Millimeter Wave Beamforming Microphones for User-Tracked Voice Pickup
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Current beamforming microphone arrays suffer from non-optimized beam forming parameters, leading to suboptimal beam position and coverage, and struggle to distinguish between voice and noise sources, resulting in audio dropouts and false positives.
Innovation Solution
Implementing a millimeter wave sensor system to determine user locations and generate a three-dimensional image of the area, which is used by an adaptive beamforming circuit to adjust beam parameters, ignore noise, and focus on specific sound sources, while incorporating acoustic echo cancellation and gesture recognition.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Area of stationary object
If fixed beam positions are used to cover likely seating locations, then beam coverage is ensured, but beamforming performance degrades at significant distances and audio dropouts occur when users move
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements dynamic beamforming that automatically adjusts beam positions and widths based on real-time detection of user locations using cameras and microphones. This resolves the contradiction by making the beam coverage adaptive rather than fixed, ensuring both comprehensive coverage and reliable audio pickup regardless of user movement or distance.
Solution Approach 2:
The system uses feedback from camera and microphone arrays to continuously monitor user positions and adjust beamforming parameters accordingly. This closed-loop control ensures that beams remain optimized for current user locations, maintaining audio reliability while adapting coverage areas as needed.
2Reliability
If dynamic beamforming is used to locate and adapt to talking users, then audio pickup is optimized, but the system produces false positives by focusing on noise sources like speakers, fans, and air conditioning
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces camera-based visual detection as an intermediary to distinguish between actual users and noise sources. The system cross-references audio signals with visual information from cameras to verify that detected sound sources correspond to actual users, thereby eliminating false positives from speakers, fans, and other noise-generating objects.
Solution Approach 2:
The system combines multiple detection modalities (audio from microphones, visual from cameras) into a unified beamforming control mechanism. This multi-functional approach allows the system to differentiate between genuine user voices and noise sources by analyzing both acoustic and visual data together, improving voice detection accuracy while filtering out false positives.
3Area of stationary object
If large beam widths are used to cover conference spaces, then user coverage is maintained, but signal-to-noise ratio performance deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
The system dynamically adjusts beam width based on the number and positions of detected users. When multiple users are present, the system can use narrower, more focused beams for each user, maintaining high signal-to-noise ratio. When coverage area needs to be expanded, the system adapts beam widths accordingly. This dynamic adjustment resolves the contradiction between coverage area and signal quality.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent implements different beam characteristics for different spatial regions and user positions. Instead of using a uniform large beam width, the system creates localized optimized beams tailored to each user's position and the specific acoustic environment, thereby maintaining high signal-to-noise ratio while providing adequate coverage through multiple focused beams rather than one large beam.
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
Enhances audio clarity by optimizing beamforming to follow user movements, reducing noise interference, and enabling intelligent control of conference room functions.
Implementation Method 1
a millimeter wave sensor system adapted to determine user locations and generate a three-dimensional image of an area
Data Source
AI summary
A method for operating a beamforming microphone array for use in a predetermined area is provided herein, the method comprising: receiving acoustic audio signals at each of a plurality of microphones, converting the same to an electrical mic audio signal, and outputting each of the plurality of electrical mic audio signals; generating a user location data signal by a wave sensor system, and outputting the user location data signal, wherein the user location data signal includes location information of one or more people within the predetermined area; receiving both the user location data signal and plurality of echo-corrected mic audio signals at an adaptive beamforming device; and adapting one or more beams by the adaptive beamforming device based on the user location data signal and plurality of mic audio signals wherein each of the one or more beams acquires sound from one or more specific locations in the predetermined area.