Multichannel Audio Capture Using Distributed Mobile Microphones
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Solution Overview
Problem
Capturing high-quality audio in meeting environments with multiple speakers is challenging due to the limitations of single microphones and the cost and disruption of dedicated microphones or arrays, which are often not available in many settings.
Innovation Solution
Utilizing an ad hoc arrangement of device microphones, such as those on mobile devices, to capture and process multiple audio channels, applying multichannel signal processing techniques like beamforming and speaker identification to enhance audio quality and separate individual speakers from background noise and other speakers.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Device complexity
If a single microphone is used to capture audio from multiple speakers, then device complexity is reduced, but audio quality and speaker distinction deteriorate
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the audio capture task across multiple microphones distributed in the meeting environment, with each microphone capturing audio from its local vicinity. The server then segments and processes individual speaker audio streams from these multiple sources, enabling high-quality capture of multiple speakers simultaneously without requiring a complex dedicated microphone array at each position.
Solution Approach 2:
The invention makes mobile devices with built-in microphones serve dual purposes: their primary communication function and audio capture for meeting transcription. This universal use of existing devices eliminates the need for specialized microphone equipment, reducing device complexity while maintaining audio quality through multichannel processing.
2Measurement precision
If dedicated microphones or microphone arrays are deployed, then audio quality improves, but device complexity and cost increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system repurposes existing mobile devices and their built-in microphones for audio capture in meeting environments. Instead of deploying dedicated microphone arrays, the invention makes ordinary mobile devices serve the additional function of audio recording, thereby improving audio quality without increasing device complexity or infrastructure cost.
Solution Approach 2:
Meeting participants use their own mobile devices for audio capture, eliminating the need for the meeting system to provide specialized microphone equipment. Each participant's device serves itself for audio recording purposes, and the collective set of devices provides comprehensive audio coverage without requiring centralized complex infrastructure.
3Measurement precision
If multiple microphones capture the same audio signal, then audio quality and speaker distinction improve, but system complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The server acts as an intermediary that receives audio signals from multiple microphones and performs sophisticated signal processing including beamforming, speaker diarization, and noise filtering. This centralized intermediary handles the complexity of processing multiple audio streams, allowing individual microphones to remain simple while achieving high speaker distinction through coordinated processing.
Solution Approach 2:
The system replaces complex mechanical microphone array configurations with software-based signal processing. Instead of requiring precisely positioned physical microphone arrays, the invention uses computational methods like beamforming and speaker diarization to achieve speaker distinction, substituting mechanical complexity with algorithmic processing.
Data Source
AI summary
Systems, methods and apparatus for capturing at least one audio signal using a plurality of microphones that generate a plurality of representations of the at least one audio signal. In some embodiments, the plurality of microphones are disposed in a multiple-microphone setting so that the at least one audio signal is captured by at least two of the plurality of microphones. In some embodiments, at least one of the plurality of microphones is a microphone of a mobile device. The plurality of representations of the at least one audio signal may be processed to obtain a processed representation of the at least one audio signal.