Microphone Arrays for Immersive Voice Communications

用于沉浸式语音通信的麦克风阵列

• 批准号: RGPIN-2018-05223
• 负责人: Benesty, Jacob
• 金额: $ 2.04万
• 依托单位: Institut national de la recherche scientifique
• 依托单位国家: 加拿大
• 项目类别: Discovery Grants Program - Individual
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 加拿大
• 起止时间: 2020-01-01 至 2021-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nserc-crsng.gc.ca/ase-oro/Details-Detailles_eng.asp?id=713551
• 关键词: Microphone; Arrays; Immersive; Voice; Communications

Immersive voice communication facilitates group collaborations and teleconferencing efficiently at low costs. It is becoming an integral part of modern communication networks. A key technical challenge for an immersive voice communication system is the ability to acquire high-fidelity acoustic, audio, and speech signals while keeping spatial information of the sources intact so that it is possible for the remote listener to sense the acoustic environment, follow a panel of talkers, and distinguish them by listening to the reproduction of the signals. To acquire high-fidelity speech and preserve the sound realism, it is necessary to use microphone arrays. Although microphone array processing has been studied for a few decades, existing techniques produce frequency-dependent responses, which may cause much distortion to the signal of interest, noise, interferences, and sound realism; as a result, they are not sufficient for immersive communication systems. This proposal is therefore organized to address the technical issues of microphone array design and beamforming and develop theory, methods, and technologies that can allow acquisition, processing, and reproduction of high-fidelity spatial sound for immersive voice communication systems. This proposal contains the following key technical innovations and merits. 1) A fundamental formulation of and a signal processing theory for frequency-invariant microphone array design and beamforming for signals with frequency range from 60 Hz to 20 kHz. 2) A new generation of technologies for linear microphone array design and frequency-invariant and robust beamforming. 3) A new generation of circular and spherical microphone array design and frequency-invariant and robust beamforming algorithms. 4) A signal processing theory for optimization of microphone array geometry with some given performance criteria. 5) A signal processing theory and a new generation of technologies for distributed microphone array processing. 6) A practical system that takes ubiquitous acoustic signals as input and produces high-fidelity output signals with source realism and identifiable source identities. It is clear that the proposed research is in the heart of immersive voice communication. The resulting technologies can have a broad range of applications besides immersive voice communication including telecollaboration, human-machine interfaces, acoustic surveillance, security, smartphones, smart home systems, tablet PCs, hearing aids, etc. As the demand of microphone arrays is increasing, the research result of this project will have undoubtedly a profound impact on the society and it will be truly indispensable.

沉浸式语音通信以低功耗高效促进团队协作和电话会议 成本。它正在成为现代通信网络不可或缺的一部分。关键技术挑战 沉浸式语音通信系统的关键是能够获取高保真声学、音频和 语音信号，同时保持源的空间信息完整，以便远程收听者可以 感知声学环境，跟随一组谈话者，并通过听声音来区分他们 信号的再现。为了获得高保真语音并保持声音真实感，有必要 使用麦克风阵列。尽管麦克风阵列处理已经研究了几十年， 现有技术会产生频率相关的响应，这可能会导致信号严重失真 兴趣、噪音、干扰和声音真实感；因此，它们不足以 沉浸式通信系统。因此，本提案旨在解决以下技术问题： 麦克风阵列设计和波束形成，并开发理论、方法和技术，使 用于沉浸式语音通信的高保真空间声音的采集、处理和再现 系统。该方案具有以下主要技术创新点和优点。 1) 频率不变麦克风的基本公式和信号处理理论 针对频率范围为 60 Hz 至 20 kHz 的信号进行阵列设计和波束成形。 2）新一代线性麦克风阵列设计和频率不变和 鲁棒的波束形成。 3）新一代圆形和球形麦克风阵列设计和频率不变和 鲁棒的波束形成算法。 4) 具有给定性能的麦克风阵列几何结构优化的信号处理理论 标准。 5）分布式麦克风阵列信号处理理论及新一代技术 加工。 6）一个实用的系统，以无处不在的声学信号作为输入并产生高保真输出 具有源现实性和可识别源身份的信号。 显然，所提出的研究是沉浸式语音通信的核心。由此产生的 除了沉浸式语音通信之外，技术还可以具有广泛的应用，包括 远程协作、人机界面、声音监控、安全、智能手机、智能家居 系统、平板电脑、助听器等。随着麦克风阵列的需求不断增加，研究 这个项目的成果无疑会对社会产生深远的影响，是真正不可或缺的。