv Jain
-
Patent number: 10840870Abstract: The technology described herein can be embodied in a method for estimating a power spectral density of noise, the method including receiving an input signal representing audio captured using a microphone. The input signal includes a first portion that represents acoustic outputs from two or more audio sources, and a second portion that represents a noise component. The method also includes iteratively modifying a frequency domain representation of the input signal, such that the modified frequency domain representation represents a portion of the input signal in which effects due to the first portion are substantially reduced. The method further includes determining, from the modified frequency domain representation, an estimate of a power spectral density of the noise, and generating a control signal configured to adjust one or more gains of an acoustic transducer. The control signal is generated based on the estimate of the power spectral density of the noise.Type: GrantFiled: February 19, 2020Date of Patent: November 17, 2020Assignee: Bose CorporationInventors: Shiufun Cheung, Zukui Song, David J. Warkentin
-
Patent number: 10841431Abstract: An echo cancellation detector for controlling an acoustic echo canceller that is configured to cancel an echo of a far-end signal in a near-end signal in a telephony system, the echo cancellation detector comprising a comparison generator configured to compare the far-end signal with the near-end signal, a decision unit configured to make a determination about a first acoustic echo canceller based on that comparison and a controller configured to control an operation of a second acoustic echo canceller in dependence on the determination.Type: GrantFiled: September 30, 2015Date of Patent: November 17, 2020Assignee: Imagination Technologies LimitedInventors: Senthil Kumar Mani, Srinivas Akella, Anupama Ghantasala
-
Patent number: 10826671Abstract: A method for dynamically modifying a frame structure in transceiving of data between a network side entity and at least one node, the data is divided among a plurality of frames, the method comprising: providing an upstream management symbol offset position with respect to a frame reference point, the upstream management symbol offset position is associated with an upstream management symbol that is configured to at least convey downstream acknowledgement data; providing an updated frame structure to the at least one node, including: information defining a transition point between downstream and upstream; and a reference point indicating when the updated frame structure shall take effect; receiving the updated frame structure by the at least one node; and employing the updated frame structure from the reference point, by the network side entity.Type: GrantFiled: January 18, 2017Date of Patent: November 3, 2020Assignee: Sckipio Technologies S.I LTDInventors: Erez Ben-Tovim, Guy Reina, Rami Verbin