Patent ID: 9747917
Date: 2017-08-29
CPC Classifications: G01S,G10L,H04R

Claim:
1. An adaptive beamforming method for receiving desired sounds, said method comprising: determining an occupant position of an occupant engaging in speech within a defined space in a vehicle, said determining comprising determining when the occupant is engaging in speech by identifying motion of a mouth of the occupant engaging in speech by using a sensor in the vehicle and searching for distinguishing features in spatio-temporal and/or velocity features of signals corresponding to the reflected waves, and generating speech detection based on the determination, the speech detection including detection of when the occupant is speaking based on the detected motion of the mouth of the occupant; receiving sound from within the defined space with a plurality of microphones; generating a plurality of audio signals corresponding to the received sound at each of said plurality of microphones; applying a beamformer to the audio signals to direct a microphone beam toward the determined occupant position and generate a beamformer output signal, wherein: applying a blocking matrix to the audio signals via the sidelobe canceller, and generating a plurality of blocking matrix output signals, each of which corresponds to one of the audio signals.