Real-time Audio Impairment Detection and Guidance
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Solution Overview
Problem
Users of portable electronic devices face challenges in detecting and addressing audio impairments in real-time during recordings, such as unintelligible speech, occluded microphones, wind noise, and handling noise, which can result in poor audio quality and the need for re-recording.
Innovation Solution
The system includes an audio analytics module that detects impairments and an interactive guidance module, providing user-perceptible alerts and suggestions for corrective actions through visual, auditory, or haptic feedback to improve audio quality during recording.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If real-time audio monitoring is implemented, then audio quality can be improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system implements real-time feedback by monitoring audio signals during recording and providing immediate visual or audible alerts when impairments are detected. The feedback loop continuously analyzes audio quality metrics and notifies users of issues such as wind noise, handling noise, or microphone occlusion, enabling immediate corrective action to maintain audio quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an audio analytics module as an intermediary component that processes raw audio signals and generates quality assessments. This mediator analyzes audio characteristics and translates them into actionable feedback, bridging the gap between complex audio processing and simple user notifications without requiring the user to understand the underlying complexity.
2Productivity
If real-time feedback is provided during recording, then productivity can be improved, but use of energy increases
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs partial monitoring by focusing on specific audio quality metrics rather than analyzing all aspects of the audio signal in full detail. The audio analytics module selectively monitors for common impairments such as wind noise, handling noise, and microphone occlusion, providing sufficient feedback to improve recording productivity without requiring exhaustive analysis of every audio characteristic.
Solution Approach 2:
The real-time feedback is provided through periodic analysis of audio quality metrics at strategically selected intervals rather than continuous full-spectrum analysis. The system monitors audio signals and provides feedback when specific impairment thresholds are exceeded, balancing energy consumption with the need for timely quality assurance.
3Measurement precision
If multiple detection methods are used, then measurement precision can be improved, but device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The audio analytics module is segmented into specialized detectors, each designed to identify specific types of audio impairments. Separate detection mechanisms are implemented for wind noise, handling noise, microphone occlusion, and other specific conditions. This segmentation allows each detector to specialize in recognizing particular impairment patterns, improving overall measurement precision while organizing complexity into manageable, independent modules.
Data Source
AI summary
An audio appliance can include a microphone transducer configured to receive sound from an environment and to convert the received sound into an audio signal and a display. The audio appliance can include an audio analytics module configured to detect an audio-input impairment by analyzing the audio signal and output a detection signal identifying the audio-input impairment in real-time. The audio-input impairment can include, for example, a poor-intelligibility impairment, a microphone-occlusion impairment, a handling-noise impairment, a wind-noise impairment, or a distortion impairment. The audio appliance can also include an impairment module configured to identify and emit a user-perceptible alert corresponding to the identified audio-input impairment in real-time; and an interactive guidance module configured to present a suggested action to address the audio-input impairment in real-time. Related aspects also are described.