Microphone Array Sound Wire Interface Reduces Hardware Redundancy
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing microphone array systems with sound wire interfaces face issues of hardware redundancy, leading to increased cost and volume due to their ability to connect only two microphones, which is inadequate for systems requiring multiple microphones.
Innovation Solution
A microphone array system with a sound wire interface that includes multiple microphones, each equipped with an acoustic transducer, voice activation detector, and buffer memory, where the buffer memory stores a fraction of the electric signal segment, allowing the system to connect multiple microphones via a sound wire bus to an external master chip for voice recognition, reducing memory usage and overall system costs and volume.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If the traditional PDM interface is used to connect microphones, then the interface complexity is reduced, but the number of microphones that can be connected is limited to two
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple microphones (N microphones where N>2) into a single microphone array system connected through the Sound Wire interface. Instead of using separate PDM interfaces for each microphone, the system merges multiple microphone connections into one unified Sound Wire interface, allowing N microphones to be connected simultaneously while maintaining manageable interface complexity.
Solution Approach 2:
The Sound Wire interface is designed as a universal interface that can handle multiple microphone connections and various audio functions (voice activation detection, voice recognition, audio coding) through a single standardized interface. This multi-functional interface replaces the need for multiple specialized interfaces, thereby increasing adaptability while controlling complexity.
2Measurement precision
If each microphone stores a full electric signal in buffer memory, then voice recognition accuracy is improved, but memory usage and system volume increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the buffer memory into N segments, where each microphone's buffer memory stores only 1/N of the total electric signal data. This segmentation allows the system to maintain adequate voice recognition capability by distributing the storage burden across multiple microphones, thereby reducing the memory requirement per microphone while preserving overall system functionality.
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the buffered data from all N microphones at the external master chip level. Instead of requiring each microphone to store complete signal data, the system combines the segmented 1/N portions from multiple microphones to reconstruct the full signal for voice recognition processing, thereby reducing individual memory usage while maintaining recognition accuracy.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The solution effectively reduces memory usage and system costs by utilizing buffer memory efficiently across multiple microphones, enabling accurate voice recognition while minimizing hardware redundancy and system volume.
Implementation Method 1
an acoustic transducer for picking up a sound signal and converting the sound signal into an electric signal
Data Source
AI summary
A microphone array system, comprises N microphones, including a first microphone . . . a Nth microphone, wherein N is a natural number greater than 2. Each of the N microphones is provided with: an acoustic transducer for picking up a sound signal and converting the sound signal into an electric signal; a voice activation detector, connected to a corresponding acoustic transducer, and configured to perform a voice activation detection on the electric signal and form an activation signal; a buffer memory, connected to the acoustic transducer, and configured to store a 1/N electric signal of a predetermined segment; a sound wire interface, connected to a corresponding acoustic transducer, the buffer memory, and the voice activation detector, wherein the sound wire interface is connected to an external master chip via a sound wire bus for outputting the activation signal to the external master chip.