Claims
- 1. A videoconference system comprising:
a horizontal microphone array providing an output for each microphone; a vertical microphone array providing an output for each microphone, said horizontal and vertical arrays capable of being positioned independently of each other; logic receiving the microphone outputs of the horizontal and vertical arrays and determining the location of an acoustic source; a controllable image capture device; and a controller connected to said logic and said image capture device for directing said image capture device to aim at the determined acoustic source location.
- 2. The system of claim 1 wherein said horizontal array and said vertical array each include an orientation sensor with an output, and wherein said logic uses said orientation sensor outputs to determine the location of the acoustic source.
- 3. The system of claim 2, wherein said logic comprises a gate array.
- 4. The system of claim 3, wherein said gate array is programmable.
- 5. The system of claim 2, wherein said logic includes a processor and a program to control said processor to determine the location of the acoustic source.
- 6. The system of claim 5, wherein said controller includes said processor and a program to control said image capture device.
- 7. The system of claim 2, wherein said horizontal array includes a plurality of microphones arranged in two dimensions.
- 8. The system of claim 7, wherein said horizontal array includes two separate modules, each including a plurality of microphones arrayed in two dimensions.
- 9. The system of claim 2, further comprising:
a speaker; and a microphone located adjacent said speaker.
- 10. The system of claim 9, further comprising:
a microphone located adjacent said image capture device.
- 11. The system of claim 2, further comprising:
a microphone located adjacent said image capture device.
- 12. A method for image capture device tracking comprising:
receiving an audio signal with a horizontal microphone array and a vertical microphone array and providing microphone out signals, the horizontal and vertical arrays capable of being positioned independently of each other; analyzing the microphone output signals from the horizontal and vertical arrays and determining the acoustic source location; and maneuvering an image capture device to aim in the direction of the acoustic source location.
- 13. The method of claim 12, further comprising:
determining the orientations of the horizontal and vertical arrays, wherein the orientations are used in determining the acoustic source location.
- 14. The method of claim 13, wherein the horizontal array includes a plurality of microphones arranged in two dimensions.
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C. § 119(e) of U.S. Provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/372,888 entitled “Videoconferencing System with Horizontal and Vertical Microphone Arrays” by Peter L. Chu, Michael Kenoyer and Richard Washington filed Apr. 15, 2002 which is hereby incorporated by reference. This application is related to U.S. application Ser. No. 10/______ , entitled “System and Method for Computing a Location of an Acoustic Source,” by Peter Chu, Michael Kenoyer, and Richard Washington, filed concurrently herewith, which is incorporated herein by reference.
Provisional Applications (1)
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Number |
Date |
Country |
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60372888 |
Apr 2002 |
US |