A compact directional acoustic sensor having an improved signal-to-noise ratio is disclosed. The disclosed directional acoustic sensor includes a first sensing device configured to generate different output gains based on different input directions of external energy, and configured to generate at least one first output signal having a first polarity based on external energy received from an input direction; a second sensing device configured to generate different output gains based on different input directions of external energy, and configured to generate at least one second output signal having a second polarity, that is different than the first polarity, based on the external energy received from the input direction; and at least one signal processor configured to generate at least one final output signal based on the at least one first output signal and the at least one second output signal.

A communication system with a noise cancellation (NC) assembly providing adaptive or dynamic noise cancellation. The NC assembly includes a localizer module determining, during a communication session (active speaking or during idle times), a location of the active talker. The NC assembly includes a beam generator forming a beam in the determined direction of the active talker to enhance the active talker speech. Once the NC assembly has determined the position of the active talker, the NC assembly assigns a microphone of the microphone array or generated beam in that active direction to be the “active signal” source. The NC assembly assigns a second microphone or beam to be the noise source for NC purposes, and this source may be selected to be in acoustic shadow of the first microphone used as the active signal source or may be the farthest away in its position from the active talker's position.

A loudspeaker device includes: a first loudspeaker that outputs a sound; a second loudspeaker that is adjacent to the first loudspeaker in a predetermined direction and outputs a sound in a direction intersecting with a direction in which the first loudspeaker outputs the sound; and a phase switching circuit that switches between a first switching state and a second switching state, the first switching state being a state in which an input sound signal is inputted to both the first loudspeaker and the second loudspeaker, the second switching state being a state in which the input sound signal is inputted to one of the first loudspeaker and the second loudspeaker while an inverted sound signal obtained by inverting a phase of the input sound signal is inputted to the other of the first loudspeaker and the second loudspeaker.

A portable audio input/output device may include one or more openings that extend through a cover of the device and allow acoustic signals outside a housing of the device to reach a microphone disposed within the housing. The opening(s) may be illuminated by a light guide disposed within the housing, which scatters light emitted from lights disposed within the housing. In some instances, a hole may pass through a printed circuit board to allow acoustic signals to be received by the microphone disposed below the printed circuit board. An input/output (I/O) interface module with multiple buttons and inputs may be installed in the hole. The multiple buttons and I/O ports of the I/O interface module may be aligned along an axis vertical relative to the housing and centered with respect to each other.

A partner microphone unit comprising a) a multitude microphones for picking up a sound from the environment providing corresponding electric input signals, each comprising a target signal component and a noise signal component; b) a multi-input unit noise reduction system for providing an estimate Ŝ of the target sound s comprising the person's voice and comprising a multi-input beamformer filtering unit coupled to said input units and configured to determine filter weights for providing a beamformed signal, wherein signal components from other directions than a direction of the target signal source are attenuated, whereas signal components from the direction of the target signal source are left un-attenuated; c) antenna and transceiver circuitry for establishing an audio link to another device; and wherein the multi-input beamformer filtering unit comprises an adaptive beamformer is provided.

Embodiments include a microphone assembly comprising an array microphone and a housing configured to support the array microphone and sized and shaped to be mountable in a drop ceiling in place of at least one of a plurality of ceiling tiles included in the drop ceiling. A front face of the housing includes a sound-permeable screen having a size and shape that is substantially similar to the at least one of the plurality of ceiling tiles. Embodiments also include an array microphone system comprising a plurality of microphones arranged, on a substrate, in a number of concentric, nested rings of varying sizes around a central point of the substrate. Each ring comprises a subset of the plurality of microphones positioned at predetermined intervals along a circumference of the ring.

There are included a first speaker processing step in which a first speaker 2 produces sound based on a first filtered signal, a gain multiplication step in which a gain multiplication unit 4 generates a gain multiplied signal by multiplying a second filtered signal by a gain, a second speaker processing step in which a second speaker 5 produces sound based on the gain multiplied signal, and a gain control step in which a gain control unit 7 controls the gain such that a root mean square of a collected sound signal collected by a microphone 6 installed at a mute position, which is a position at which the sound produced by the first speaker and the sound produced by the second speaker are to be muted, is relatively small.

In some embodiments, apparatuses, systems, and methods are provided herein for performing sound analysis in a shopping facility. A system for performing sound analysis comprises: an array of sound sensors distributed throughout a shopping facility and configured to receive at least sounds resulting from people in the shopping facility, an audio database including information associated with one or more audio indicia, and a control circuit communicatively coupled to the array of sound sensors and configured to receive, from a plurality of sensors of the array of sound sensors, audio data, wherein the audio data includes audio from throughout the shopping facility, determine, based at least in part on the audio data and the information associated with the one or more audio indicia included in the audio database, an action be taken, and transmit, to a terminal, an indication of the action to be taken.

A first apparatus performs the following: determining, using microphone signals corresponding to a left microphone signal from a left microphone and a right microphone signal from a right microphone and using at least one further microphone signal, directional information of the left and right microphone signals corresponding to a location of a sound source; outputting a first signal corresponding to the left microphone signal; outputting a second signal corresponding to the right microphone signal; and outputting a third signal corresponding to the determined directional information. A second apparatus performs the following: determining, using microphone signals corresponding to a left microphone signal from a left microphone and a right microphone signal from a right microphone and using at least one further microphone signal, directional information of the left and right microphone signals corresponding to a location of a sound source; converting the left microphone signal, the right microphone signal and the directional information into a high quality left microphone signal and a high quality right microphone signal; and outputting a first signal corresponding to the high quality left microphone signal; and outputting a second signal corresponding to the high quality right microphone signal. Additional apparatus, program products, and methods are disclosed.

Microphone arrays comprise several microphone capsules, the outputs of which being electronically combined for directional recording of sound. The directional and frequency properties of the microphone array depend on the number and positions of the microphone array. In order to obtain the smallest possible microphone array with only few microphone capsules, which, however, has an essentially uniform directional and frequency dependence over a speech frequency range, is scalable and robust against small incorrect positioning of the capsules, fifteen or twenty-one microphone capsules (K.sub.15,11-K.sub.15,35, K.sub.21,11-K.sub.21,37) are arranged on a carrier such that they lie on three similar branches, each with the same number of microphone capsules, which are rotated against each other by 120°. Each of the microphone capsules lies on a corner of a triangle of a grid in a flat isometric coordinate system with three axes rotated by 120° against each other and forming the grid of equilateral triangles.