Methods and systems for determining periods of excessive noise for smart speaker voice commands. An electronic timeline of volume levels of currently playing content is made available to a smart speaker. From this timeline, periods of high content volume are determined, and the smart speaker alerts users during periods of high volume, requesting that they wait until the high-volume period has passed before issuing voice commands. In this manner, the smart speaker helps prevent voice commands that may not be detected, or may be detected inaccurately, due to the noise of the content currently being played.

Methods and systems for determining periods of excessive noise for smart speaker voice commands. An electronic timeline of volume levels of currently playing content is made available to a smart speaker. From this timeline, periods of high content volume are determined, and the smart speaker alerts users during periods of high volume, requesting that they wait until the high-volume period has passed before issuing voice commands. In this manner, the smart speaker helps prevent voice commands that may not be detected, or may be detected inaccurately, due to the noise of the content currently being played.

Techniques are provided for audio-based detection and tracking of an acoustic source. A methodology implementing the techniques according to an embodiment includes generating acoustic signal spectra from signals provided by a microphone array, and performing beamforming on the acoustic signal spectra to generate beam signal spectra, using time-frequency masks to reduce noise. The method also includes detecting, by a deep neural network (DNN) classifier, an acoustic event, associated with the acoustic source, in the beam signal spectra. The DNN is trained on acoustic features associated with the acoustic event. The method further includes performing pattern extraction, in response to the detection, to identify time-frequency bins of the acoustic signal spectra that are associated with the acoustic event, and estimating a motion direction of the source relative to the array of microphones based on Doppler frequency shift of the acoustic event calculated from the time-frequency bins of the extracted pattern.

A sound processing method includes: determining a vector of a first residual signal according to a first signal vector and a second signal vector, the first signal vector including a first voice signal and a first noise signal input into the first microphone, the second signal vector including a second voice signal and a second noise signal input into the second microphone, and the first residual signal including the second noise signal and a residual voice signal; determining a gain function of a current frame according to the vector of the first residual signal and the first signal vector; and determining a first voice signal of the current frame according to the first signal vector and the gain function of the current frame.

A sound processing method includes: determining a vector of a first residual signal according to a first signal vector and a second signal vector, the first signal vector including a first voice signal and a first noise signal input into the first microphone, the second signal vector including a second voice signal and a second noise signal input into the second microphone, and the first residual signal including the second noise signal and a residual voice signal; determining a gain function of a current frame according to the vector of the first residual signal and the first signal vector; and determining a first voice signal of the current frame according to the first signal vector and the gain function of the current frame.

An electronic device for improving a quality of an audio includes: a microphone configured to obtain an audio input including a voice; at least one memory; and at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to execute one or more instructions stored in the memory to: obtain a first voice fingerprint corresponding to the obtained audio input; obtain a second voice fingerprint corresponding to the voice; estimate, based on the first voice fingerprint and the second voice fingerprint, noise caused by an acoustic environment of the obtained audio input; and remove the estimated noise from the obtained audio input.

An electronic device for improving a quality of an audio includes: a microphone configured to obtain an audio input including a voice; at least one memory; and at least one processor. The at least one processor is configured to execute one or more instructions stored in the memory to: obtain a first voice fingerprint corresponding to the obtained audio input; obtain a second voice fingerprint corresponding to the voice; estimate, based on the first voice fingerprint and the second voice fingerprint, noise caused by an acoustic environment of the obtained audio input; and remove the estimated noise from the obtained audio input.

A wearable badge for an employee that records and transmits audio from client interactions with the professional, comprising two microphones and two microphone channels that focus one microphone on the speech of the employee and the other microphone on the speech of the customer, making diarizing easier. The wearable badge also comprises a module to determine whether or not the employee is maintaining an appropriate social distance with customers.

A wearable badge for an employee that records and transmits audio from client interactions with the professional, comprising two microphones and two microphone channels that focus one microphone on the speech of the employee and the other microphone on the speech of the customer, making diarizing easier. The wearable badge also comprises a module to determine whether or not the employee is maintaining an appropriate social distance with customers.

An electronic device is provided. The electronic device comprises a speaker, a plurality of microphones, at least one processor operatively connected with the speaker and the plurality of microphones, and a memory operatively connected with the at least one processor, wherein the memory is configured to store instructions which, when executed, cause the at least one processor to perform speech audio processing or non-speech audio processing on audio signals received via the plurality of microphones, upon obtaining a non-speech audio signal based on the speech audio processing or the non-speech audio processing, identify a non-speech audio signal pattern corresponding to the non-speech audio signal, obtain a non-speech audio signal-based first command based on the identified non-speech audio signal pattern, and perform at least one action corresponding to the obtained non-speech audio signal-based first command.