Speaker Microphone Vertical Separation for Voice Devices
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing voice-controlled devices face challenges in accurately interpreting voice commands due to acoustic echo and noise interference from speakers, which can degrade speech recognition performance.
Innovation Solution
The design positions speakers away from the microphone and incorporates diffuser elements to diffuse sound uniformly, reducing the need for acoustic echo cancellation and enhancing signal-to-noise ratio, while a light ring provides visual feedback using a light reflector and LEDs for user interaction.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Volume of moving object
If speakers are positioned close to the microphone for compact device design, then device size is reduced, but acoustic echo and noise interference increase degrading speech recognition
Solution Approach 1:
The patent positions speakers and microphones at different vertical levels (height dimensions) within the device housing. Speakers are located at a first vertical level while microphones are positioned at a second vertical level, creating vertical separation that reduces acoustic interference while maintaining horizontal compactness. This dimensional approach allows close positioning in the horizontal plane while achieving acoustic isolation through vertical stratification.
Solution Approach 2:
The device housing is segmented into distinct vertical zones or levels. The first vertical level contains speaker assemblies while the second vertical level contains microphone assemblies. This segmentation creates acoustic isolation between sound emission and reception zones, reducing echo and noise interference while maintaining overall device compactness through efficient vertical space utilization.
2Measurement precision
If acoustic echo cancellation processing is applied to improve speech recognition accuracy, then speech recognition performance improves, but device complexity and processing requirements increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements preliminary acoustic isolation through strategic speaker and microphone positioning at different vertical levels before speech processing occurs. By pre-reducing acoustic echo and noise interference through physical design, the system minimizes the burden on subsequent acoustic echo cancellation algorithms, allowing simpler processing while maintaining high speech 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
This configuration improves speech recognition accuracy by minimizing speaker noise and provides effective visual cues for user interaction, enhancing the overall performance of voice-controlled devices in home environments.
Implementation Method 1
a light ring provides visual feedback using a light reflector and LEDs for user interaction
Implementation Method 2
incorporates diffuser elements to diffuse sound uniformly, reducing the need for acoustic echo cancellation
Data Source
AI summary
Voice-controlled devices that include one or more speakers for outputting audio. In some instances, the device includes at least one speaker within a cylindrical housing, with the speaker aimed or pointed away from a microphone coupled to the housing. For instance, if the microphone resides at or near the top of the cylindrical housing, then the speaker may point downwards along the longitudinal axis of the housing and away from the microphone. By pointing the speaker away from the microphone, the microphone will receive less sound from the speaker than if the speaker were pointed toward the microphone). Because the voice-controlled device may perform speech recognition on audio signals generated by the microphone, less sound from the speaker represented in the audio signal may result in more accurate speech recognition, and/or a lesser need to perform acoustic echo cancelation (AEC) on the generated audio signals.