Echo Reference Selection Using Rendering Metrics for Multi-Speaker Audio
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing audio devices struggle with efficient echo management in multi-device audio environments, particularly when multiple smart speakers are playing audio content simultaneously, leading to suboptimal spatial effects and increased computational and network costs.
Innovation Solution
Implement a control system that generates echo reference metrics for each audio device, determines their importance, and selectively provides these metrics to echo management systems to optimize echo cancellation and suppression, considering factors like network bandwidth and computational requirements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If multiple echo references are provided to echo management systems in multi-device audio environments, then echo cancellation and suppression performance is improved, but network bandwidth consumption and computational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes parameters by generating echo reference metrics (importance scores) that characterize each echo reference's contribution to echo mitigation. These metrics enable the system to adjust which references are transmitted and processed, optimizing the balance between echo cancellation performance and network bandwidth consumption.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of providing all possible echo references equally, the system applies partial action by selectively transmitting and processing only the most important echo references based on their importance metrics, thereby reducing network bandwidth consumption while maintaining adequate echo cancellation performance.
2Reliability
If multiple echo references are provided to echo management systems in multi-device audio environments, then echo cancellation and suppression performance is improved, but computational requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes parameters by computing importance metrics for each echo reference based on rendering information and spatial relationships. These metrics enable the system to reduce computational requirements by focusing processing only on the most critical echo references rather than treating all references equally.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by processing only the subset of echo references identified as most important through metric evaluation, thereby reducing computational requirements while maintaining effective echo suppression performance.
3Manufacturing precision
If echo reference metrics are generated and processed for each audio device, then spatial audio quality is maintained, but processing time and computational costs increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system changes parameters by generating echo reference metrics that capture spatial relationships and rendering information in a compressed format. This allows the system to maintain spatial audio quality while reducing processing time through more efficient data representation and prioritization.
Solution Approach 2:
The system applies partial action by processing only the most important echo references based on their metrics, thereby reducing processing time while preserving the spatial audio quality of critical sound fields.
Data Source
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Figure 1C~1D
AI summary
Some implementations involve receiving location information for each of a plurality of audio devices in an audio environment, generating, based at least in part on the location information, rendering information for a plurality of audio devices in an audio environment and determining, based at least on part on the rendering information, a plurality of echo reference metrics. Each echo reference metric may correspond to audio data reproduced by one or more audio devices of the plurality of audio devices. The rendering information may include a matrix of loudspeaker activations. Some examples involve making, based at least in part on the echo reference metrics, an importance estimation for each of a plurality of echo references, selecting, based at least in part on the importance estimation, one or more echo references and providing them to at least one echo management system for canceling or suppressing echoes.