Microphone sensitivity difference correction device, method, and noise suppression device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9204218-B2
Application number	US-201414155731-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Jan 15, 2014
Priority date	Feb 28, 2013
Publication date	Dec 1, 2015
Grant date	Dec 1, 2015

Abstract

A microphone sensitivity difference correction device includes a detection section that detects a frequency domain signal expressing a stationary noise, based on frequency domain signals of input sound signals respectively input from plural microphones; a first correction section that employs the stationary noise to compute a first correction coefficient for correcting the sensitivity difference between the plural microphones by a frame unit; and a second correction section that employs the frequency domain signals that have been corrected by the first correction section to compute a second correction coefficient for correcting by frequency unit the sensitivity difference between the plural microphones for each of the frames.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A microphone sensitivity difference correction device comprising:
a detection section that detects a frequency domain signal expressing a stationary noise, based on frequency domain signals of input sound signals respectively input from a plurality of microphones contained in a microphone array that have been converted into signals in a frequency domain for each frame of a plurality of frames;
a first correction section that employs the frequency domain signal expressing the stationary noise to compute a first correction coefficient for correcting the sensitivity difference between the plurality of microphones for each frame, and that employs the first correction coefficient to correct the frequency domain signals for each frame; and
a second correction section that employs the frequency domain signals that have been corrected by the first correction section to compute a second correction coefficient for correcting for a plurality of frequency bands the sensitivity difference between the plurality of microphones, and that employs the second correction coefficient to correct for each frequency band the frequency domain signals that have been corrected by the first correction section.

2. The microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 1 , further comprising:
a phase difference computation section that computes a phase difference for each frequency between frequency domain signals that correspond to each of the input sound signals,
wherein the detection section, based on the phase difference for each of the frequencies, detects, as a frequency domain signal expressing the stationary noise, the frequency domain signals that correspond to the input sound signals that have arrived from a direction other than a sound source direction of a target voice.

3. The microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 2 , further comprising:
a phase difference utilization range setting section that, based on an inter-microphone distance between the plurality of microphones and a sampling frequency, sets, as a phase difference utilization range, a frequency band in which phase rotation of phase difference for each of the frequencies does not occur, wherein:
the phase difference computation section computes a phase difference for each of the frequencies in the phase difference utilization range, and
the detection section detects a frequency domain signal expressing the stationary noise in the phase difference utilization range.

4. The microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 3 , further comprising an accuracy computation section that computes a probability that an input sound signal of the input sound signals has arrived from the sound source direction of the target voice based on a phase difference for each frequency of the phase difference utilization range, and that, when the probability is higher than a predetermined probability threshold value, computes a degree of accuracy of correction by the first correction section and the second correction section based on respective frequency domain signals that correspond to each of the input sound signals.

5. The microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 4 , wherein, based on the degree of accuracy, the accuracy computation section updates at least one of:
a first update coefficient expressing a degree to reflect the first correction coefficient value computed a previous time when the first correction coefficient is being computed by the first correction section,
a second update coefficient expressing a degree to reflect the second correction coefficient value computed the previous time when the second correction coefficient is being computed by the second correction section, or
a third update coefficient expressing a degree to reflect the degree of accuracy value computed the previous time when the degree of accuracy is being computed by the accuracy computation section.

6. The microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 4 , wherein when the degree of accuracy has exceeded a predetermined end threshold value, the accuracy computation section ends degree of accuracy computation, and ends computation of the first correction coefficient by the first correction section and ends computation of the second correction coefficient by the second correction section.

7. A noise suppression device comprising:
the microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 4 ; and
a suppression section that, when a degree of accuracy computed by the accuracy computation section is greater than a predetermined suppression threshold value, suppresses noise contained in the input sound signals based on an amplitude ratio between the plurality of input sound signals derived using the frequency domain signals that have been corrected by the second correction section.

8. A noise suppression device comprising:
the microphone sensitivity difference correction device of claim 1 ; and
a suppression section that suppresses noise contained in the input sound signals based on an amplitude ratio between the plurality of input sound signals derived using the frequency domain signals that have been corrected by the second correction section.

9. A microphone sensitivity difference correction method that causes a computer to execute processing, the processing comprising:
detecting a frequency domain signal expressing a stationary noise, based on frequency domain signals of input sound signals respectively input from a plurality of microphones contained in a microphone array that have been converted into signals in a frequency domain for each frame of a plurality of frames;
employing the frequency domain signal expressing the stationary noise to compute a first correction coefficient for correcting the sensitivity difference between the plurality of microphones for each frame, and employing the first correction coefficient to correct the frequency domain signals for each frame; and
employing the frequency domain signals that have been corrected employing the first correction coefficient to compute a second correction coefficient for correcting for a plurality of frequency bands the sensitivity difference between the plurality of microphones, and employing the second correction coefficient to correct for each frequency band the frequency domain signals that have been corrected using the first correction coefficient.

10. The microphone sensitivity difference correction method of claim 9 , wherein the processing further comprises:
computing a phase difference for each frequency between frequency domain signals that correspond to each of the input sound signals; and
based on the phase difference for each of the frequencies, detecting, as a frequency domain signal expressing the stationary noise, the frequency domain signals that correspond to the input sound signals that have arrived from a direction other than a sound source direction of a target voice.

11. The microphone sensitivity difference correction method of claim 10 , wherein the processing further comprises:
based on an inter-microphone distance between the plurality of microphones and a sampling frequency, setting, as a phase difference utilization range, a frequency band in which phase rotation of phase difference for each of the frequencies does not occur;
computing a phase difference for each of the frequencies in the phase difference utilization range; and
detecting a frequency domain signal expressing the stationary noise in the phase difference utilization range.

12. The microphone sensitivity difference correction method of claim 11 , wherein the processing further comprises:
computing a

Assignees

• Fujitsu Ltd

Inventors

• Matsumoto Chikako

Classifications

• H04R29/006 Primary

  Microphone matching · CPC title

• G10L21/0216

  characterised by the method used for estimating noise · CPC title

• G10L2021/02166

  Microphone arrays; Beamforming · CPC title

• H04R2410/01

  Noise reduction using microphones having different directional characteristics · CPC title

• H04R3/10

  of variable resistance microphones · CPC title