Panasonic Corporation

Panasonic Intellectual Property Management Co., Ltd.

Pansonic Corporation

Yasuhiro Terada

Takeo Kanamori

Maki Yamada

Shinichi Yuzuriha

Yutaka Banba

Minoru Matsui

A directional microphone includes: a microphone which generates a first acoustic signal that has sensitivity in a target direction; a microphone which generates a second acoustic signal that has a blind spot in sensitivity in the target direction; a correction unit which multiplies, in a frequency domain, the second acoustic signal by the first acoustic signal N times, where N is greater than zero, to generate a third acoustic signal which includes the second acoustic signal that has a narrowed angular range of the blind spot in sensitivity in the target direction; and a suppression unit which performs noise suppression using the first acoustic signal as a main signal and the third acoustic signal generated as a reference signal, to generate an output acoustic signal which is the first acoustic signal that has narrowed directivity in the target direction.

Directional microphone device, acoustic signal processing method, and program

A directional microphone apparatus and directivity control method that corrects a level difference and a phase difference generated in a low band in a plurality of non-directional microphone units, improve the directivity, and reduce the size are provided. Level difference calculation section () calculates the level difference between first signal x() obtained by first non-directional microphone unit () and second signal x() obtained by second non-directional microphone unit (), and correction parameter calculation section () calculates coefficients of a linear IIR filter configuring correction process section () based on the level difference. Correction process section () simultaneously corrects the level difference and a phase difference in the low band between two non-directional microphone units by using the calculated coefficients.

Directional microphone device and directivity control method

A power spectrum estimation unit () obtains an estimated sound power spectrum P(&#x3c9;), based on a power spectrum P(&#x3c9;) and on a first calculated value obtained by at least multiplying a power spectrum P(&#x3c9;) by a weight coefficient A(&#x3c9;). A coefficient update unit () updates the weight coefficient A(&#x3c9;) and a weight coefficient A(&#x3c9;) so that a second calculated value approximates to the power spectrum P(&#x3c9;). The second calculated value is obtained by adding at least two values obtained by multiplying the power spectrum P(&#x3c9;) and the estimated target sound power spectrum P(&#x3c9;) by the weight coefficient A(&#x3c9;) and the weight coefficient A(&#x3c9;), respectively.

Multi-input noise suppression device, multi-input noise suppression method, program thereof, and integrated circuit thereof

A sound processing apparatus, a sound processing method and a hearing aid efficiently emphasize the sound of an utterer regardless of the distance between microphones. The sound processing apparatus outputs a first directivity signal in which the main axis of directivity is formed in the direction of the utterer and outputs a second directivity signal in which the dead zone of directivity is formed in the direction of the utterer. The sound processing apparatus calculates the level of the first directivity signal and the level of the second directivity signal, and determines the distance to the utterer based on the level of the first directivity signal and the level of the second directivity signal. The sound processing apparatus derives a gain to be given to the first directivity signal according to the result of the determination and controls the level of the first directivity signal by using the gain.

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Kanagawa, Japan

Yasuhiro Terada