Using an auxiliary device sensor to facilitate disambiguation of detected acoustic environment changes

摘要

Audio input may be received at one or more microphones of a mobile device. Based on the audio input, a change in an acoustic environment of the device, such as a change in a direction of arrival of the audio input or a degradation in a quality of acoustic echo cancellation being performed upon the audio input, may be detected. A determination may be made that the detected change coincides with a non-acoustic physical event detected using an auxiliary sensor at the mobile device. The event may for example be device motion, a new proximate object, a change in a proximity of an object, a new heat source or a change in a heat level from a known heat source. Based on the determining, a signal processor, possibly comprising an audio beamformer or echo canceller, may be recalibrated, e.g. the audio beamformer or echo canceller may be caused to reconverge.

主权项

1. A method of steering an audio beamformer of a mobile device, the method comprising:
based on audio input received at a microphone array of the mobile device, detecting a change in a direction of arrival of the audio input at a first time; detecting a non-acoustic physical event at a second time using an auxiliary sensor at the mobile device; determining that the first time of the change in the direction of arrival of the audio input coincides with the second time of the non-acoustic physical event; and in response to determining that the change in the direction coincides with the non-acoustic physical event, steering the audio beamformer in a changed direction of arrival of the audio input.