Forming beams with nulls directed at noise sources
US7991167B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Apr 13, 2006 |
| Grant date | Aug 2, 2011 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Nov 6, 2029 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC H)Electricity
- CPC primaryH04R2430/23
- WIPO fieldAudio-visual technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
A communication system (e.g., a speakerphone) includes an array of microphones, a speaker, memory and a processor. The processor may perform a virtual broadside scan on the microphone array and analyze the resulting amplitude envelope to identify acoustic source angles. Each of the source angles may be further investigated with a directed beam (e.g., a hybrid superdirective/delay-and-sum beam) to obtain a corresponding beam signal. Each source may be classified as either intelligence or noise based on an analysis of the corresponding beam signal. The processor may design a virtual beam pointed at an intelligence source and having nulls directed at one or more of the noise sources. Thus, the virtual beam may be highly sensitive to the intelligence source and insensitive to the noise sources.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.