Patent Document ID: 20090234901
Application ID: 12226651
Patent Flag: 0

Claim One:
1. A signal separating device that separates an observed signal matrix X having m rows and T columns into matrices A and S such that 
 X=c ( A,S )+ N is satisfied for a predefined matrix operation c(•, •), wherein A is a mixing matrix having m rows and n columns, S is a source signal matrix having n rows and T columns, and N is a noise matrix having m rows and T columns, the signal separating device comprising: an iterative estimator that operates with respect to a matrix function J(•, •, •) that takes a matrix having m rows and T columns, a matrix having m rows and n columns, and a matrix having n rows and T columns, and returns a scalar value, wherein, upon receiving a matrix having m rows and T columns, a matrix having m rows and n columns, and a matrix having n rows and T columns, the iterative estimator iteratively estimates, through a predetermined number of repetitions, a combination of arguments, which are a matrix having m rows and n columns, and a matrix having n rows and T columns, whereby the scalar value returned by the matrix function J(•, •, •) is extremized when the matrix having m rows and T columns is fixed; a repeating calculator that calculates, by repetition, L number of matrices A 1 , A 2 , A 3 ,. .. , A L such that 
 c(A 1 ,c(A 2 ,c(A 3 ,c(. .. , c(A L−1 ,A L ). .. )))) yields a matrix of m rows and n columns, wherein the repeating calculator defines a matrix 
 S 0 =X wherein, during the i-th repetition (i=1, 2, 3,. .. , L), the repeating calculator supplies to the iterative estimator a matrix S i−1 having m rows and T columns, a predefined initial value matrix having m rows and n columns, and a predefined initial value matrix having n rows and T columns for a matrix function J i (•, •, •) of the i-th repetition, thereby causing the iterative estimator to make iterative estimations with respect to the matrix function J i (•, •, •) that takes a matrix having m rows and T columns, a matrix having m rows and n columns, and a matrix having n rows and T columns, and returns a scalar value, with the repeating calculator then taking the resulting matrix of m rows and n columns to be A i , and also taking the matrix of n rows and T columns to be S i ; and a result output unit that calculates a mixing matrix A of m rows and n columns by evaluating 
 A=c ( A 1 ,c ( A 2 ,c ( A 3 ,c (. .. , c ( A L−1 ,A L ). .. )))) using the calculated L number of matrices A 1 , A 2 , A 3 ,. .. , A L , takes the calculated matrix S L of n rows and T columns to be the source signal matrix S of n rows and T columns, and then outputs the matrices A and S.