Patent ID: 9293151
Filing Date: 2016-03-22
CPC Classification: G06K,G06T,G10L,H04M,H04N

Claim Text:
1. A method, comprising: providing a microphone to detect speech uttered by a speaker and generate audio signals from the speech received by the microphone; coupling an audio signal processor to the microphone to receive the audio signals and process the received audio signals; providing a camera that can be at least partially orientated toward the microphone to generate a scene image; coupling an image analyzer to the camera to automatically analyze the scene image for estimating a distance between the speaker and the microphone; coupling a tuner to the image analyzer and to the audio signal processor to automatically alter an operating parameter of the audio signal processor, based at least in part on the estimated distance between the speaker and the microphone; detecting a sound-reflecting surface disposed proximate the microphone and the speaker by analyzing the scene image, so as to estimate a ratio of: sound energy reaching the microphone directly from the speaker and sound energy indirectly reaching the microphone from the speaker after being reflected from the sound-reflecting surface; and altering the operating parameter of the audio signal processor, based at least in part on the estimated ratio, wherein the audio signal processor comprises an anti-reverberation filter and the tuner to reduce aggressiveness of the anti-reverberation filter when the estimated ratio is less than a predetermined value.