Adaptive microphone signal processing for a foldable computing device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9894439-B1
Application number	US-201715420216-A
Country	US
Kind code	B1
Filing date	Jan 31, 2017
Priority date	Jan 31, 2017
Publication date	Feb 13, 2018
Grant date	Feb 13, 2018

Abstract

A computing device includes a first housing and a second housing attached by a hinge. The first housing includes a first microphone and the second housing includes a second microphone. After determining that an angle between the first and second housing has changed to a current angle, the computing device may determine a distance between the first microphone and the second microphone based on the current angle. A first audio signal from the first microphone and a second audio signal from the second microphone may each be modified (e.g., using a beamforming algorithm) to create first and second modified audio signals. The first and second modified audio signals may include less noise than the first and second audio signals. The first and second modified audio signals may be sent to an output jack or to an audio application.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A computing device comprising:
a first housing comprising a first microphone;
a second housing comprising a second microphone;
one or more hinges that couple the first housing to the second housing;
one or more processors; and
one or more non-transitory computer-readable media to store instructions executable by the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining that an angle between the first housing and the second housing has changed from a first angle to a second angle;
determining, based on the second angle, a distance between the first microphone and the second microphone;
receiving a first audio signal from the first microphone;
receiving a second audio signal from the second microphone;
modifying the first audio signal, based at least in part on the distance, to create a first modified audio signal by modifying at least one of (i) a first lower frequency band that includes frequencies lower than a first voice frequency band or (ii) a first higher frequency band that includes frequencies higher than the first voice frequency band, wherein the first audio signal includes the first lower frequency band, the first voice frequency band, and the first higher frequency band;
modifying the second audio signal, based at least in part on the distance, to create a second modified audio signal by modifying at least one of (i) a second lower frequency band that includes frequencies lower than a second voice frequency band or (ii) a second higher frequency band that includes frequencies higher than the second voice frequency band, wherein the second audio signal includes the second lower frequency band, the second voice frequency band, and the second higher frequency band; and
sending the first modified audio signal and the second modified audio signal to at least one of an output jack or an audio application.

2. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein the first modified audio signal includes less noise compared to the first audio signal.

3. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein at least one of the first higher frequency band or the first lower frequency band of the first modified audio signal has at least a phase or a volume that is different from the first audio signal.

4. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein an audio processing application performs spatial filtering using the first audio signal and the second audio signal as inputs to create the first modified audio signal and the second modified audio signal.

5. The computing device of claim 1 , further comprising:
determining that the angle between the first housing and the second housing has changed from the second angle to a third angle;
determining, based on the third angle, a new distance between the first microphone and the second microphone;
modifying the first audio signal, based at least in part on the new distance; and
modifying the second audio signal, based at least in part on the new distance.

6. The computing device of claim 1 , further comprising:
receiving sensor data from one or more sensors; and
determining a second hinge angle between the first housing and the second housing based at least in part on the sensor data.

7. The computing device of claim 1 , wherein determining, based on the second angle, the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone comprises:
retrieving a first offset distance between the first microphone and the one or more hinges;
retrieving a second offset distance between the second microphone and the one or more hinges; and
determining the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone based on:
the first offset distance;
the second offset distance; and
the second angle.

8. A method comprising:
determining, by a computing device comprising a first housing connected to a second housing by one or more hinges, that an angle between the first housing and the second housing has changed from a first angle to a second angle;
determining, based on the second angle, a distance between a first microphone located in the first housing and a second microphone located in the second housing;
receiving, by audio processing software being executed by the computing device, a first audio signal from the first microphone and a second audio signal from the second microphone;
modifying, by the audio processing software, the first audio signal, based at least in part on the distance, to create a first modified audio signal by modifying at least one of a first lower frequency band that includes lower frequencies than a first voice frequency band or a first higher frequency band that includes higher frequencies than the first voice frequency band;
modifying, by the audio processing software, the second audio signal, based at least in part on the distance, to create a second modified audio signal by modifying at least one of a second lower frequency band that includes lower frequencies than a second voice frequency band or a second higher frequency band that includes higher frequencies than the second voice frequency band; and
sending the first modified audio signal and the second modified audio signal to at least one of an output jack or an audio application.

9. The method of claim 8 , wherein the second angle is between about 20 degrees to about 160 degrees.

10. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining that the angle between the first housing and the second housing has changed from the second angle to a third angle;
determining, based on the third angle, a new distance between the first microphone and the second microphone; and
reducing an amount of noise in the first audio signal and the second audio signal by using a beamforming algorithm based on the new distance.

11. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
receiving sensor data from one or more sensors included in the computing device; and
determining a second hinge angle based at least in part on the sensor data.

12. The method of claim 8 , further comprising:
determining that a sensor included in the computing device caused an interrupt;
retrieving sensor data from the sensor; and
determining a second hinge angle based at least in part on the sensor data.

13. The method of claim 11 , wherein-determining, based on the second angle, the distance between the first microphone located in the first housing and the second microphone located in the second housing comprises:
retrieving a first offset distance of the first microphone from the one or more hinges;
retrieving a second offset distance of the second microphone from the one or more hinges; and
determining the distance between the first microphone and the second microphone based at least in part on:
the first offset distance,
the second offset distance and,
the second angle.

14. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media to store instructions executable by one or more processors to perform operations comprising:
determining that an angle between a first housing and a second housing has changed from a first angle to a second angle, wherein the first housing is connected to the second housing by one or more hinges;
determining, based on the second angle, a distance between a first microphone in the first housing and a second microphone in the second housing;
receiving a first audio signal from the first microphone;
receiving a second audio signal from the second microphone;
modifying the first audio signal, based at least in part on the distance, to create a first modified audio signal by modifying at least one of a first lower frequency band that includes lower frequencies tha

Assignees

• Dell Products Lp
• Dell Products Lp

Inventors

• Peeler Douglas J
• Knepper Lawrence E
• Nix William D Todd

Classifications

• G10L21/0232

  Processing in the frequency domain · CPC title

• H04R3/005 Primary

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

• H04R2499/11

  Transducers incorporated or for use in hand-held devices, e.g. mobile phones, PDA's, camera's · CPC title

• H04R1/406

  microphones · CPC title

• H04R3/04 Primary

  for correcting frequency response · CPC title