Device and method for estimating direction of arrival

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11567162-B2
Application number	US-201916664373-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 25, 2019
Priority date	Apr 25, 2017
Publication date	Jan 31, 2023
Grant date	Jan 31, 2023

Abstract

A device for estimating Direction of Arrival (DOA) of sound from Q≥1 sound sources is provided. The device is configured to obtain a phase difference matrix, which includes measured phase difference values, each of the measured phase difference values being a measured value of a phase difference between two microphone units for a frequency bin in a range of frequencies of the sound. The device is further configured to generate a replicated phase difference matrix by replicating the measured phase difference values to other potential sinusoidal periods, calculate a DOA value for each phase difference value in the replicated phase difference matrix, and determine, as Q DOA results, the Q most prominent peak values in a histogram generated based on the calculated DOA values.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A device for estimating Direction of Arrival (DOA) of sound from Q >1 sound sources, the device being a component in a system comprising a plurality of microphone units, the device being configured to:
obtain a phase difference matrix including measured phase difference values, each of the measured phase difference values being a measured value of a phase difference between two microphone units of the plurality of microphone units for a frequency bin in a range of frequencies of the sound,
generate a replicated phase difference matrix by replicating the measured phase difference values to other potential sinusoidal periods,
calculate a DOA value for each phase difference value in the replicated phase difference matrix,
generate a first histogram from the calculated DOA values,
select, as Q+q DOA candidates, Q+q most prominent peak values in the first histogram, wherein q=2,
generate a second histogram based on the selected Q+q DOA candidates, and
determine, as Q DOA results, Q most prominent peak values in the second histogram.

2. The device according to claim 1 , wherein the device is further configured to:
generate the replicated phase difference matrix by replicating the measured phase difference values based on a minimum aliasing frequency defined by

f

a
⁢

⁢
0

=

c

2
⁢
Δ
⁢

⁢
d

wherein Δd denotes a distance between the two microphone units and c is a speed of the sound.

3. The device according to claim 2 , wherein:
the measured phase difference values in the phase difference matrix are wrapped into [−π, π], and
the device is configured to generate the replicated phase difference matrix according to

C
=

⌈

f
i

-

f

a
0

2
⁢

f

a
0

⌉

C
s

=

(

-
C

,

-
C

+
1

,
…
⁢

,
0
,
…
⁢

,
C

)

μ
⁡

(

i
,
j

)

=

μ
0

⁡

(
i
)

+

2
⁢
π
⁢

⁢

C
s

⁡

(
j
)

i
=
1

,

…
⁢

⁢
N

;

j
=
1

,

…
⁢

⁢

(

2
⁢

⁢
C

+
1

)

wherein μ 0 denotes the phase difference matrix, μ denotes the replicated phase difference matrix, i is a frequency bin index corresponding to frequency f i , j is a replication index, and [*] denotes a ceiling function.

4. The device according to claim 3 , wherein the device is further configured to:
calculate the DOA values based on the formula

θ
⁡

(

i
,
j

)

=

arcsin
⁢

⁢

μ
⁡

(

i
,
j

)

2
⁢

⁢
π
⁢

⁢
f
⁢

⁢
Δ
⁢

Assignees

• Huawei Tech Co Ltd

Inventors

• Chen Kainan
• Geiger Jürgen
• Taghizadeh Mohammad
• Grosche Peter

Classifications

• G01S3/8006

  Multi-channel systems specially adapted for direction-finding, i.e. having a single aerial system capable of giving simultaneous indications of the directions of different signals · CPC title

• G10L17/00

  Speaker identification or verification techniques · CPC title

• G01S3/8083 Primary

  determining direction of source · CPC title

• H04R3/005

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