Adaptive Sidetone Compensator for Conferencing Pod Echo Suppression
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conferencing pods connected to telephonic devices experience echo and feedback issues due to the presence of sidetone generators, which create distracting open-air echoes and howling when a conferencing pod is used instead of a headset, as the sidetone generator assumes no transmission path between the speaker and microphone, leading to unintended feedback loops.
Innovation Solution
Incorporating a sidetone suppressor and a compensator within the conferencing pod to detect sidetone transitions and adaptively suppress sidetone signals, ensuring that suppression is only applied when an externally-generated sidetone is present, thereby preventing echo and feedback issues.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a sidetone generator is included in the telephonic device, then the local participant receives feedback that their speech is being transmitted, but this creates distracting open-air echoes and howling when a conferencing pod is used instead of a headset
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces a sidetone suppressor as an intermediary component between the sidetone generator and the conferencing pod. This suppressor detects the presence of a conferencing pod and selectively blocks the sidetone signal path, preventing the harmful feedback loop while maintaining normal audio transmission. The suppressor acts as a mediator that conditions the sidetone signal based on the connected device type.
Solution Approach 2:
The system dynamically adjusts the sidetone suppression based on detected conditions. The suppressor monitors audio signals and actively modifies its suppression level in real-time, transitioning between different operational states (suppression enabled/disabled) based on whether a conferencing pod or headset is detected. This dynamic adaptation resolves the contradiction by making the system behavior context-dependent.
2Object-affected harmful factors
If sidetone suppression is continuously applied, then echo and feedback issues are reduced, but this creates artificial echoes when no external sidetone is present
Solution Approach 1:
The system employs feedback mechanisms where the sidetone suppressor continuously monitors the audio signal path to detect the presence or absence of an externally-generated sidetone. Based on this feedback information, the suppressor intelligently adjusts its suppression level, enabling suppression only when an external sidetone is detected and disabling it when no external sidetone is present, thereby avoiding artificial echo generation.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary detection of sidetone presence before applying suppression. The compensator component analyzes incoming audio signals to determine whether an external sidetone generator is active, and only then enables the suppressor. This preliminary action prevents unnecessary suppression and avoids creating artificial echoes in situations where no external sidetone exists.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed herein are teleconferencing pods that include a microphone and a loudspeaker for open-air conversations, connectible to a separate telephonic device that generates an intermittent sidetone that is active at certain times not in the control or monitoring of the pod. In those pods is a sidetone suppressor that suppresses a distracting open-air echo produced from the intermittent sidetone and a compensator that detects sidetone transitions to avoid generating an echo signal in the pod and to avoid adapting suppression in the absence of an externally-generated sidetone. Sidetone suppression may be by several means, and may include variables controlled by adaption, including delay factors, scalers and coefficients. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.