Acoustic signal processing apparatus, method of processing acoustic signal, and storage medium

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10015592-B2
Application number	US-201715592637-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 11, 2017
Priority date	May 20, 2016
Publication date	Jul 3, 2018
Grant date	Jul 3, 2018

Abstract

An acoustic signal processing apparatus includes circuitry to generate, when a plurality of sound receivers receive sound from a plurality of examination directions in a space and outputs acoustic signals of a plurality of channels, an effective signal corresponding to sound coming from each one of the examination directions based on the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each one of the examination directions, calculate a feature for each one of the examination directions based on the effective signal generated for each one of the examination directions, and select a target direction from the plurality of examination directions in the space based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. An acoustic signal processing apparatus comprising;
circuitry to:
generate, when a plurality of sound receivers receive sound from a plurality of examination directions in a space and outputs acoustic signals of a plurality of channels to the circuitry, an effective signal corresponding to sound coming from each one of the examination directions based on the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each one of the examination directions;
calculate a feature for each one of the examination directions based on the effective signal generated for each one of the examination directions; and
select a target direction from the plurality of examination directions in the space based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions,
wherein the plurality of examination directions includes a first examination direction, and at least one other examination direction including a second examination direction different from the first examination direction, and
wherein when the circuitry generates the effective signal for the first examination direction, the circuitry generates a noise signal for the first examination direction based on acoustic signals corresponding to sound coming from the second examination direction, and then the circuitry calculates the feature for the first examination direction based on the effective signal and the noise signal generated for the first examination direction.

2. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry determines whether a sound source exists for each one of the examination directions based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions,
wherein when the circuitry determines that the sound source exists for one or more of the examination directions, the circuitry selects one of the examination directions where a signal level of sound coming from the sound source becomes the greatest level from the one or more of the examination directions,
wherein when the circuitry determines that the sound source does not exist at any one of the examination directions, the circuitry selects one of the examination directions where a signal level of sound becomes the smallest level from the plurality of the examination directions.

3. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry further removes the noise signal from the effective signal.

4. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 1 ,
wherein the circuitry calculates the feature for the first examination direction based on the effective signal generated for the first examination direction, and the effective signal generated for the second examination direction.

5. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the circuitry calculates the feature of each one of the examination directions based on a frequency component of the effective signal that is set less than a first frequency, the first frequency being set based on an installation interval of the plurality of sound receivers.

6. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the feature calculated by the circuitry includes a plurality of features for each one of the examination directions.

7. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 6 , wherein when a change rate of the feature calculated for a current processing with respect to the feature calculated for a most-recent processing is less than a threshold, the circuitry averages the feature of the current processing, and selects the target direction based on the averaged feature of the current processing.

8. The acoustic signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein each of the sound receivers is an omnidirectional microphone.

9. A method of processing an acoustic signal, the method comprising,
receiving acoustic signals of a plurality of channels from a plurality of sound receivers when the plurality of sound receivers receives sound coming from a plurality of examination directions in a space;
generating an effective signal corresponding to sound coming from each one of the examination directions based on the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each one of the examination directions;
calculating a feature for each one of the examination directions based on the effective signal generated for each one of the examination directions; and
selecting a target direction from the plurality of examination directions in the space based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions,
wherein the plurality of examination directions includes a first examination direction, and at least one other examination direction including a second examination direction different from the first examination direction, and
wherein when the generating generates the effective signal for the first examination direction, the generating generates a noise signal for the first examination direction based on acoustic signals corresponding to sound coming from the second examination direction, and then the calculating calculates the feature for the first examination direction based on the effective signal and the noise signal generated for the first examination direction.

10. A non-transitory storage medium storing a program that, when executed by a computer, causes the computer to execute a method of processing an acoustic signal, the method comprising,
receiving acoustic signals of a plurality of channels from a plurality of sound receivers when the plurality of sound receivers receives sound coming from a plurality of examination directions in a space;
generating an effective signal corresponding to sound coming from each one of the examination directions based on the acoustic signals of the plurality of channels for each one of the examination directions;
calculating a feature for each one of the examination directions based on the effective signal generated for each one of the examination directions; and
selecting a target direction from the plurality of examination directions in the space based on the feature calculated for each one of the examination directions,
wherein the plurality of examination directions includes a first examination direction, and at least one other examination direction including a second examination direction different from the first examination direction, and
wherein when the generating generates the effective signal for the first examination direction, the generating generates a noise signal for the first examination direction based on acoustic signals corresponding to sound coming from the second examination direction, and then the calculating calculates the feature for the first examination direction based on the effective signal and the noise signal generated for the first examination direction.

Assignees

• Yoshida Minoru
• Aiba Akihito
• Ricoh Co Ltd

Inventors

• Yoshida Minoru
• Aiba Akihito

Classifications

• H04S2400/15

  Aspects of sound capture and related signal processing for recording or reproduction · CPC title

• H04R2201/401

  2D or 3D arrays of transducers · CPC title

• H04R2430/21

  Direction finding using differential microphone array [DMA] · CPC title

• G10L2021/02166

  Microphone arrays; Beamforming · CPC title

• G10L21/0216

  characterised by the method used for estimating noise · CPC title