Sound signal processing apparatus and method for enhancing a sound signal

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-10602267-B2
Application number	US-201815978688-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 14, 2018
Priority date	Nov 18, 2015
Publication date	Mar 24, 2020
Grant date	Mar 24, 2020

Abstract

A sound signal processing apparatus including a plurality of microphones, where each microphone is configured to receive the sound signal from the target source, a processor configured to estimate a first power measure on the basis of the sound signal from the target source received by a first microphone of the microphones and a second power measure on the basis of the sound signal from the target source received by at least a second microphone of the microphones, which is located more distant from the target source than the first microphone, and the processor is further configured to determine a gain factor on the basis of a ratio between the second power measure and the first power measure, and an amplifier configured to apply the gain factor to the sound signal from the target source received by the first microphone.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A sound signal processing apparatus for enhancing a sound signal from a target source, comprising:
a first microphone configured to receive the sound signal from the target source as a first sound signal;
a second microphone configured to receive the sound signal from the target source as a second sound signal, wherein the second microphone is located farther from the target source than the first microphone;
a processor coupled to each of the first microphone and the second microphone, wherein the processor is configured to:
estimate a first power measure of the first sound signal based on each of a plurality of band-limited power measures in a plurality of frequency bands and a plurality of probabilities related to the frequency bands, wherein the first sound signal comprises the plurality of frequency bands, and wherein the probabilities define a likelihood of the target source being active in the frequency bands;
estimate a second power measure of the second sound signal; and
calculate a gain factor based on a ratio of the second power measure to the first power measure; and

an amplifier coupled to each of the processor, the first microphone and the second microphone, wherein the amplifier is configured to apply the gain factor to the first sound signal to enhance the first sound signal.

2. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the first power measure based on the following equation:
s ii =p i T (n)·diag{w}·x i (n), wherein the s ii denotes the first power measure, wherein the w denotes a weighting vector that defines a plurality of weights for the frequency bands, wherein the x i denotes a power measure vector that defines the band-limited power measures in the frequency bands a time instant n, and wherein the p i (n) denotes a probability vector that defines the probabilities for the time instant n based on the following equation:
p i (n)=[P i (n,1),P i (n,2), . . . , P i (n,K)] T , wherein the P i (n,k) denotes a probability that the target source is active at the first microphone in a frequency band k at the time instant n, and wherein the K denotes a number of the frequency bands.

3. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to determine the probabilities that define the likelihood for each of the frequency bands based on a difference between the first power measure and the second power measure.

4. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 2 , wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the first power measure using the probabilities for the time instant n defined by the following equation:

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wherein the X i (n, k) denotes an intensity of the first sound signal in the frequency band k at the time instant n, and wherein the X j (n, k) denotes an intensity of the first sound signal from the target source received by a j-th microphone in the frequency band k at the time instant n.

5. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the second power measure based on the first sound signal, wherein the second sound signal is received by at least one other microphone.

6. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 5 , wherein the processor is further configured to estimate the second power measure based on a plurality of microphone reliability measures, wherein a microphone reliability measure of each of the first microphone and the second microphone is based on a distance of the first microphone and the second microphone to the target source and a ratio of the sound signal from the target source received by the first microphone and the second microphone to a noise signal or interference signal.

7. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 1 , wherein the ratio is weighted by a normalized measure for a probability that the target source is active at the first microphone during a time instant n.

8. The sound signal processing apparatus of claim 7 , wherein the probability that the target source is ac

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Grosche Peter
• Helwani Karim
• Schörkhuber Christian
• Zotter Franz
• Höldrich Robert
• Frank Matthias

Classifications

• H04R3/005 Primary

  for combining the signals of two or more microphones (specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407) · CPC title

• H04R2430/01

  Aspects of volume control, not necessarily automatic, in sound systems · CPC title

• G10L25/21

  the extracted parameters being power information · CPC title

• H03G3/20

  Automatic control ({H03G3/005 takes precedence;} combined with volume compression or expansion H03G7/00) · CPC title

• H03G3/3005 Primary

  in amplifiers suitable for low-frequencies, e.g. audio amplifiers (H03G3/32, H03G3/34 take precedence) · CPC title