Provided are apparatuses and associated methods for video communications and related features. In one embodiment, a big-screen video communications apparatus is provided that includes a projector and speaker for projecting received images and sounds and includes a camera and microphone for capturing images and sounds for transmission.

An in-vehicle apparatus is connectable to a device that includes a voice assistant function. The in-vehicle apparatus includes: a voice detector that performs voice recognition of an audio signal input from a microphone and that controls functions of the in-vehicle apparatus based on a result of the voice recognition; and an interface that communicates with the device. When being informed of a detection of a predetermined word in the audio signal as the result of the voice recognition of the audio signal performed by the voice detector, the interface sends to the device, not via the voice detector, the audio signal input from the microphone. The predetermined word is for activating the voice assistant function of the device.

An audio system includes: a speaker; a microphone that generates a microphone signal based on sound output from the speaker; a mixer module configured to generate a mixed signal by mixing the microphone signal with an audio signal; a filter module configured to filter the mixed signal to produce a filtered signal and to apply the filtered signal to the speaker; and a detector module configured to determine a howling frequency in the microphone signal attributable to sound output from the speaker, where the filter module is configured to decrease a magnitude of the filtered signal at the howling frequency.

Embodiments include techniques and objects related to a wearable audio device that includes a microphone to detect a plurality of sounds in an environment in which the wearable audio device is located. The wearable audio device further includes a non-acoustic sensor to detect that a user of the wearable audio device is speaking. The wearable audio device further includes one or more processors communicatively to alter, based on an identification by the non-acoustic sensor that the user of the wearable audio device is speaking, one or more of the plurality of sounds to generate a sound output. Other embodiments may be described or claimed.

An encoding parameter adjustment method is performed at a computer device. The method includes: obtaining a first audio signal, and determining a psychoacoustic masking threshold within a service frequency band in the first audio signal; obtaining a second audio signal, and determining a background environmental noise estimation value of the frequency within the service frequency band in the second audio signal; determining a masking tag corresponding to the service frequency band according to the psychoacoustic masking threshold of the first audio signal and the background environmental noise estimation value of the second audio signal; determining a masking rate of the service frequency band according to the masking tag corresponding to the frequency within the service frequency band; determining a first reference bit rate according to the masking rate of the service frequency band; and configuring an encoding bit rate of an audio encoder based on the first reference bit rate.

The present invention discloses a smart noise reduction device including a control device; an audio waveform pattern recognizer coupled to the control device for identifying an audio mixed signal including a regularity signal and a non-regularity signal; an audio waveform pattern database coupled to the control device, including at least one audio type, each having a plurality of preset second regularity signals; and an audio filter coupled to the control device to obtain the regularity signal.

An audio system includes: a speaker; a microphone that generates a microphone signal based on sound output from the speaker; a mixer module configured to generate a mixed signal by mixing the microphone signal with an audio signal; a filter module configured to filter the mixed signal to produce a filtered signal and to apply the filtered signal to the speaker; and a detector module configured to determine a howling frequency in the microphone signal attributable to sound output from the speaker, where the filter module is configured to decrease a magnitude of the filtered signal at the howling frequency.

Implementations described herein include detecting a stream of audio data that captures a spoken utterance of the user and that captures ambient noise occurring within a threshold time period of the spoken utterance being spoken by the user. Implementations further include processing a portion of the audio data that includes the ambient noise to determine ambient noise classification(s), processing a portion of the audio data that includes the spoken utterance to generate a transcription, processing both the transcription and the ambient noise classification(s) with a machine learning model to generate a user intent and parameter(s) for the user intent, and performing one or more automated assistant actions based on the user intent and using the parameter(s).

A sound signal processing system includes: a sound signal processing apparatus executing non-linear signal processing on a collected sound signal collected by a microphone, and transmitting, to an information processing apparatus, both a pre-execution sound signal before the non-linear signal processing is executed and a post-execution sound signal after the non-linear signal processing is executed; and the information processing apparatus receiving the pre-execution sound signal and the post-execution sound signal from the sound signal processing apparatus, and executing first processing on the pre-execution sound signal and executing second processing on the post-execution sound signal, the second processing being different from the first processing.

A method for removing noise from a sound signal received by a microphone is provided. The method includes receiving a vibration signal from a vibration monitoring device mechanically connected to a loudspeaker, the vibration signal indicating vibration caused by a sound emitted by the loudspeaker. The method further includes receiving a sound signal received by the microphone. In addition, the method includes removing the vibration signal from the sound signal so as to remove noise from the sound signal. With the vibration signal from the vibration monitoring device, noise can be removed from the sound signal received by the microphone so as to achieve a satisfactory audio effect or accurate sound recognition.