Patent ID: 9497528
Filing Date: 2016-11-15
CPC Classification: G10L,H04R

Claim Text:
1. In a vehicle having a driver and a passenger and first and second, spatially separated microphones, both of which detect sounds from both the passenger and driver, the first microphone being separated from the driver by a first distance, the second microphone being separated from the driver by a second distance, a method for suppressing sounds that emanate from the passenger, the method comprising: locating a driver in the vehicle by determining a direction from which sound from the driver is loudest; locating a passenger in the vehicle by determining a direction from which sound from the passenger is loudest; subtracting from sound that comes from the driver, sound that comes from the passenger; the directions of where the driver is located and where the passenger is located being determined by first and second directionally-selective microphone beams, one of which is directed toward the driver, the other of which is directed toward the passenger, the first microphone beam being directed at the driver and formed by steps comprising: processing representations of the first sound and processing representations of the second sound to suppress from the second sound, frequency components that are detected in the first sound, and which have a maximum signal level below a predetermined threshold level; receiving at the first and second microphones a second audio signal that emanates from a passenger; processing the second audio signal received at the first and second microphones in order to generate a directionally-selected second audio signal from the passenger; and processing the first audio signal to remove components of the second audio signal there from.