Patent ID: 7809145

Claim:
A method for digitally processing a signal from an array of two or more microphones M 0 . . . M M , the method comprising: producing a discrete time domain input signal x m (t) at a runtime from each of the two or more microphones M 0 . . . M M , where M is greater than or equal to 1; determining a listening direction of the microphone array with a digital signal processing system having a digital processor coupled to a memory by forming analysis frames of a pre-recorded signal stored in the memory from a source located in a preferred known listening direction with respect to the microphone array for a predetermined period of time at predetermined intervals using the processor, transforming the analysis frames into the frequency domain using the processor, estimating a calibration covariance matrix from vectors formed from the analysis frames that have been transformed into the frequency domain using the processor, computing an eigenmatrix of the calibration covariance matrix, and computing an inverse of the eigenmatrix; using the known listening direction in a semi-blind source separation implemented by the processor to select a set of N finite impulse response filter coefficients b i , where N is a positive integer.