A system and method for processing user speech commands in a voice interactive system is disclosed. Users issue speech phrases on a local device in a premises network, and the local devices first determine if the speech phrases match any commands in a set of local control commands. The control commands, in examples, can activate and deactivate premises devices such as smart televisions and simpler lighting devices connected to home automation hubs. In the event of a command match, local actions associated with the commands are executed directly on the premises devices in response. When no match is found on the local device, the speech phrases are sent in messages to a remote server over a network cloud such as the Internet for further processing. This can save on bandwidth and cost as compared to current voice recognition systems.

The invention relates to a method for determining the direction of a source of waterborne sound that emits a waterborne acoustic signal, by means of a hydrophone arrangement which forms a linear antenna or a virtual linear antenna, as well as to a computer program product, a computer, a sonar, and a watercraft.

The invention relates to a method for determining the direction of a source of waterborne sound that emits a waterborne acoustic signal, by means of a hydrophone arrangement which forms a linear antenna or a virtual linear antenna, as well as to a computer program product, a computer, a sonar, and a watercraft.

An optical microphone arrangement comprises: an array of optical microphones (4) on a substrate (8), each of said optical microphones (4) providing a signal indicative of displacement of a respective membrane (24) as a result of an incoming audible sound; at first processor (12) arranged to receive said signals from said optical microphones (4) and to perform a first processing step on said signals to produce a first output; and a second processor (14) arranged to receive at least one of said signals or said first output; wherein at least said second processor (14) determines presence of at least one element of human speech from said audible sound.

A method for audio focusing is provided, the method comprising: receiving a multi-channel audio signal that represents sounds in sound directions that correspond to respective positions in an image area of an image; receiving an indication of an audio focus direction that corresponds to a first position in the image area; selecting a primary sound direction from a plurality of different available candidate directions, wherein said plurality of different available candidate directions comprise said audio focus direction and one or more offset candidate directions and wherein each offset candidate direction corresponds to a respective candidate offset from said first position in the image area; and deriving, based on said multi-channel audio signal in dependence of the selected primary sound direction, an output audio signal.

A method for audio focusing is provided, the method comprising: receiving a multi-channel audio signal that represents sounds in sound directions that correspond to respective positions in an image area of an image; receiving an indication of an audio focus direction that corresponds to a first position in the image area; selecting a primary sound direction from a plurality of different available candidate directions, wherein said plurality of different available candidate directions comprise said audio focus direction and one or more offset candidate directions and wherein each offset candidate direction corresponds to a respective candidate offset from said first position in the image area; and deriving, based on said multi-channel audio signal in dependence of the selected primary sound direction, an output audio signal.

The systems, devices, and processes described herein may identify a beam of a voice-controlled device that is directed toward a reflective surface, such as a wall. The beams may be created by a beamformer. An acoustic echo canceller (AEC) may create filter coefficients for a reference sound. The filter coefficients may be analyzed to identify beams that include multiple peaks. The multiple peaks may indicate presence of one or more reflective surfaces. Using the amplitude and the time delay between the peaks, the device may determine that it is close to a reflective surface in a direction of the beam.

A method and apparatus for determining a direction of arrival of an acoustic event of interest that arrives at an array. Data acquired from the array is received. A portion of the data that represents an acoustic signature for the acoustic event of interest is identified. An azimuth angle may be computed for an acoustic event using the portion of the data identified. An elevation angle for the acoustic event is computed using a beamforming process customized based on the azimuth angle computed.

A system that detects audio including speech using a spherical sensor array estimates a direction of arrival of the speech using a Kalman filter. To improve the estimates of the Kalman filter, the system estimates a noise covariance matrix, representing noise detected by the array. The structure of the noise covariance matrix is determined, using an assumption of spherically isotropic diffuse noise. The intensity of the noise covariance matrix is estimated based on the intensity of audio detected by the array.

A method for audio focusing comprises: receiving a multi-channel audio signal that represents sounds in sound directions that correspond to respective positions in an image area of an image; receiving an indication of an audio focus direction that corresponds to a first position in the image area; selecting a primary sound direction from a plurality of different available candidate directions, wherein said different available candidate directions comprise said audio focus direction and one or more offset candidate directions and wherein each offset candidate direction corresponds to a respective candidate offset from said first position in the image area; and deriving, based on said multi-channel audio signal in dependence of the selected primary sound direction, an output audio signal where sounds in sound directions defined via the selected primary sound direction are emphasized in relation to sounds in sound directions other than those defined via the selected primary sound direction.