Patent ID: 7831036
Filing Date: 2010-11-09
Classification: H04M,H04R

Abstract:
1. A method to reduce total convergence time of an acoustic echo canceller in a beamformer-based audio conferencing system, comprising: during periods of far-end speech activity, performing, as a foreground process within said acoustic echo canceller, real-time cancellation of far-end echo signals from corresponding near-end signals output from said beamformer; during periods of far-end speech activity, capturing said far-end signals and corresponding near-end signals until one of either (i) said acoustic echo canceller is converged for a current look-direction or (ii) a predetermined number of training samples have been captured for said current look-direction; and switching from capturing to processing the captured far-end signals and near-end signals when said acoustic echo canceller is not involved in real-time signal processing to consecutively adapt and store filter coefficients for said echo canceller corresponding to each look-direction of said beamformer, processing said captured far-end and near-end signals continues until said acoustic echo canceller is converged for all look-directions of said beamformer, wherein said capturing and processing steps are background processes occurring concurrently with said foreground process such that said foreground process is not disrupted.