Provided is a cough recognition method and device, which can detect cough sounds from an audio signal, and not only can detect coughs but also can track the location at which the cough sounds are generated by calculating the location of a sound source.

An aspect of the invention is directed to a system of both atmospheric and underwater sensors for measuring pressure waves from a noise source. A system of pressure sensors can be formed to determine the location of an external noise source, whether in air or underwater. The system includes at least two arrays consisting of pressure sensors, including at least one atmospheric pressure sensor and at least one underwater pressure sensor, such as a hydrophone. Each sensor may be a seven-fiber intensity modulated fiber optic pressure sensor. The system includes an analog to digital converter for digitizing the pressure data received from each sensor and a processor which processes the received signals to calculate an approximate location of the noise source based upon the pressure signals received by the sensors at different times of arrival. The system can provide this capability in remote applications due to its low power requirements.

A method, device and computer program product for controlling the device by tracking a movement of a hand or other objects. The device receives acoustic signals. At least a portion of the received signals are transformed into two-dimensional sinusoids whose frequencies are proportional to an angle-of-arrival (AoA) and a propagation distance of the reflected signals. An AoA-distance profile is derived based on signals received from the object by evaluating frequencies of the two-dimensional sinusoids. Then, an AoA-distance pair is derived from the AoA-distance profile. A current location of the object is determined based on the estimated AoA-distance pair. The device then performs a command in response to detecting that the user moved to perform the command based on prior and current locations of the object.

A method, device and computer program product for controlling the device by tracking a movement of a hand or other objects. The device receives acoustic signals. At least a portion of the received signals are transformed into two-dimensional sinusoids whose frequencies are proportional to an angle-of-arrival (AoA) and a propagation distance of the reflected signals. An AoA-distance profile is derived based on signals received from the object by evaluating frequencies of the two-dimensional sinusoids. Then, an AoA-distance pair is derived from the AoA-distance profile. A current location of the object is determined based on the estimated AoA-distance pair. The device then performs a command in response to detecting that the user moved to perform the command based on prior and current locations of the object.

A compact, integrated acoustic localization and communications array includes an air-backed transmit element having a first end on which an end cap is disposed, and a second end configured to be mounted to a mounting surface. A volumetric acoustic array including a plurality of receiver elements that is electrically integrated to the transmit element. The localization and communications array is configured to transmit, via the transmit element, and receive, via the plurality of the receiver elements, an acoustic signal having a frequency in the range of 10 kHz to 50 kHz. Each of the plurality of receiver elements are spaced apart from the end cap at least a distance. The distance is greater than ¼ of a wavelength associated with the frequency transmitted and received by the localization and communications array, and is not equal to an odd multiple of ¼ of the wavelength.

A compact, integrated acoustic localization and communications array includes an air-backed transmit element having a first end on which an end cap is disposed, and a second end configured to be mounted to a mounting surface. A volumetric acoustic array including a plurality of receiver elements that is electrically integrated to the transmit element. The localization and communications array is configured to transmit, via the transmit element, and receive, via the plurality of the receiver elements, an acoustic signal having a frequency in the range of 10 kHz to 50 kHz. Each of the plurality of receiver elements are spaced apart from the end cap at least a distance. The distance is greater than ¼ of a wavelength associated with the frequency transmitted and received by the localization and communications array, and is not equal to an odd multiple of ¼ of the wavelength.

A detection device and a detection system that detect a whistle sound to estimate the distance to the sound source are provided. The detection device (1) includes a detector (20) that detects a sound wave; storage (30) that contains characteristic information indicating frequencies of a fundamental and harmonics of a whistle sound and levels of the harmonics relative to the fundamental; a frequency analysis unit (41) that determines a frequency spectrum of a sound wave detected by the detector; a determination unit (45) that determines whether the frequency spectrum has peaks of the fundamental and the harmonics and how many times the peaks of the harmonics from the fundamental exceed a preset minimum level; and a distance estimation unit (46) that estimates a distance to a sound source of a whistle sound detected by the detector, based on a relationship between propagation distances and attenuations of a sound wave as well as information on the levels included in the characteristic information and the result of determination by the determination unit.

A device estimates direction of arrival (DOA) of sound from sound sources received by P microphones, wherein P≥>1. The device is configured to transform the output signals of the microphones into the frequency domain and compute a covariance matrix for each of N frequency bins in a range of frequencies of the sound. Further, the device is configured to calculate an adapted covariance matrix from each of the covariance matrices for wide-band merging, calculate an accumulated covariance matrix from the N adapted covariance matrices, and estimate the DOA for each of the sound sources based on the accumulated covariance matrix. In order to calculate an adapted covariance matrix from a covariance matrix, the device is configured to spectrally decompose the covariance matrix and obtain a plurality of eigenvectors, rotate each obtained eigenvector, and construct each rotated eigenvector back to the shape of the covariance matrix.

An information processing apparatus includes a voice acquisition section, a reliability generation section, and a processing execution section. The voice acquisition section acquires an ambient voice. The reliability generation section generates reliability indicating a degree in which the acquired voice is uttered from the particular position on the basis of a predetermined transfer characteristic. As the predetermined transfer characteristic, a phase difference or acoustic characteristic of the voice can be assumed. The processing execution section executes a process according to the generated reliability. As the process according to the reliability, a notification according to the reliability or a predetermined command can be assumed to be executed.

An apparatus for generating at least one distance estimate to at least one sound source within a sound scene comprising the least one sound source, the apparatus configured to: receive at least two audio signals from a microphone array located within the sound scene; receive at least one further audio signal associated with the at least one sound source; determine at least one portion of the at least two audio signals from a microphone array corresponding to the at least one further audio signal associated with the at least one sound source; determine a distance estimate to the at least one sound source based on the at least one portion of the at least two audio signals from a microphone array corresponding to the at least one further audio signal associated with the at least one sound source.