Patent ID: 7035418

Claim:
A sound source identifying and separating apparatus, characterized in that it comprises: a sound collecting means including a pair of sound collecting microphones juxtaposed with each other across a preselected spacing and opposed to a plurality of sound sources, said two microphones each individually capturing mixed sounds from said sound sources therewith; an imaging means and/or a sensing means, said imaging means being adapted to consecutively image objects that can be said sound sources, said sensing means sensing directions in which said objects possibly being said sound sources are located; a sound processing means for determining the directions of all said sound sources based on sound information for a difference between phases and a difference between intensities which each of said mixed sounds from said sound sources has when captured by said two sound collecting microphones, respectively; an image processing means for determining the direction of each of said objects possibly being said sound sources, from information for image pictures imaged by said imaging means and/or directional information for each of said objects sensed by said sensing means; directional filters; and a control means for controlling operations of said sound collecting means, said imaging means and/or said sensing means, said image processing means, and said sound processing means, wherein the operations of said sound collecting means, said imaging means and/or said sensing means, said image processing means, and said sound processing means, are so controlled by said control means that: said sound processing means predetermines rough directions of said sound sources from information for said sounds captured by said sound collecting means, and said image processing means determines the direction of each of said objects possibly being said sound sources within a range defined by said predetermined rough directions; or said image processing means predetermines directions of said sound sources only from information for image pictures imaged by said imaging means and/or directional information for each of said objects sensed by said sensing means, and said sound processing means determines the directions of said sound sources within a range of angles defined by said predetermined directions; or said sound processing means predetermines rough directions of said sound sources only from information for said sounds captured by said sound collecting means, and said sound processing means selects said directional filters corresponding to said predetermined directions of said sound sources, whereby it is made possible to identify the directions of all said sound sources and to separate them from one another even if neighboring ones of them lie close by.