Agere Systems Inc.

Lucent Technologies Inc.

Jacob Benesty

Tomas Fritz Gaensler

Steven Leslie Gay

Man Mohan Sondhi

Dennis Raymond Morgan

Gary Wayne Elko

Jingdong Chen

Yiteng Arden Huang

Thomas Fritz Gaensler

Joseph Lindley Hall, Ii

Yiteng Huang

The invention is a method and apparatus for frequency-domain adaptive filtering that has broad applications such as to equalizers, but is particularly suitable for use in acoustic echo cancellation circuits for stereophonic and other multiple channel teleconferencing systems. The method and apparatus utilizes a frequency-domain recursive least squares criterion that minimizes the error signal in the frequency-domain. In order to reduce the complexity of the algorithm, a constraint is removed resulting in an unconstrained frequency-domain recursive least mean squares method and apparatus. A method and apparatus for selecting an optimal adaptation step for the UFLMS is disclosed. The method and apparatus is generalized to the multiple channel case and exploits the cross-power spectra among all of the channels.

Multi-channel frequency-domain adaptive filter method and apparatus

A signal detection technique for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications systems embodied in a method and apparatus for detecting a plurality of transmitted signals with use of a plurality of receiving antennas. An iterative procedure decodes one of a plurality of transmitted signals at each iteration using an intermediate matrix at each iteration to determine the transmitted signal to be decoded. The intermediate matrix for each successive iteration is advantageously computed in a recursive manner with use of a Schur complement operation performed based on the inverse of a modified version of the intermediate matrix used in the previous iteration.

Method and apparatus for receiving digital wireless transmissions using multiple-antenna communication schemes

A robust adaptive filter for use in a network echo canceller or other digital signal processing application utilizes a coefficient vector update device that, through the application of fast converging algorithms to a fast impulse response filter yields fast convergence of the adaptive filter's characteristics with the avoidance of divergence due to the onset of double talk. Robustness is also provided, via an adaptive scale non-linearity device which applies an adaptive scale non-linearity to the filter algorithms fed to the fast impulse response filter by the coefficient vector update device, so that the samples of an echo signal to be cancelled which are taken during the onset of double talk can be handled in such a manner that after the double talk detector causes adaptation to cease, the initial, potentially disturbing samples do not cause significant divergence in the filter system.

Adaptive filter for network echo cancellation

A method for calculating an estimate of the clock skew between a sender's clock and a receiver's clock in a packet-based communications network. An adaptive algorithm is employed in which a recursive least squares approach is used to calculate an estimate of the clock skew based on the transmission of a given (i e., the 'current') packet, which estimate is further based on a previous estimate thereof ('a first approximation' thereof). This illustrative process then iterates with each new packet, producing increasingly accurate estimates of the clock skew.

Method for estimating clock skew within a communications network

A real-time passive acoustic source localization system for video camera steering advantageously determines the relative delay between the direct paths of two estimated channel impulse responses. The illustrative system employs an approach referred to herein as the &ldquo;adaptive eigenvalue decomposition algorithm&rdquo; (AEDA) to make such a determination, and then advantageously employs a &ldquo;one-step least-squares algorithm&rdquo; (OSLS) for purposes of acoustic source localization, providing the desired features of robustness, portability, and accuracy in a reverberant environment. The AEDA technique directly estimates the (direct path) impulse response from the sound source to each of a pair of microphones, and then uses these estimated impulse responses to determine the time delay of arrival (TDOA) between the two microphones by measuring the distance between the first peaks thereof (i.e., the first significant taps of the corresponding transfer functions). In one embodiment, the system minimizes an error function (i.e., a difference) which is computed with the use of two adaptive filters, each such filter being applied to a corresponding one of the two signals received from the given pair of microphones. The filtered signals are then subtracted from one another to produce the error signal, which is minimized by a conventional adaptive filtering algorithm such as, for example, an LMS (Least Mean Squared) technique. Then, the TDOA is estimated by measuring the &ldquo;distance&rdquo; (i.e., the time) between the first significant taps of the two resultant adaptive filter transfer functions.

Method and apparatus for passive acoustic source localization for video camera steering applications

A method and apparatus for performing double-talk detection in an acoustic echo canceller in which a detection statistic is advantageously computed based on an estimate of a cross-correlation between the far-end signal and the return signal which has been normalized with use of an estimate of a covariance matrix of the far-end signal. The estimate of the cross-correlation between the far-end signal and the return signal may be further normalized with use of either an estimate of a variance of the return signal or an estimate of a covariance matrix of the return signal. In certain illustrative embodiments of the invention, one or more of these quantities may be estimated based on signal samples sampled over a predetermined time window. And in another illustrative embodiment of the present invention, the coefficients of the adaptive filter employed in the acoustic echo canceller itself are advantageously used to compute the detection statistic. These computations may be performed in either the time domain or the frequency domain. The detection statistic so computed is compared with a predetermined threshold, which threshold may be advantageously fixed at a value close to one, in order to determine whether or not double-talk has occurred.

Method and apparatus for performing double-talk detection in acoustic echo cancellation

A method is presented for dynamic resource allocation in a speech signal echo canceler enabling more efficient echo cancellation and as a result the ability for an Integrated Circuit to handle additional channels than heretofore possible. This is accomplished by applying one or more of three efficiency enhancing strategies. First, no update of coefficients is computed or convolution performed if the power level of the far end speech signal is below a given threshold. Second, convolution is limited to the set of active taps (i.e., taps that account for most of the power in the echo). Third, new coefficients are computed only when the power of the error signal is greater than a given threshold. Lastly, the set of active coefficients is periodically updated. These strategies release computational resources from unnecessary computations and divert them to other channels that may be active.

Dynamic allocation of resources for echo cancellation

An adaptive filter suitable for network echo cancellation and other applications contains a coefficient vector update device for feeding coefficient vector updates to a finite impulse response filter in accordance with fast converging algorithms. A double talk detector is included for causing filter adaptation to cease in the presence of double talk in the system being echo cancelled. The coefficient vector update device utilizes a proportional affine projection algorithm to provide fast convergence of the filter system and improved performance over other filter devices utilizing different fast converging algorithms.

Adaptive filter utilizing proportional affine projection algorithm

The invention is a multiple channel teleconferencing system employing a stereophonic acoustic echo canceler that exploits the coherence between multiple channels. In accordance with the invention a small non-linearity is incorporated into each channel path between the microphone and the speaker and an efficient frequency domain adaptive algorithm is implemented in the echo canceler circuit. The frequency domain algorithm converges to a solution much more quickly, than, for instance, a time domain, normalized least mean squares, solution.

Frequency domain stereophonic acoustic echo canceller utilizing non-linear transformations

The invention is a method and apparatus for performing echo cancellation utilizing a Proportionate Normalized Least Mean Squares (PNLMS) algorithm having a high convergence rate and low complexity. The invention utilizes a proportional step-size adaptive algorithm which utilizes the signs of the regressor rather than the regressor value itself in the gradient calculation.

Robust signed regressor PNLMS method and apparatus for network echo cancellation

Method and apparatus for network echo cancellation using a proportionate normalized least mean squares algorithm

An adaptive filter (and a corresponding adaptive filtering method) for use in an echo cancellation environment, comprising a finite impulse response filter having a vector of adaptive coefficients, and an adaptive coefficient vector update module which modifies the vector of adaptive coefficients in response to an error signal and based on a predetermined probability density function for said error signal. In accordance with several illustrative embodiments of the present invention, the probability density function is advantageously non-Gaussian, and has certain advantageous characteristics which provide for robustness in the adaptive algorithm based thereupon.

Robust adaptive filter for use in acoustic and network echo cancellation

A method and apparatus for estimating individual impulse responses for a stereophonic communication system, such as a teleconferencing system, which involves selectively reducing the correlation between the individual channel signals of the stereophonic system. Selective reduction of stereophonic source signal correlation advantageously results in the estimation of individual impulse responses of a receiving room of the stereophonic communication system. The selectively reduced-correlation source signals are provided to conventional adaptive filters and the receiving room loudspeakers. Automatic echo cancellation is performed in a conventional fashion, but on the selectively reduced-correlation source signals. Specifically, selective reduction of source signal correlation between two stereophonic channels of a teleconferencing system is achieved by introducing a small non-linearity into each channel in order to reduce the interchannel coherence. In accordance with certain illustrative embodiments of the present invention, each channel signal has added thereto a non-linear function of the channel signal itself, thereby reducing the interchannel coherence while preserving the quality of the signal. In one particular embodiment, the non-linear function comprises the half-wave rectifier.

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Summit, NJ, United States of America

Jacob Benesty