Motorola Mobility LLC

Google Inc.

Motorola Corporation

Google Technology Holdings LLC

Joel A Clark

Robert A Zurek

Plamen A Ivanov

Jincheng Wu

Tenkasi Vaideeswaran Ramabadran

Mark A Jasiuk

Kevin J Bastyr

Pratik Kamdar

Adrian M Schuster

Snehitha Singaraju

Malay Gupta

Giles T Davis

Rivanaldo S Oliveira

Joseph C Dwyer

Steve Kim

Juan C Garcia

Paul R Steuer

Greg R Black

Jianming Song

Holly Francois

Theodore R Arneson

Scott R Wilcox

Dusan Macho Cierna

Ian Peter Lewis

James Alexander Rex

David John Pearce

Rajib Acharya

Scott K Isabelle

John Y Bang

Christopher A Evans

John R Meloney

Jeffrey M Axelrod

Shaohai Chen

Ukrit Visitkitjakarn

Kevin J Bastry

Holly L Francois

Jianming J Song

James A Rex

A disclosed method includes monitoring an audio signal energy level while having a noise suppressor deactivated to conserve battery power, buffering the audio signal in response to a detected increase in the audio energy level, activating and running a voice activity detector on the audio signal in response to the detected increase in the audio energy level and activating and running a noise estimator in response to voice being detected in the audio signal by the voice activity detector. The method may further include activating and running the noise suppressor only if the noise estimator determines that noise suppression is required. The method activates and runs a noise type classifier to determine the noise type based on information received from the noise estimator and selects a noise suppressor algorithm, from a group of available noise suppressor algorithms, where the selected noise suppressor algorithm is the most power consumption efficient.

Apparatus and method for power efficient signal conditioning for a voice recognition system

An electronic device includes a microphone that receives an audio signal that includes a spoken trigger phrase, and a processor that is electrically coupled to the microphone. The processor measures characteristics of the audio signal, and determines, based on the measured characteristics, whether the spoken trigger phrase is acceptable for trigger phrase model training. If the spoken trigger phrase is determined not to be acceptable for trigger phrase model training, the processor rejects the trigger phrase for trigger phrase model training.

Method and apparatus for evaluating trigger phrase enrollment

Systems and methods of providing improved directional noise suppression in an electronic device implement a technique that specifies a direction or speaker of interest, determines the directions corresponding to speakers not lying in the direction of interest, beam forms the reception pattern of the device microphone array to focus in the direction of interest and suppresses signals from the other directions, creating beam formed reception data. A spatial mask is generated as a function of direction relative to the direction of interest. The spatial mask emphasizes audio reception in the direction of interest and attenuates audio reception in the other directions. The beam formed reception data is then multiplied by the spatial mask to generate an audio signal with directional noise suppression.

Directional noise suppression

A method and electronic device that enables quick presentation of user briefs on the electronic device includes: receiving, at the electronic device, an informational brief (IB) request (IBR) input that includes an identifier of a topic and a trigger that causes the electronic device to open an IB content screen that temporarily presents specific information corresponding to the topic. In response to receipt of the IB input, the method further includes: retrieving the IB content screen, with content that includes at least one of the specific information; presenting the IB content screen on the electronic device; monitoring an elapsed presentation time for the IB content screen on the electronic device; comparing the elapsed presentation time against a time limit allocated for presenting the IB content screen; and in response to expiration of the time limit, closing the IB content screen to return the device to its previous operating state.

Responsive, visual presentation of informational briefs on user requested topics

A disclosed method includes monitoring an audio signal energy level while having a plurality of signal processing components deactivated and activating at least one signal processing component in response to a detected change in the audio signal energy level. The method may include activating and running a voice activity detector on the audio signal in response to the detected change where the voice activity detector is the at least one signal processing component. The method may further include activating and running the noise suppressor only if a noise estimator determines that noise suppression is required. The method may activate and runs a noise type classifier to determine the noise type based on information received from the noise estimator and may select a noise suppressor algorithm, from a group of available noise suppressor algorithms, where the selected noise suppressor algorithm is the most power consumption efficient.

A method performed by a portable communication device includes determining a list of at least one target device in proximity to the portable communication device. The method further includes receiving a set of non-tactile user commands that indicates selected content and a selected set of target devices on the list and controlling sharing of the selected content between the portable communication device and the selected set of target devices.

Method and apparatus for controlling sharing of selected content between a portable communication device and a target device

A method, a system, and a computer program product for preventing initiation of a voice recognition session. The method includes monitoring at least one audio output channel for at least one audio trigger phrase that initiates a voice recognition session. The method further includes in response to detecting the at least one audio trigger phrase on the at least one audio output channel, setting a logic state of at least one output trigger detector of the at least one audio output channel to a first state. The method further includes gating a logic state of at least one input trigger detector of at least one audio input channel to the first state for a time period and preventing initiation of a voice recognition session by the at least one audio trigger phrase on the at least one audio input channel while the logic state is the first state.

Preventing initiation of a voice recognition session

A method, a system, and a computer program product for detecting an audio trigger phrase at a particular audio input channel and initiating a voice recognition session. The method includes capturing audio content by a plurality of microphone pairs of an audio capturing device, wherein each microphone pair of the plurality of microphone pairs is associated with an audio input channel of a plurality of audio input channels of the audio capturing device. The method further includes simultaneously monitoring, by a processor of the audio capturing device, audio content on each of the audio input channels. The method further includes: independently detecting, by the processor, an audio trigger phrase on at least one audio input channel of the plurality of audio input channels; and in response to detecting the audio trigger phrase, commencing a voice recognition session using the at least one audio input channel as an audio source.

Detecting audio trigger phrases for a voice recognition session

A method, a system, and a computer program product reducing noise in audio received by at least one microphone. The method includes determining, from an audio signal received by at least one primary microphone of an electronic device, whether a user that is proximate to the electronic device is currently speaking. The method further includes, in response to determining that a user is not currently speaking, receiving a first audio using a first microphone subset from among a plurality of microphones and receiving at least one second audio using at least one second microphone subset from among the plurality of microphones. The method further includes generating a composite signal from the first audio and the second audio. The method further includes collectively processing the audio signal and the composite signal to generate a modified audio signal having a reduced level of noise.

Reducing noise in audio signals

A method for controlling echo of a voice recognition system includes receiving at least two audio input signals corresponding to sound sensed by at least two microphones in a physical space. A first audio input signal of the at least two audio input signals is received on a primary channel, and each remaining audio input signal is received through a respective secondary channel. The method includes selecting, by a processor, based on an echo power level of a speaker in the physical space, a subset of echo control functions (ECFs) from among a plurality of ECFs of a multistage echo control system. Each ECF modifies the at least two audio input signals to reduce echo. The method includes generating a corresponding number of audio output signals by processing the signals received on the primary and secondary channels through the selected subset of ECFs, and outputting the audio output signals.

Pre-selectable and dynamic configurable multistage echo control system for large range level of acoustic echo

Voice controlled multimedia content creation techniques are discussed in which a multimedia package is created and shared to a specified destination responsive to voice commands. The voice commands can be received by a device as a single stream (e.g., a single phrase) that causes automatic performance of a sharing sequence or as a series of multiple voice commands that are input in response to prompts for voice input as part of the sharing sequence. The voice commands can be recognized and handled by a content creation system of the device to select a clip for tagging of content (such as captured audio or video). The selected clip is then combined with the content to create the multimedia package. Voice commands can also be employed to specify a destination for sharing of the content, such as one or more contacts or a particular sharing site.

Voice controlled multimedia content creation

A method includes obtaining, by a processor, an audio echo signal and an audio desired signal from an acoustic echo correction stage of an electronic device, and converting the echo signal and the desired signal to the frequency domain. The method further includes grouping, by the processor, frequency bin results of respective frequency domain converted echo and desired signals into respective echo and desired sub-bands. A sub-band suppressor gain is estimated based on an estimated sub-band energy for the echo and desired sub-bands. The method further includes modulating the frequency domain converted desired signal to compensate for residual echo, the modulating based, at least in part, on the estimated sub-band suppressor gain, and the modulating producing a compensated frequency domain converted echo signal. The method also includes converting the compensated frequency domain converted desired signal into time domain converted audio output signal.

Echo cancellation and suppression in electronic device

A portable device performs echo cancellation and echo suppression. An audio echo signal and an audio desired signal are obtained from an acoustic echo correction stage of the portable device. The echo and desired signals are converted to the frequency domain. Frequency bin results of the respective frequency domain converted echo and desired signals are grouped into echo and desired sub-bands. A sub-band suppressor gain is estimated based on the estimated sub-band energy for the echo and desired sub-bands. The frequency domain converted echo signal is modulated based at least in part on the estimated sub-band suppressor gain to compensate for residual echo. The compensated frequency domain converted echo signal is time domain converted into an audio output signal. The audio output signal is processed by a selected one of a voice recognition engine and a communication module transmitter.

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Woodridge, IL, United States of America

Joel A Clark