2236008 Ontario Limited

Blackberry Corporation

Knowles Electronics, Inc.

Audience, Inc.

Mark Robert Every

Carlos M Avendano

Michael Andrew Percy

Phillip Alan Hetherington

Carlo Murgia

Ye Jiang

Leonard Charles Layton

Kyle Tegan MacDonald

Ludger Solbach

Xueman Li

Darrin Kenneth John Fry

Frank Linseisen

Mohammad Aamir Husain

Leona Arlene Neufeld

Karim Younes

Mark William Harvey

Rodney Dwight Rempel

Sam Karimian Azari

Voice control in a multi-talker and multimedia environment is disclosed. In one aspect, there is provided a method comprising: receiving a microphone signal for each zone in a plurality of zones of an acoustic environment; generating a processed microphone signal for each zone in the plurality of zones of the acoustic environment, the generating including removing echo caused by audio transducers in the acoustic environment from each of the microphone signals, and removing interference from each of the microphone signals; and performing speech recognition on the processed microphone signals.

Voice control in a multi-talker and multimedia environment

A method and system of estimating human perception of audibility of audio alerts in the presence of background noise. In the audibility estimation system, a microphone generates an input signal corresponding to an audio alert. A processor receives the input signal and generates an audibility metric representing human perception of audibility of the audio alert based on a comparison between a background noise estimate and an audio alert estimate, and causes an action to be taken based on the audibility metric.

Audio alert audibility estimation method and system

A method of echo cancellation in hands-free communication is disclosed. The method includes: receiving, via a receive signal processor, a far-end audio signal; providing the far-end audio signal to: an acoustic echo canceller module as a reference signal, and at least one loudspeaker for playback; determining an external gain value associated with the far-end audio signal, the external gain applied to the far-end audio signal downstream of the receive signal processor and prior to playback from the at least one loudspeaker; adjusting at least one parameter of the acoustic echo canceller module based on the external gain value; receiving playback output of the far-end audio signal from the at least one loudspeaker as an input signal to a microphone; and processing the microphone input signal by the adjusted acoustic echo canceller module to produce an echo-cancelled signal.

System and method for reducing distortion and echo leakage in hands-free communication

A method and system for adaptive noise masking powertrain noise in a vehicle is described. The method comprises: determining frequency and amplitude characteristics of the powertrain noise; determining amplitude characteristics of background noise in the vehicle; dynamically generating a masking audio signal based on the determined characteristics of the powertrain noise and background noise; and outputting the masking audio signal in a cabin of the vehicle. The system includes: a processor; a memory storing processor-executable instructions that, when executed, cause the processor to determine frequency and amplitude characteristics of the powertrain noise and to determine amplitude characteristics of background noise in the vehicle; a masking noise generator for dynamically generating a masking audio signal based on the determined characteristics of the powertrain noise and background noise; and one or more vehicle cabin loudspeakers for receiving and outputting the masking audio signal in a cabin of the vehicle.

Adaptive noise masking method and system

A system and method automates the tuning of one or more hands-free library parameters. The system and method plays one or more test signals that vary in frequency and in amplitude out of a hands-free system under test or the hands-free tuning system and records the responses of a hands-free tuning system or hands-free tuning system at a microphone of the hands-free tuning system and a microphone of the hands-free system under test. The system and method measures the sound generation and sound pickup characteristics of the hands-free system under test or the hands-free system with respect to the one or more of the test signals and one or more of the microphone signals. The system and method calculates tunable parameters. The system and method updates a hands-free system library with the calculated plurality of tunable parameters.

System for automating tuning hands-free systems

A system and method receives one or more captured signals through a captured audio path and produces one or more playback signals through a playback audio path. The system and method executes one or more signal processing functions and measures the delays within the playback audio path and captured audio path during operation of the one or more signal processing functions. The system and method stores the measured delays in a memory and compensates the one or more signal processing functions for the playback delay and the capture delay.

Measuring and compensating for jitter on systems running latency-sensitive audio signal processing

A system and method (referred to as the system) that actively reduces noise in a vehicle. The system generates one or more control output signals to drive multiple loudspeakers; and adapts multiple control coefficients of a control filter based on multiple secondary path transfer functions. The secondary path transfer functions model the acoustic paths between each loudspeaker and multiple microphones. The multiple control coefficients are time varying and frequency dependent and the rate the plurality control coefficients adapt is based on an adaptive step size based on one or more step size criteria.

Active noise control using variable step-size adaptation

An active noise equalization (ANE) system may be run on the existing audio/infotainment system as a software library. The ANE system may share components (e.g., microphones and sensors) with other audio applications. Some ANEs include a complex-domain formulation of a multiple-frequency multiple-channel ANE that requires less memory and processing requirements. The complex-domain system replaces the multiplication of multiple real gains with multiple real signals with a single complex multiplication operation.

Active noise equalization

A system and method automates the tuning of one or more multiband compressors or multiband limiters to minimize loudspeaker distortion. The system and method render one or more test loudspeaker signals that vary in frequency and in amplitude out of a loudspeaker and records the responses of the loudspeaker at a microphone. The system and method measure a distortion of the loudspeaker, relative to a frequency and an amplitude, with respect to the one or more test loudspeaker signals and a microphone signal and calculate tunable parameters of the multiband compressor that includes cutoff frequencies in response to the measured distortion.

Automatically tuning an audio compressor to prevent distortion

A system and method (referred to as the system) that mitigates feedback in an audio system that adjust voice signals in a vehicle. The system generates transfer function estimates from multiple loudspeakers to multiple microphones and generates maximum forward path frequency-dependent gains based on the transfer function estimates and a frequency-dependent tuning factor for each of the loudspeakers to each of the microphones. The system generates forward path frequency-dependent gains independently that are applied to multiple loudspeaker signals, each of the loudspeaker signals drive one of the loudspeakers, respectively. The forward path frequency-dependent gains are adjusted based on the maximum forward path frequency-dependent gains.

System and method for feedback control for in-car communications

A system and method for acoustic management that includes improving the sound quality of two or more audio processing modules in an acoustic environment may receive first control parameters from a first audio processing module. Receiving second control parameters from a second audio processing module. An audio processing interaction may be derived between with the first audio processing module and the second audio processing module determined from the first control parameters and the second control parameters. The first control parameters and the second control parameters may be modified responsive to the derived audio processing interaction. The modified first control parameters may be sent to the first audio processing module and the modified second control parameters may be sent to the second audio processing module where the first audio processing module and the second audio processing module may perform any one or more of processing audio captured from an acoustic environment and processing audio to be reproduced in the acoustic environment.

System and method for acoustic management

A system and method for synthesizing an engine sound may receive one or more vehicle operational data signals. One or more tone parameters associated with a Shepard tone generator may be modified responsive to the one or more vehicle operation data signals. A Shepard tone may be generated responsive to the modified one or more tone parameters. The Shepard tone may be reproduced using one or more audio transducers.

System and method for synthesizing an engine sound

A system and method that enhances speech through reinforcement includes capturing an audio signal generated by the audio sources by one or more microphones; decomposing the audio signals into a plurality of virtual audio sources where the number of audio channels delivered by the audio sources is equal to the number of the plurality of virtual audio sources; estimating the echo paths from each of the plurality of virtual audio sources to the one or more microphones; and processing the captured audio signal in response to the estimated echo paths by subtracting the echo contributions of each of the virtual sources to the one or more microphones.

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Surrey, Canada

Mark Robert Every