Nokia Technology Gmbh

Flextronics Design Finland Oy

Juha Kuusama

Aki Makivirta

Juha Laaksonen

Minna Juhola

A setup to be used in a home theater or sound reproduction system for handling low frequency sound signals with a signal source providing several full bandwidth digital sound channels and at least one digital low frequency subwoofer channel includes a delay-and level control unit at least for each full bandwidth signal channel, which is equipped for a speaker not capable of reproducing low frequency sounds. A first summing stage creates the sum channel by summing the delay-and level controlled signal channels. A second summing stage adds a low frequency subwoofer channel to the sum channel in order to create a digital bass channel. A DA-conversion, amplifying, lowpass-filtering and volume control unit processes the digital bass channel in order to create an analog bass channel.

Bass management system for home theater equipment

The invention relates to a device to be used for changing the acoustic properties of a room, comprising a pressure transducer (1), a loudspeaker (2) and an electronic control circuit (3) adapted to generate, in response to pressure changes in the room, an electrical signal that serves to cancel the pressure change detected by the pressure transducer (1) when it is reproduced through the loudspeaker. For improving the properties of the room also with respect to reverberation, the device of the invention further includes an ambience generator (4) adapted to receive an electrical signal proportional to the sound present in the room and to generate, in response to said signal, a signal which produces an acoustic field containing early reflections and reverberation in the room when reproduced through the loudspeaker (2).

Device to be used for changing the acoustic properties of a room

The invention relates to a sound reproduction system comprising a source of a sound signal in electrical form, a first filter group for dividing the signal derived from the sound signal source into several sound signals occurring in different frequency bands and an adjustable gain amplifier for each frequency band for amplifying the sound signal occurring in said frequency band. To take into account the noise existing in the environment of the sound reproduction system in the adjustment of the system, the system further comprises means for generating an electrical signal proportional to the background noise existing in the environment and means for adjusting the gain of the amplifiers in response to said electrical signal proportional to the background noise.

Sound reproduction system

The invention relates to a system for processing an audio signal to reduce the noise contained therein, the system comprising a source (1) of an audio signal in electric form, a first filter group (2) for dividing the audio signal into several subband signals in different frequency bands, a detector (3) for each subband signal to detect the audio signal level thereof, and a compressor/expander (4) for compressing/expanding each subband signal on the basis of the detected audio signal level thereof, and a second filter group (5) for combining the compressed/expanded subband signals to generate a reconstructed audio signal (6). According to the invention the first filter group (2,5) is arranged to divide the sound frequency range into bands with a width enabling the processing of the signal within the critical bands, and each compressor/expander (4) is arranged to attenuate the signal in its band when the detector (3) associated therewith has detected that the audio signal is missing from said frequency band.

System for processing an audio signal so as to reduce the noise

An active noise cancellation system, comprising a circuit for generating one or more reference signals (x(n)) proportional to the noise in the target area, several electronic circuits (1) having adjustable transfer functions (W), such as adaptive filters, adapted to receive the one or more reference signals (x(n)) and to generate noise cancellation signals (y(1,n)), sound sources (2) adapted to receive the noise cancellation signals (y(1,n)) and to generate cancellation noise in the target area for at least partial cancellation of the noise present therein, sensors (3) for detecting residual noise in the target area and converting it to electrical residual noise signals (e(m,n)), transmission path (4) having the estimated transfer function (C') of the transmission path between the electronic circuit (1) and the sensors (3) adapted to receive the one or more reference signals (x(n)), and tuning circuit (5) adapted to receive the residual noise signals (e(m,n)) and output signals from the transmission path circuit (4) and to generate tuning signals (w) and transmit them to the electronic circuit (1) for tuning the transfer functions (W) thereof, and second tuning circuit (6) adapted to receive both the cancellation noise signals (y(1,n)) and the residual noise signals (e(m,n)) and to generate second tuning signals (c) and transmit them to the transmission path circuit (4) for tuning the transfer functions (C') thereof.

Growing community of inventors

Tampere, Finland

Juha Kuusama