Camera-Based Microphone Gain Control for Stable Voice Levels
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing electronic user devices struggle with fluctuating audio signal levels due to user proximity changes, leading to inconsistent voice volume during video conferences, and automatic gain control systems fail to discriminate between background noise and speech, causing distortion.
Innovation Solution
Implementing user proximity detection circuitry to analyze image data from a device's camera to determine the user's distance, adjusting microphone gain based on facial landmarks, ensuring consistent voice levels by increasing gain when closer and decreasing it when farther from the camera.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If automatic gain control systems are used to adjust microphone gain, then audio signal levels can be adjusted, but the systems fail to discriminate between background noise and speech causing distortion
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces camera-based facial landmark detection as an intermediary mechanism to estimate user proximity. This mediator provides spatial context information that enables the gain control system to discriminate between legitimate speech (when user is present) and background noise (when user is absent), thereby avoiding distortion while maintaining signal level consistency.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces traditional acoustic-based automatic gain control with a vision-based proximity detection system. By substituting the mechanical/acoustic sensing approach with optical camera-based facial landmark analysis, the system gains the ability to distinguish speech from background noise through spatial positioning, eliminating distortion issues.
2Reliability
If separate proximity sensors are added to detect user distance, then microphone gain can be adjusted based on proximity, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent makes the camera serve multiple functions: it acts as both the primary imaging device for video conferencing and the proximity detection sensor for microphone gain control. By reusing the existing camera hardware for dual purposes, the system achieves accurate proximity-based gain control without adding separate proximity sensors, thereby reducing device complexity and cost.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent merges the proximity detection function with the camera system. Instead of using separate sensors, the camera's imaging capability is combined with facial landmark analysis algorithms to simultaneously perform video capture and distance estimation, simplifying the overall device architecture while maintaining gain control accuracy.
Data Source
AI summary
Apparatus, systems, and methods for microphone gain control for electronic user devices are disclosed. An example apparatus includes at least one memory, instructions in the apparatus, and processor circuitry to execute the instructions to determine a proximity of a user to a user device based on an image generated via one or more cameras associated with the user device, determine an amount of gain to be applied to an audio signal generated by a microphone associated with the user device based on the proximity of the user, and cause an amplifier of the user device to apply the gain to the audio signal.