Shared Ambiance Audio Processing for Virtual Meetings

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Solution Overview

Problem

Current virtual meeting platforms struggle to provide a seamless and natural audio experience due to inconsistent background noise, leading to an artificial feel and disrupting the flow of meetings.

Innovation Solution

The system isolates each participant's background noise component, determines an ambiance score for each, and selects a suitable background noise component to create a shared, consistent ambiance for all participants, enhancing the virtual meeting experience.

Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles

VSEngineering Contradiction Analysis

1Reliability

If noise suppression or noise canceling technologies are used to minimize background noise, then audio quality is improved, but the natural ambiance is lost and the experience feels artificial

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaudio qualityVSAvoidnatural ambiance

Core Design Contradiction:

ReliabilityVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system extracts the background noise component from each participant's audio signal separately from the voice component. By isolating and selectively managing background noise rather than suppressing it entirely, the system maintains natural ambiance while improving audio quality through controlled noise management.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #2Taking out (Extraction)

Solution Approach 2:

The system applies different processing to different audio components: voice signals receive noise suppression for clarity, while background noise components are selectively enhanced or maintained to preserve natural ambiance. This localized quality approach allows simultaneous optimization of both audio quality and natural feel.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #3Local quality

2Adaptability or versatility

If each participant's background noise is transmitted as-is, then natural ambiance is preserved, but audio experience becomes inconsistent and distracting

Engineering Contradiction:

Improvenatural ambianceVSAvoidaudio consistency

Core Design Contradiction:

Adaptability or versatilityVSStability of the object's composition

Solution Approach 1:

The system merges background noise components from multiple participants and transmits a unified, consistent background ambiance to all participants. This ensures audio consistency across the virtual meeting while preserving the natural feel of ambient sounds, resolving the contradiction between individual natural ambiance and overall consistency.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #5Merging (Combining)

3Measurement precision

If background noise is suppressed to reduce distractions, then audio clarity is improved, but the immersive experience is reduced

Engineering Contradiction:

Improveaudio clarityVSAvoidimmersive experience

Core Design Contradiction:

Measurement precisionVSAdaptability or versatility

Solution Approach 1:

The system segments audio signals into voice components and background noise components. By separating these elements, the system can apply different processing: enhancing voice clarity through noise suppression while simultaneously managing background noise to maintain or enhance immersive experience, thus resolving the contradiction between clarity and immersion.

Inventive Principle:

Principle #1Segmentation

Data Source

PatentUS20250131937A1Systems and methods for providing a shared ambiance in virtual meetings

Publication Date: 2025.04.24 MICROSOFT TECHNOLOGY LICENSING LLC

AI summary

Systems and methods are disclosed herein for providing a shared ambiance in a virtual meeting. In some instances, systems receive audio signals from a set of audio inputs corresponding to a plurality of participants in a virtual meeting. Each audio signal includes a voice component and a background noise component. Systems isolate the background noise component from the voice component for each received audio signal and then determine an ambiance score for each isolated background noise component. Based on the determined ambiance scores, systems select a particular background noise component from the isolated background noise components and transmit the particular background noise component to a set of audio outputs corresponding to the plurality of participants in order to provide a shared ambiance for the plurality of participants in the virtual meeting.