SBIR Phase I: Enhanced Voice Capture for Mobile Devices Using a Mixed-Response-Type Array

SBIR 第一阶段：使用混合响应型阵列增强移动设备的语音捕获

• 批准号: 1248931
• 负责人: Aaron Jones
• 金额: $ 14.73万
• 依托单位: Sonistic, LLC
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2013-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1248931&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: SBIR; Phase; Enhanced; Voice; Capture

The innovation is to develop very small audio subsystems for mobile audio devices with unprecedented noise and interference reduction. Audio subsystems are fundamental to many high-volume portable devices such as mobile phones, media tablets, and digital voice recorders. Multiple microphones can enhance audio capture and improve signal quality by reducing acoustic noise interference, but current arrays of separated omni-directional microphones require large spacing between microphones to achieve high discrimination. The small size of mobile communication devices thus fundamentally degrades the performance of existing array technologies. "Zero-aperture" mixed-response-type arrays that retain high directional selectivity with very closely spaced microphones coupled with innovative signal-processing methods may achieve unprecedented background noise and interference reduction with high target signal quality. The research will extend existing free-field arrays and adaptive beamforming methods to the different acoustics when embedded in handheld devices, will develop a novel real-time robust beamformer for small arrays, and will greatly increase noise and interference reduction through new multichannel noise-reduction processing. Successful research could fundamentally improve the signal capture and noise rejection of small mobile electronic voice communication devices, thus greatly improving their most fundamental function and enabling their effective use in a wider range of environments.The broader/commercial impact is to enhance and facilitate mobile voice communication for mobile device users. The voice and audio subsystem is a fundamental component of mobile devices including cell phones, smartphones and media tablets. Background noise interference during voice communication presents a major problem for many users, especially the millions of hearing impaired and elderly individuals who often struggle to communicate using current voice communications technology. Major device manufacturers have recently begun to implement microphone arrays in commercial devices, yet current voice capture systems fail to utilize the full potential of array technology for mobile applications. Market research has predicted that dedicated voice processor sales will grow to 1.6 billion units in 2015 from 63 million in 2010. Prior research has enabled the development of innovative mixed-response-type array technology, allowing arrays to be implemented effectively in smaller devices. However, a number of unsolved technical problems have prevented commercialization of the technology within the mobile market. This Phase I project will address these problems to deliver a disruptive voice processing solution, setting a new standard for voice capture performance in mobile devices.

创新是为了为移动音频设备开发非常小的音频子系统，并减少了噪音和干扰。音频子系统对于许多大批量便携式设备（例如手机，媒体平板电脑和数字语音录音机）至关重要。多个麦克风可以通过减少声学噪声干扰来增强音频捕获和提高信号质量，但是当前分离的浮球麦克风的阵列需要在麦克风之间进行较大的间距才能实现高歧视。因此，移动通信设备的尺寸很小，从根本上降低了现有阵列技术的性能。 “零孔”的混合响应型阵列，这些阵列保持高方向选择性，并以非常间隔的麦克风与创新的信号处理方法结合使用，可以实现前所未有的背景噪声和高目标信号质量的干扰。当嵌入手持设备中时，这项研究将将现有的自由场阵列和自适应光束形成方法扩展到不同的声学，将开发出一种新型的实时鲁棒光束器，以用于小阵列，并通过新的多冰川噪声还原处理大大增加噪声和干扰。成功的研究可以从根本上改善小型移动电子语音通信设备的信号捕获和噪声排斥，从而大大改善其最基本的功能并在更广泛的环境中有效使用。更广泛/商业上的影响是增强和促进移动设备用户的移动语音通信。语音和音频子系统是移动设备的基本组成部分，包括手机，智能手机和媒体平板电脑。语音交流期间的背景噪声干扰给许多用户带来了一个主要问题，尤其是数以百万计的听力受损和老年人，他们经常使用当前的语音通信技术进行沟通。主要的设备制造商最近开始在商业设备中实现麦克风阵列，但是当前的语音捕获系统无法利用阵列技术的全部潜力用于移动应用程序。市场研究预测，专门的配音处理器销售将从2015年的6300万台增长到16亿台。先前的研究使创新的混合反应型型阵列技术能够开发，从而可以在较小的设备中有效地实现阵列。但是，许多未解决的技术问题阻止了移动市场中该技术的商业化。该阶段I项目将解决这些问题，以提供颠覆性的语音处理解决方案，为移动设备中的语音捕获性能设定新标准。