Patent Description:
This disclosure relates to the processing of audio signals. In particular, this disclosure relates to processing audio signals related to teleconferencing or video conferencing.

Acoustic feedback is a type of feedback that occurs when a sound loop exists between an audio input (e.g., a microphone) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker). For example, a signal received by the microphone may be amplified and reproduced by the loudspeaker. The reproduced sound from the loudspeaker may then be received by the microphone again, amplified further, and then reproduced by the loudspeaker again at a higher amplitude or volume level. In this type of system, the sound of the acoustic feedback may be a loud screech or squeal, which may be referred to herein as a "howl. " In some instances, guitarists and other performers may intentionally create howl (e.g., between a guitar pickup and a loudspeaker) in order to produce desired musical effects. Although some methods have proven to successfully detect and mitigate unintentionally-produced howl, this problem has proven to be more difficult to solve in the context of teleconferencing.

The present invention, defined in the appended independent claims, brings a solution to the above-mentioned technical issues. Optional aspects of the invention are defined in the dependent claims.

The following description is directed to certain implementations for the purposes of describing some innovative aspects of this disclosure, as well as examples of contexts in which these innovative aspects may be implemented. However, the teachings herein can be applied in various different ways. Moreover, the described embodiments may be implemented in a variety of hardware, software, firmware, etc. For example, aspects of the present application may be embodied, at least in part, in an apparatus, a system that includes more than one device, a method, a computer program product, etc. Accordingly, aspects of the present application may take the form of a hardware embodiment, a software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, microcodes, etc.) and/or an embodiment combining both software and hardware aspects. Such embodiments may be referred to herein as a "circuit," a "module" or "engine. " Some aspects of the present application may take the form of a computer program product embodied in one or more non-transitory media having computer readable program code embodied thereon. Such non-transitory media may, for example, include a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing. Accordingly, the teachings of this disclosure are not intended to be limited to the implementations shown in the figures and/or described herein, but instead have wide applicability.

<FIG> shows examples of teleconference devices during a teleconference involving two teleconference client locations. In this example, a teleconference server is configured for providing audio connectivity (which may be full-duplex audio connectivity) between a teleconference client device 100a in teleconference client location <NUM> and teleconference client devices 100b and 100c in teleconference client location <NUM>. Here, the teleconference client devices 100a and 100c are conference phones, whereas teleconference client device 100b is a laptop.

According to this example, teleconference client devices 100b and 100c both have their microphones and speakers enabled. Therefore, the microphones of teleconference client devices 100b and 100c each provide teleconference audio data to the teleconference server corresponding to the speech of near-end talker <NUM>. Accordingly, the teleconference server provides teleconference audio data to teleconference client device 100b corresponding to the speech of near-end talker <NUM> received by teleconference client device 100c, and also provides teleconference audio data to teleconference client device 100c corresponding to the speech of near-end talker <NUM> received by teleconference client device 100b.

The speakers of teleconference client devices 100b and 100c each reproduce the speech of near-end talker <NUM> after a time delay corresponding with the round-trip time for the teleconference audio data to be transmitted from the teleconference client location <NUM> to the teleconference server and back. When the speakers of teleconference client device 100b reproduce the speech of near-end talker <NUM>, the microphones of teleconference client device 100c detect the reproduced speech of near-end talker <NUM>. Likewise, when the speakers of teleconference client device 100c reproduce the speech of near-end talker <NUM>, the microphone(s) of teleconference client device 100b detect the reproduced speech of near-end talker <NUM>.

Therefore, a howl state can be triggered by the speech of near-end talker <NUM> in teleconference client location <NUM>. However, the howl state has at least some characteristics that would not be present if the teleconference client devices 100b and 100c were not participating in a teleconference.

<FIG> shows graphs, in the time and frequency domains, of an example of a howl state that may involve two or more teleconference devices in a teleconference client location. Graph <NUM> is in the time domain, with time represented by the horizontal axis and level, in dB, represented by the vertical axis. Graph <NUM> shows howl events 210a-210f. The time during which the howl events 210a-210f are taking place may be referred to herein as a "howl state.

It may be observed that the howl events 210a-210f are periodic, or quasi-periodic, and that they increase in amplitude over time. In this example, the periodicity of the howl events 210a-210f corresponds with a time delay corresponding with the round-trip time for the teleconference audio data to be transmitted from a teleconference client location to a teleconference server and back. It also may be observed that the level of speech events (to the left of the howl events 210a-210f) is lower than that of the howl events 210a-210f.

Graph <NUM> represents the same audio data, including the howl events 210a-210f, in the frequency domain. It may be observed from graph <NUM> that most of the energy of the howl events 210a-210f is concentrated in relatively narrow frequency bands.

Based on many observations made by the inventors, including the data in graphs <NUM> and <NUM>, the following spectral and temporal characteristics of feedback howl that are distinct from speech have been observed:.

Other characteristics of a howl state are described below. As noted above, the howl state has at least some characteristics that would not be present if the devices involved in producing the howl state were not participating in a teleconference. For example, acoustic feedback between a microphone and a speaker of a public address audio system may occur when the microphone is too close to the loudspeaker and/or when the amplification is too large. Such acoustic feedback would generally manifest as a single and continuous howl event, not as a plurality of discontinuous and periodically-occurring howl events. In contrast to acoustic feedback in a public address system context, acoustic feedback in a duplex communication use case may span different networks and different devices. The round-trip time is usually larger than <NUM>, and may be in the range of <NUM> to a second or more. Accordingly, acoustic feedback detection and mitigation in a teleconferencing context may be very different from acoustic feedback detection and mitigation in a public address system context, where the feedback is caused in the same microphone-amplifier-loudspeaker system.

In view of the above-described observations, some aspects of the present disclosure can provide improved methods for detecting a howl state during a teleconference. <FIG> is a block diagram that shows examples of components of an apparatus that may be configured to perform at least some of the methods disclosed herein. In some examples, the apparatus <NUM> may be a teleconferencing server. In other examples, the apparatus <NUM> may be a teleconference client device. The components of the apparatus <NUM> may be implemented via hardware, via software stored on non-transitory media, via firmware and/or by combinations thereof. The types and numbers of components shown in <FIG>, as well as other figures disclosed herein, are merely shown by way of example. Alternative implementations may include more, fewer and/or different components. For example, if the apparatus <NUM> is a teleconferencing client device, the apparatus <NUM> may include one or more microphones, one or more speakers, etc..

In this example, the apparatus <NUM> includes an interface system <NUM> and a control system <NUM>. The interface system <NUM> may include one or more network interfaces, one or more interfaces between the control system <NUM> and a memory system and/or one or more external device interfaces (such as one or more universal serial bus (USB) interfaces). In some implementations, the interface system <NUM> may include a user interface system. The user interface system may be configured for receiving input from a user. In some implementations, the user interface system may be configured for providing feedback to a user. For example, the user interface system may include one or more displays with corresponding touch and/or gesture detection systems. In some examples, the user interface system may include one or more speakers. According to some examples, the user interface system may include apparatus for providing haptic feedback, such as a motor, a vibrator, etc. The control system <NUM> may, for example, include a general purpose single- or multi-chip processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, and/or discrete hardware components.

In some examples, the apparatus <NUM> may be implemented in a single device. However, in some implementations, the apparatus <NUM> may be implemented in more than one device. In some such implementations, functionality of the control system <NUM> may be included in more than one device. In some examples, the apparatus <NUM> may be a component of another device. For example, in some implementations the apparatus <NUM> may be a component of a server, e.g., a line card.

<FIG> is a flow diagram that outlines blocks of a method according to one example. The method may, in some instances, be performed by the apparatus of <FIG> or by another type of apparatus disclosed herein. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media.

In this implementation, block <NUM> involves detecting a howl state during a teleconference. According to this example, the teleconference involves two or more teleconference client locations and a teleconference server configured for providing full-duplex audio connectivity between the teleconference client locations. Here, the howl state is a state of acoustic feedback involving two or more teleconference devices in a teleconference client location.

In this example, detecting the howl state involves an analysis of both spectral and temporal characteristics of teleconference audio data. Depending on the particular implementation, detecting the howl state may involve calculating a power-based metric according to order statistics of frequency bands, calculating a spectral resonance metric, calculating an inter-percentile range metric, event aggregation, calculating a periodicity metric, detecting envelope similarity, calculating a spectral peakiness metric, a machine-learning-based process and/or estimating a howl presence probability. The terms "metric" and "measure" may be used synonymously herein. In some examples, detecting the howl state may, for example, involve estimating a howl presence probability according to the teleconference audio data. The howl presence probability estimation may be based on a hierarchical rule set or a machine learning method. Detecting the howl state may be based, at least in part, on the howl presence probability. Various examples are described in detail below.

In some instances, the teleconference server may detect the howl state in block <NUM>. However, in some implementations a howl-detection-enabled teleconference device at a teleconference client location may detect the howl state in block <NUM>.

In this example, block <NUM> involves determining which client location is causing the howl state. In some instances, the teleconference server may determine which client location is causing the howl state in block <NUM>.

However, in some implementations a howl-detection-enabled teleconference device at a teleconference client location may determine which client location is causing the howl state in block <NUM>. The howl-detection-enabled teleconference device may, in some instances, determine that the howl-detection-enabled teleconference device itself, or another teleconference device at the same teleconference client location, it causing the howl state.

Optional block <NUM> involves mitigating the howl state or sending a howl state detection message. According to some examples, the teleconference server may send the howl state detection message to the client location that is causing the howl state in block <NUM>. In some implementations, mitigating the howl state may involve detecting one or more peak frequency bands of the howl state and applying one or more notch filters corresponding to the one or more peak frequency bands. In some examples, mitigating the howl state may involve muting one or more microphones at the client location that is causing the howl state and/or lowering a speaker volume at the client location that is causing the howl state. In some implementations, a howl-detection-enabled teleconference device at the client location that is causing the howl state may be configured to mitigate the howl state.

<FIG> shows teleconference client device and teleconference server configurations according to one implementation. In this example, the teleconference server is configured to detect the howl state based, at least in part, on teleconference audio data received from the teleconference client locations. Here, teleconference client locations <NUM> through M are participating in a teleconference.

In the example shown in <FIG>, the teleconference server includes howl detectors <NUM> through M, each howl detector corresponding with a teleconference client location or a teleconference client device at a client location. According to this implementation, each of the howl detectors <NUM> through M is configured for detecting a howl state during a teleconference. In this example, the teleconference server also includes a howl client detector configured for determining which client location is causing the howl state.

Here, each of the howl detectors <NUM> through M is configured for sending a howl state signal to the howl client detector after detecting a howl state. In this implementation, the howl client detector may determine which client location is causing the howl state according to the howl detector from which the howl state signal is received. The teleconference server may be configured for mitigating the howl state and/or sending a howl state detection message to the teleconference client location causing the howl state.

The howl detectors and the howl client detector shown and described herein, including but not limited to those shown in <FIG>, may be implemented in various ways according to the particular implementation. For example, the howl detectors and the howl client detector may be implemented as part of a control system such as that shown in <FIG> and described above. In some examples, the howl detectors and the howl client detector may be implemented via hardware, via software (which may include firmware, resident software, microcodes, etc.) and/or in an embodiment combining both software and hardware aspects. Such embodiments may be referred to herein as a "circuit," a "module" or "engine. " In some implementations, the howl detectors and the howl client detector may be implemented via a computer program product embodied in one or more non-transitory media having computer readable program code embodied thereon. Such non-transitory media may, for example, include a hard disk, a random access memory (RAM), a read-only memory (ROM), an erasable programmable read-only memory (EPROM or Flash memory), a portable compact disc read-only memory (CD-ROM), an optical storage device, a magnetic storage device, or any suitable combination of the foregoing.

<FIG> shows teleconference client device and teleconference server configurations according to another implementation. In this example, the teleconference server is configured to detect the howl state based, at least in part, on teleconference audio data received from the teleconference client locations <NUM> through M, which are participating in a teleconference. In the example shown in <FIG>, the teleconference server includes a mixer that is configured to mix the teleconference audio data received from the teleconference client locations <NUM> through M and to output a teleconference audio data mix to the howl detector. In this implementation, the howl detector is configured to detect a howl state based on the teleconference audio data mix.

This type of implementation has potential advantages as compared to the type of implementation shown in <FIG>, in that multiple howl detectors are not required. Accordingly, this type of implementation can provide relatively lower computational overhead, less power consumption, etc., as compared to the type of implementation shown in <FIG>.

As in the previous example, the teleconference server shown in <FIG> also includes a howl client detector that is configured for determining which client location is causing the howl state. The teleconference server may be configured for mitigating the howl state and/or sending a howl state detection message to the teleconference client location causing the howl state.

Because there is only one howl detector in this example, the howl client detector cannot determine which client location is causing the howl state according to the howl detector from which the howl state signal is received. Therefore, according to some such implementations, the teleconference server may receive teleconference metadata from each of the teleconference client locations <NUM> through M participating in the teleconference. In some examples, the teleconference metadata may include voice activity detection metadata, level metadata and/or energy metadata. The howl client detector may be configured to determine which client location is causing the howl state based, at least in part, on the teleconference metadata. For example, in some instances the howl client detector may be configured to determine which client location is causing the howl state based, at least in part, on voice activity detection metadata indicating which teleconference client location has a teleconference participant who is currently speaking. This is a reasonable assumption because throughout most of a teleconference or other conversation, one person is talking at a time.

Some implementations may provide a howl client detection algorithm, which also may be referred to as a "blame" algorithm, to correlate regions of howl to a particular teleconference client based on howl detection result in the server and each teleconference client's metadata information received by the teleconference server. In one example, the "blame" algorithm may be as follows:.

<FIG> shows teleconference client device and teleconference server configurations according to still another implementation. In this example, each of the teleconference client locations includes a howl detector. A teleconference device that includes such a howl detector may be referred to herein as a howl-detection-enabled teleconference device at a teleconference client location. In some examples, the howl-detection-enabled teleconference device may be configured to detect a howl state. In some such examples, the howl-detection-enabled teleconference device (or another device at the teleconference client location) may be configured to mitigate the howl state. According to some such examples, no teleconference server involvement may be required for detecting and/or mitigating the howl state.

However, in some alternative implementations, there may nonetheless be some level of teleconference server involvement. According to some such implementations, a teleconference device at a teleconference client location (such as one of the client-side howl detectors shown in <FIG>) may perform a howl feature extraction process on at least some of the teleconference audio data received by the teleconference device.

The howl feature extraction process may yield howl feature data. The characteristics of the howl feature data may vary according to the details of the howl feature extraction process of a particular implementation. For example, the howl feature data may include one or more features corresponding with a power-based metric, a spectral resonance metric, an inter-percentile range metric, an event aggregation, a periodicity metric, envelope similarity, a spectral peakiness metric, and/or a howl presence probability.

The teleconference device may send at least some of the howl feature data to the teleconference server. According to some such examples, the teleconference server may be configured to detect the howl state based, at least in part, on the howl feature data. The teleconference server may be configured to determine which client location is causing the howl state based, at least in part, on the client location from which the howl feature data are received.

Various howl detection methods are disclosed herein. Some howl detection methods may involve detecting the short-term spectral structural features of howl, the medium-term spectral-temporal structure features of howl and/or the long-term temporal repeat patterns of howl. Such howl detection methods may involve a howl presence probability estimation or a "binary" howl/no howl determination. The detailed discussion below will describe aspects of the following howl detection methods, including:.

These methods will be described in the following subsections. In some methods, the audio signal may be transformed into the frequency domain and the features may be calculated based on frequency domain audio signals. However, some method operates, at least in part, in the time domain.

<FIG> is a flow diagram that outlines blocks of howl detection methods according to some implementations. The blocks of method <NUM> may, for example, be implemented by one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> and <FIG>. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media. The blocks of method <NUM>, like other methods described herein, are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. Moreover, such methods may include more or fewer blocks than shown and/or described.

In this example, method <NUM> begins with audio data being transformed from the time domain to the frequency domain in block <NUM>. The audio data may include teleconference audio data. In this implementation, the transformed audio data are divided into frequency bands in block <NUM>. The number of frequency bands may vary according to the particular implementation. Some implementations (which may correspond to relatively narrow-band audio data) may involve dividing the transformed audio data into <NUM> audio bands, whereas other implementations may involve dividing the transformed audio data into <NUM> audio bands (which may correspond to wideband audio data), into <NUM> audio bands (which may correspond to super-wideband audio data), or into another number of audio bands. According to some examples, block <NUM> may involve dividing the transformed audio data into logarithmically-spaced bands, whereas other examples may involve dividing the transformed audio data into linearly-spaced bands.

In this example, the transformed and banded audio data are provided to three different howl detection processes: block <NUM> involves detecting short-term features of spectral structures, block <NUM> involves detecting medium-term spectral and temporal features and block <NUM> involves detecting patterns that are repeated over a relatively long term. Examples of each of these howl detection processes are provided below. In some implementations, "medium-term" may be a time period of hundreds of milliseconds, e.g., <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. "Long-term" means longer than medium-term. For example, "long-term" may be on the order of seconds, such as <NUM> second, <NUM> seconds, <NUM> seconds, <NUM> seconds, etc. "Short-term" means shorter than medium-term. For example, "short-term" may correspond to tens of milliseconds, e.g., <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. "Short-term" events may, in some examples, be detectable in an individual frame of audio data.

Other examples may involve more or fewer howl detection processes. For example, some alternative methods may involve only two of the three types of howl detection processes shown in <FIG>. Some methods may involve only one of the three types of howl detection processes, e.g., only block <NUM> or block <NUM>.

In this example, the results from blocks <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> are all provided to a howl presence probability estimation process in block <NUM>. In this example, block <NUM> outputs an indication of howl presence probability. Optional post-processing block <NUM> receives the indication of howl presence probability and outputs a howl binary indicator, which indicates either a howl state or a no-howl state. In some implementations, method <NUM> also may include actions responsive to a howl state, such as mitigating the howl state or sending a howl state detection message.

Examples of howl detection processes and metrics are provided in the following paragraphs.

These metrics provide examples of the processes of block <NUM>. A first such metric, which is referred to herein as a spectral peakiness measure (SPM), is based on the observation that howl audio usually has very high spectral peaks, with energy concentrated in narrow frequency ranges. There are many potential spectral-related measures that can be used to characterize the "peaky" condition of signal spectrum. One of the embodiments of the spectral peakiness measure can be seen in Equation (<NUM>), below.

In Equation <NUM>, X(k) represents the spectral amplitude of band index k, l represents the index of the frame and K represents the number of the frequency bands. In this example, SPM is calculated as one minus the ratio between geometric mean of the band power spectrum and the arithmetic mean of the band power spectrum.

In some examples, the SPM measure of Equation <NUM> may be smoothed as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, <MAT>, N represents the block size and Ts represents a smoothing time constant. The values of N and Ts may vary according to the particular implementation and may depend, for example, on the sampling rate and/or the frame length. In some examples wherein the frame length is <NUM>, N may be <NUM> for a <NUM> sampling rate and <NUM> for a <NUM> sampling rate. In other examples, the frame length may be <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. According to some implementations, Ts may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

In some implementations, other spectral-related measures may be used to characterize a peaky condition of a signal spectrum, such as:.

Another measure of peakiness that may be used for howl state detection may be referred to herein as a "consistent high-peakiness measure based on counter. " These implementations involve detecting, based on the counter, relatively long blocks having a high peakiness signal. In some such implementations, the counter may be released slowly if the signal is not becoming highly peaky. One example of a consistent high-peakiness measure based on a counter is shown in Equation <NUM>: <MAT> In Equation <NUM>, PCounter (<NUM>) represents the counted number of high-peakiness signals, PMaxCounter represents the maximum counter value when long blocks with high peakiness signal are observed, SP̃M Th represents a threshold for determining a condition of high-peakiness, SP̃M DownTh represents a threshold of declining SPM (l) and PCounterDown represents a step for decrementing the counter. The values of SPM_Th, SPM_DownTh and P_CounterDown may vary according to the particular implementation. In some examples, SPM_Th may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc., SPM_DownTh may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc., and P_CounterDown may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. The value of P_CounterDown may depend, for example, on a desired release time.

Inter-percentile range (IPR) metrics may be used to detect the contrast between band power in a current frame. Howl audio usually has very high IPR compared with speech and noise signals.

The log domain band power may be expressed as follows: b(k,l) = 10log10(|X(k,l)|<NUM>), where k = <NUM>,. ,K; I = <NUM>,. In this expression, k represents the index of the band and l represents the index of the frame. The corresponding order statistics version of band power may be denoted as B(t, <NUM>), B(<NUM>, <NUM>),. B(K,l), respectively, where: <MAT>.

One way of expressing IPR is as follows: <MAT>.

The values of r and κ have been determined by the inventors according to experiments under various howl conditions. In some examples, r = <NUM> and κ may be expressed as <MAT>. In some implementations, PercentileTh = <NUM>. In other implementations, PercentileTh may be <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

In some examples, the original IPR measure may be smoothed, e.g., as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, αIPR may be expressed as <MAT>, where N represents the block size and TS represents a smoothing time constant. As noted above, the values of N and Ts may vary according to the particular implementation and may depend on the sampling rate and/or the frame length. In some examples wherein the frame length is <NUM>, N may be <NUM> for a <NUM> sampling rate and <NUM> for a <NUM> sampling rate. In other examples, the frame length may be <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. According to some implementations, Ts may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. <MAT>.

In some implementations, some type of weighting function(s) may be used for IPR metrics. Using a well-chosen weighting function can increase the discriminative ability of the original IPR measure. In some examples, the input level may be determined before automatic gain control (AGC) is applied. In some implementations, the input level and a spectral peakiness metric may be used in a weighting function. Equation <NUM> provides one such example: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, inLeveldB represents the input level of a signal. In some examples (which may be examples in which a howl detector is implemented in a teleconference client device), inLeveldB may represent the input level of a signal before AGC is applied. However, in other examples (which may be examples in which a howl detector is implemented in a teleconference server), inLeveldB may represent the input level of a signal after AGC is applied. In one example, LowTh = -<NUM> dB and HighTh = -30dB. It will be appreciated that the values of LowTh and HighTh may vary according to the particular implementation. One corresponding weighting function for IPR can be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

The IPRComb measure is a weighted version of the above-described IPR measure and may, in some examples, be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

Another useful metric for howl detection may be referred to as the "Consistent High-IPRComb Measure Based on Counter. " This metric can be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, IPRCounter (l) represents the counter of the high-IPRComb signal, IPRMaxCounter represents the maximum counter when long blocks with high IPRComb signals are observed, IPRTh represents the threshold of the high-IPRComb metric and IPRCounterDown represents the step of the declining counter. In some examples, IPR_Th may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. An example of "long blocks" is a block on the order of <NUM> or <NUM> frames, the time duration of which will depend on the frame length. For example, if the frame length is <NUM>, a block on the order of <NUM> or <NUM> frames would correspond to a time duration of <NUM> to <NUM> milliseconds. Accordingly, this metric provides an example of a process that may occur in block <NUM> of <FIG>.

This metric provides another example of a process that may occur in block <NUM>. The medium-term event-based counter may detect repeating patterns of the spectral structure of howl audio during the medium term. In one example, the onset of a howl event can be detected based on PCounter (l) and IPRCounter (l), as follows: <MAT>.

The medium-term event counter may be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, EventCounter (l) represents the counter of the medium-term howl event, EventMaxCounter represents the maximum counter of medium-term howl events and EventCounterDown represents the step of the declining event counter. In this example, the counter is used to detect repeating patterns of the spectral structure of howl in the medium term. Here, if the value of the counter increases, the likelihood of the howl presence also increases. In this example, the maximum counter represents the highest possible likelihood of howl presence, e.g., <NUM>. In this implementation, CounterDown represents the step size for decreasing the counter. When the counter value decreases, this indicates that the likelihood of howl presence is declining.

This metric is an example of a process that could correspond to block <NUM> of <FIG>. In some examples, a smoothed bands power metric may be determined as follows: <MAT>.

In some implementations, spectral entropy during a time domain analysis window may be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

η(k,l) is essentially an entropy measure of a normalized short-term spectrum computed at band k over R consecutive frames, ending at the lth frame. According to some examples, a long-term signal variability measure LTSV may be computed as follows: <MAT>.

In this example, the signal variability measure LTSV is the sample variance of entropies (computed according to Equation <NUM>) for K bands. In Equation (<NUM>), <MAT>.

This metric is another example of a process that could correspond to block <NUM> of <FIG>. The inventors have observed that howl in a teleconferencing context often shows long-term repeated patterns that may, for example, occur over a period of two or more seconds.

<FIG> is a flow diagram that shows example blocks of a howl event periodicity detection method. The blocks of method <NUM> may, for example, be implemented by one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> and <FIG>. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media. The blocks of method <NUM>, like other methods described herein, are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. Moreover, such methods may include more or fewer blocks than shown and/or described.

In this example, method <NUM> begins with received audio data being transformed from the time domain to the frequency domain in block <NUM>. The audio data may include teleconference audio data. In this implementation, the transformed audio data are also divided into frequency bands in block <NUM>.

In order to count howl events and determine howl event lengths, some type of howl event onset detection is needed. In this example, the transformed and banded audio data are provided to three different processes for determining howl onset detection metrics. Other implementations may involve determining more or fewer howl onset detection metrics. In this example, block <NUM> involves a "delta level" process for determining whether there is a level increase that is characteristic of a howl event. In some examples, this level increase threshold may be 20dB, 25dB, 30dB, etc. Here, block <NUM> involves evaluating IPR. Block <NUM> may, for example, involve one or more types of IPR calculation methods such as those described above. According to this implementation, block <NUM> involves one or more types of peakiness detection, which can represent the spectral structure of the howl event onset. Block <NUM> may involve one or more of the peakiness detection methods described above.

In this example, howl onset detection metrics output from the processes of blocks <NUM>-<NUM> are provided to a howl event onset detection process in block <NUM>. In some examples, the howl onset detection metrics output from the processes of blocks <NUM>-<NUM> are given equal weight during the howl event onset detection process, whereas in other examples one of the metrics may be given more weight than others. When the onset of a howl event has been detected, a howl event onset detection indication is input to the process of block <NUM>, wherein the howl event length is determined. For example, in block <NUM> one or more howl event detection methods may be invoked, e.g., one or more of the short-term howl event detection methods that are disclosed herein. According to this example, after the howl event length has been determined in block <NUM>, method <NUM> proceeds to a howl event counter process (block <NUM>).

In this implementation, a result of the howl event counter process (which may include a detected howl event number) is provided to the event periodicity measuring process(es) of block <NUM>. In some examples, block <NUM> may involve applying one or more heuristic rules to derive a periodicity measure, e.g., as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, EventCount represents a detected howl event number; EventNumTh represents a threshold of the howl event presence number and Periodicity Step represents an increased step of periodicity. According to one example, EventNumTh is <NUM> and Periodicity Step is <NUM>. However in alternative examples, EventNumTh may be <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. In other examples, Periodicity Step may be <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

According to some examples, a recursive averaging method may be invoked in order to provide further smoothing of the event-based periodicity measure, e.g., as follows: <MAT> In Equation <NUM>, αsmooth represents a smoothing coefficient. In some examples αsmooth may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

Some implementations involve determining a long-term periodicity metric that is based on audio signal levels. The inventors have observed that the amplitude modulation spectrum of howl events in a teleconferencing context often shows a long-term repeated pattern.

<FIG> is a flow diagram that shows example blocks of another method of measuring howl event periodicity. The blocks of method <NUM> may, for example, be implemented by one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> and <FIG>. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media. The blocks of method <NUM>, like other methods described herein, are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. Moreover, such methods may include more or fewer blocks than shown and/or described.

In this example, method <NUM> begins with audio data being received in block <NUM>. The audio data may include teleconference audio data. In this implementation, the received audio data are provided to block <NUM>. Here, block <NUM> involves evaluating level information in audio data according to a sliding time window. In one example, the sliding time window may be <NUM> frames of audio data. In other examples, the sliding time window may be longer or shorter. In some examples, the level information may be determined prior to an AGC process.

According to this example, the results of block <NUM> are provided to block <NUM>, which involves a process of modulation spectrum analysis. In some examples, block <NUM> involves fast Fourier transform (FFT) calculations. For example, the modulation spectrum analysis of block <NUM> may involve a Fourier transform of the long-term level information in the sliding time window. The results of block <NUM> are provided to the peak picking process of block <NUM>. The peak value of the modulation spectrum is selected in block <NUM> because the peak value represents periodicity information. A periodicity measure may then be determined in block <NUM>, based on the results of block <NUM>. For example, a peak level selected in block <NUM> may indicate the onset of a howl event. A corresponding peak level may be identified later in time and may be correlated with the earlier peak level.

In some implementations, a local howl presence probability may be based on a linear interpolation of IPR values, e.g., as follows: <MAT>.

Alternatively, or additionally, a global howl presence probability may be determined. In some examples, a global howl presence probability may be based on a counter-based consistency measure, as follows: <MAT>.

A raw howl probability may, in some examples, be defined as follows: <MAT>.

<FIG> is a flow diagram that shows blocks of a howl presence probability determination method according to one example. The blocks of method <NUM> may, for example, be implemented by one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> and <FIG>. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media. The blocks of method <NUM>, like other methods described herein, are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. Moreover, such methods may include more or fewer blocks than shown and/or described.

In this example, the salient features of method <NUM> begin after the howl event detection process of block <NUM>, which may be performed according to any of the above-described howl event detection methods. Although not shown in <FIG>, block <NUM> may involve other processes according to the particular implementation, such as receiving audio data, transforming the audio data to the frequency domain, banding, etc. Here, block <NUM> involves determining whether a number of howl events has exceeded a first howl event counter threshold, which also may be referred to as a medium-term event counter high threshold. In some examples, the medium-term event counter high threshold may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. If it is determined in block <NUM> that the number of howl events has exceeded the first howl event counter threshold, the process continues to block <NUM>.

However, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the number of howl events has not exceeded the first howl event counter threshold, the process continues to block <NUM>, wherein it is determined whether a number of howl events is less than a second howl event counter threshold, which also may be referred to as a medium-term event counter low threshold. In some examples, the medium-term event counter low threshold may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. If it is determined in block <NUM> that the number of howl events is less than the second howl event counter threshold, the process continues to block <NUM>, which involves reducing the current howl presence probability (HPP). In this example, block <NUM> involves multiplying the current HPP value by HPP_Clear, which is a constant for reducing the HPP value quickly if the probability of a false alarm is high. In some examples, the value of HPP_Clear may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

However, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the number of howl events is not less than the second howl event counter threshold, the process continues to block <NUM>. In this example, block <NUM> involves setting the current HPP value to the greater of zero or the value of (HPP(l) [the current HPP value] - HPP_Down). According to this example, HPP_Down is a constant for reducing the value of HPP. In some examples, the value of HPP_Down may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

As noted above, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the number of howl events has exceeded the first howl event counter threshold, the process continues to block <NUM>. Here, block <NUM> involves evaluating signal variability. In this example, block <NUM> involves determining whether the long-term signal variability (LTSV) is greater than an LTSV threshold value, denoted LTSV_Th1 in <FIG>. In some examples, the value of LTSV_Th1 may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. If it is determined in block <NUM> that LTSV is not greater than LTSV_Th1, the process proceeds to block <NUM>. However, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the LTSV is greater than LTSV_Th1, the process continues to block <NUM>.

In this implementation, block <NUM> involves determining whether one or more level values of the audio input data exceed a threshold. In some examples, the level value(s) may be determined prior to an AGC process. According to this implementation, block <NUM> involves determining whether InLeveldB>Level_Th1. In some examples, the value of LTSV_Th1 may be -60Db, -65Db, -70Db, etc. If it is determined in block <NUM> that InLeveldB is not greater than LTSV_Th1, the process proceeds to block <NUM>. However, if it is determined in block <NUM> that InLeveldB>Level_Th1, the process continues to block <NUM> in this example.

In this implementation, block <NUM> involves setting the current HPP value to the lesser of <NUM> or the sum of the current HPP value and the "raw" howl probability, which may in some examples be determined according to Equation <NUM>. The process then proceeds to block <NUM>.

In this implementation, block <NUM> involves determining whether a howl event periodicity metric is less than a first howl event periodicity threshold, which is denoted Periodicity_Thl in <FIG>. In some examples, the value of Periodicity_Th1 may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. If it is determined in block <NUM> that the howl event periodicity metric is less than Periodicity_Th1, the process continues to block <NUM>. Here, block <NUM> involves reducing the current HPP. In this example, block <NUM> involves multiplying the current HPP value by HPP_Clear.

However, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the howl event periodicity metric is not less than the first howl event periodicity threshold, the process proceeds to block <NUM> in this example. Here, block <NUM> involves determining whether the howl event periodicity metric is greater than a second howl event periodicity threshold, which is denoted Periodicity _Th2 in <FIG>. In some examples, the value of Periodicity_Th2 may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. In this example, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the howl event periodicity metric is not greater than Periodicity _Th2, the current HPP value will not be changed. However, if it is determined in block <NUM> that the howl event periodicity metric is greater than Periodicity _Th2, the process continues to block <NUM>.

In this implementation, block <NUM> involves setting the current HPP value to the lesser of <NUM> or the sum of the current HPP value and a constant that is denoted HPP_Up in <FIG>. HPP_Up is a value used to incrementally increase the current value of HPP. In some examples, the value of HPP_Up may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

An HPP value may be output after the foregoing processes have been completed. Although this is not shown in <FIG>, the process may continue as additional howl events are detected.

In alternative implementations, an HPP value may be determined according to one or more other methods. For example, an HPP value may be determined according to a machine learning based method such as regression a decision tree method, an Adaptive Boosting algorithm, a Gaussian Mixture Model, a Hidden Markov Model or a deep neural network.

As described above with reference to block <NUM> of <FIG>, some implementations may involve a post-processing step after determining an HPP value or a similar howl probability value. Some such implementations may involve a voting-based decision smoothing process. If we define the binary indicator of a howl state in frame I as I (l) and the voting ratio in an observation window R as V (l), the voting ratio may be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

The binary decision smoothing can be performed as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, Vth represents a voting ratio threshold, which may vary according to the particular implementation. In some examples, Vth may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

According to some implementations, a median filter method may be used for further binary decision smoothing. In some such implementations, the binary indicator of a howl state in frame I may be expressed as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, M represents a length of a median filter window. In some examples, M may be in the range of <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

<FIG> is a flow diagram that shows example blocks of a method of determining signal envelope similarity. The blocks of method <NUM> may, for example, be implemented by one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> and <FIG>. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media. The blocks of method <NUM>, like other methods described herein, are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. Moreover, such methods may include more or fewer blocks than shown and/or described.

In this example, method <NUM> begins with audio data being received in block <NUM>. The audio data may include teleconference audio data. In this implementation, the received audio data are provided to block <NUM> without a transformation to the frequency domain. In this example, block <NUM> involves windowing of the time-domain audio signal. In one such example, the frame length is <NUM> and the time-domain audio signal is first windowed via a Hamming window having a window length of <NUM>. However, the type of windowing process and the window length may vary according to the particular implementation. In some alternative examples a Hanning window may be applied. In some examples, the window size may be <NUM>, <NUM>, etc..

The process then continues to block <NUM>, wherein the RMS energy for each frame is calculated. In one implementation, the RMS energy for each frame is calculated as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, xi (i=<NUM>,<NUM>,. ,N) are the samples of the frame.

The process then proceeds to the smoothing and filtering processes of block <NUM> in this example. In some implementations, block <NUM> involves obtain a smoothed RMS envelope by applying median filtering to the RMS energy calculated in block <NUM>, e.g., as follows: <MAT>.

Accordingly, the median filtering operation may involve sorting the RMS energy and selecting values in the <NUM>th percentile. The results of block <NUM> are provided to block <NUM>. According to this example, block <NUM> involves, for the smoothed RMS envelope, a peak-picking method that is used to find the RMS peaks. The peak-picking method may, in some examples, selecting local maximum RMS values. In this example, the blocks between two adjacent peaks are extracted and then the length of the remaining blocks is calculated. This length may be used as a constraint condition for envelope periodicity in some implementations.

The RMS blocks are then normalized in block <NUM>. In some examples, block <NUM> involves using the maximal RMS values, e.g., as follows: <MAT> <MAT>.

In Equations <NUM> and <NUM>, vrms1 and vrms2 represent two adjacent blocks among three peaks.

In this implementation, the mean square error (MSE) of the smooth RMS of two blocks is then calculated in block <NUM>. According to some examples, block <NUM> may involve calculating the MSE as follows: <MAT>.

In this example, the smoothing process of block <NUM> follows, in order to alleviate the fluctuation of MSE among peaks. According to some such examples, block <NUM> involves a median filtering process to obtain smoothed MSE values.

The inventors have observed that the length of corresponding howl events in a teleconferencing context may be very similar. By using the lengths of blocks corresponding to howl events, one can construct a kind of constraint rule that may be applied to the smoothed MSE values. In this way, one can obtain final MSE values.

Therefore, according to this example, constraint rules are then applied in block <NUM>. In some examples, the constraint rules may be based, at least in part, on the maximum length and the ratio of len1 and len2, where len1 and len2 represent the lengths of the above-referenced vrms1 and vrms2, respectively. If the maximum length is too long or the ratio is too small or too big, this may indicate that the difference between len1 and len2 is too large. Therefore, according to some examples, the MSE values may be increased. If the ratio nearly equals to <NUM>, and the ratios over several blocks (for example, over <NUM> or <NUM> blocks) are nearly equal to <NUM>, this may indicate that the envelopes have strong similarity. Therefore, according to some such examples, the MSE values may be decreased.

By selecting and applying an appropriate threshold of MSE values, a binary indication of howl events may then be derived in block <NUM>. According to some implementations, the threshold for MSE values may be small, e.g., <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. In some examples, the output may be <NUM> for a howl event and <NUM> for a non-howl event.

In some implementations, envelope similarity metrics can be calculated in the frequency domain based on energy. According to Parseval's Theorem, <MAT>.

In one example of determining energy-based envelope similarity, an audio signal may be windowed and then transformed to the frequency domain, e.g., by using an FFT or a modified discrete cosine transform. In some examples, the energy for each frame may be calculated as follows: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, X[k] represents a coefficient in the frequency domain, k represents the frequency index and N represents the frame length. A filter may then be applied in order to obtain a smooth envelope. For example, a moving average filter may be applied: <MAT>.

In Equation <NUM>, N represents the length of the moving average filter, the value of which may differ according to the implementation. In some examples, the value of N may be <NUM>, <NUM>, <NUM>, etc. According to some implementations, the peaks of the envelope may then be picked and the MSE values may be calculated. In some examples, these processes may be performed as described above with reference to blocks <NUM>-<NUM> of <FIG>.

Howl events may occur in several frequency bands. Therefore, collective decisions in the sub-band domain can help determine envelope similarity.

One implementation of determining sub-band domain envelope similarity may start by windowing a received audio signal and then transforming the audio signal to the frequency domain, e.g., by using an FFT or a modified discrete cosine transform. The resulting broad-band signal may be divided into sub-bands, e.g., according to psychoacoustic principles. The number of sub-bands may, for example, be based on the sampling rate of the broad-band signal. In one example involving a <NUM> sampling rate, the broad-band signal may be divided into <NUM> sub-bands. In other examples involving a <NUM> sampling rate, the broad-band signal may be divided into <NUM> or <NUM> sub-bands.

The process may then proceed substantially as described in the preceding section. However, some examples of this method may involve outputting not only binary non-howl or howl event indications (e.g., <NUM> and <NUM>), but also outputting an indication of uncertainty (e.g., <NUM>) in the howl event determination. For example, a howl event may be mixed with a speech signal and this may result in an ambiguous howl event determination result.

<FIG> is a flow diagram that outlines blocks of howl detection methods according to some implementations. The blocks of method <NUM> may, for example, be implemented by one or more of the devices shown in <FIG> and <FIG>. The processes that are referenced by the blocks of <FIG> may be performed according to any of the corresponding above-described methods. In some examples, the blocks of method <NUM> may be implemented via software stored on one or more non-transitory media. The blocks of method <NUM>, like other methods described herein, are not necessarily performed in the order indicated. Moreover, such methods may include more or fewer blocks than shown and/or described.

In this example, method <NUM> begins with audio data being transformed from the time domain to the frequency domain in block <NUM>. The audio data may include teleconference audio data. In this implementation, the transformed audio data are divided into frequency bands in block <NUM>.

In this example, the transformed and banded audio data are provided to four different howl detection processes: according to this implementation, block <NUM> involves detecting spectral peakiness, block <NUM> involves determining IPR, block <NUM> involves determining signal level before AGC is applied to the audio data and block <NUM> involves a spectral entropy determination process. In this implementation, the results of block <NUM>, <NUM> and <NUM> are provided to the IPRComb block, which in turn provides input to the High IPRComb Consistency Measure block <NUM>. In this example, the results of block <NUM> are also provided to the High Peakiness Consistency Measure block <NUM>. Here, the results of block <NUM> are also provided to the Long-Term Signal Variability block <NUM>.

Claim 1:
A teleconferencing server, comprising:
an interface system configured for communication between the teleconferencing server and teleconference client locations; and
a control system configured for:
providing full-duplex audio connectivity during a teleconference between two or more teleconference client locations;
detecting, during the teleconference, a howl state, the howl state being a state of acoustic feedback involving two or more teleconference devices in a teleconference client location, wherein detecting the howl state involves:
receiving teleconference audio data from one or more of the teleconference client locations,
transforming teleconference audio data from time domain to frequency domain,
dividing the transformed audio data in frequency bands, detecting, in said transformed and banded audio data, short-term spectral features and medium-term spectral and temporal features, wherein short-term is in the order of tens of milliseconds and medium-term is in the order of hundreds of milliseconds,
estimating, based on the short-term spectral features and medium-term spectral and temporal features, a howl presence probability and outputting a howl binary indicator, indicative of a presence of the howl state; and
determining which client location is causing the howl state.