Adaptive conferencing pod sidetone compensator connecting to a telephonic device having intermittent sidetone
View Patent ↗Disclosed herein are teleconferencing pods that include a microphone and a loudspeaker for open-air conversations, connectible to a separate telephonic device that generates an intermittent sidetone that is active at certain times not in the control or monitoring of the pod. In those pods is a sidetone suppressor that suppresses a distracting open-air echo produced from the intermittent sidetone and a compensator that detects sidetone transitions to avoid generating an echo signal in the pod and to avoid adapting suppression in the absence of an externally-generated sidetone. Sidetone suppression may be by several means, and may include variables controlled by adaption, including delay factors, scalers and coefficients. Detailed information on various example embodiments of the inventions are provided in the Detailed Description below, and the inventions are defined by the appended claims.
1. A telephonic system for communicating with a distant party implementing an intermittent sidetone component compensator, comprising:
a telephone component, said telephone component comprising a set connector configured for a personal set, said telephone component further comprising a telephone line connector configured to establish an audio connection with a distant party through a telephone switching network, said telephone component further comprising an intermittent sidetone generator; and
a portable conferencing device implementing an intermittent sidetone component compensator, said device comprising:
a full-duplex port including an outgoing port and an incoming port, said full-duplex port connected to said set connector of said telephone component, said outgoing port
providing a connection whereby local audio is transmitted to a distant participant through said telephone component; said incoming port providing a connection whereby distant audio is received through said telephone component and the intermittent sidetone component;
a microphone operable to pick up local audio;
a speaker configured to produce sound in the local vicinity of said device;
a sidetone suppressor receiving a signal representing the signal transmitted through said outgoing port or a signal received at said microphone, said compensator adapted to apply a sidetone suppression signal to a signal received through said incoming port and finally produced at said speaker, said compensator further including a pre-suppression meter indicating the audio level of a signal before the sidetone suppression signal is applied, said compensator further including a post-suppression meter indicating the audio level of a signal to which the sidetone suppression signal is applied, said sidetone suppressor further including variables controlling the application of sidetone suppression and a controller for adapting said variables; and
a null-sidetone detector detecting the absence of a sidetone generated by said intermittent sidetone generator of said telephone component;
wherein said sidetone component compensator ceases to apply sidetone compensation on the detection of a null-sidetone.
2. A telephonic system according to claim 1 , wherein said controller ceases to adapt said variables on the detection of a null-sidetone.
3. A telephonic system according to claim 1 , wherein said sidetone suppressor comprises cancellation coefficients, and further wherein said suppressor is operable to convolve said cancellation coefficients to achieve a sidetone profile, and further wherein said compensator applies the profile to the signal received at the incoming port.
4. A telephonic system according to claim 1 , wherein said null-sidetone detector utilizes information from said pre-suppression and post-suppression meters, and further wherein a null-sidetone is not detected where said post-suppression meter reads less than or equal to the pre-EC meter.
5. A telephonic system according to claim 4 , wherein the comparison between said pre-suppression meter against said post-suppression meter includes a threshold or hysteresis whereby a marginal excess of amplitude at said post-suppression meter over that read at the pre-suppression meter does not trigger a null-sidetone detection.
6. A telephonic system according to claim 1 , wherein on detection of a null-sidetone a disengagement step is performed selected from the group consisting of resetting coefficients, increasing the rate of adaption of those coefficients, bypassing the sidetone suppressor and holding the value of coefficients.
7. A telephonic system according to claim 1 , wherein said set connector is adapted to connect to a device selected from the group consisting of headsets and handsets.
8. A telephonic system according to claim 1 , wherein said outgoing and said incoming ports are both selected from the group consisting of physical connectors, terminals, contacts, network, wireless and virtual connectors.
9. A conferencing pod for communicating with a distant party through a telephonic device having a set connector for a set device and an intermittent sidetone generator, comprising:
an intermittent sidetone component compensator;
an outgoing port and an incoming port configured to connect to the set connector of the telephonic device, said outgoing port providing a connection whereby local audio is transmittable to a distant participant through a connected telephonic device; said incoming port providing a connection whereby distant audio is receivable through a connected telephonic device;
a microphone operable to pick up local audio;
a speaker configured to produce sound in the local vicinity of said pod;
a sidetone suppressor receiving a signal representing the signal transmitted through said outgoing port or received by said microphone, said compensator adapted to apply a sidetone cancellation signal to a signal received through said incoming port and finally produced at said speaker, said compensator further including a pre-suppression meter indicating the audio level of a signal before the sidetone suppression signal is applied, said compensator further including a post-suppression meter indicating the audio level of a signal to which the sidetone cancellation signal is applied, said sidetone suppressor further including variables controlling the application of sidetone compensation and a controller for adapting said variables; and
a null-sidetone detector adapted to detect the absence of a sidetone generated by the intermittent sidetone generator of said telephone device;
wherein said intermittent sidetone compensator ceases to apply sidetone suppression on the detection of a null-sidetone.
10. A conferencing pod according to claim 9 , wherein said pod does not adapt said variables on the detection of a null-sidetone.
11. A conferencing pod according to claim 9 , wherein said variables comprise cancellation coefficients, and further wherein said pod is operable to convolve said cancellation coefficients to achieve a sidetone profile, and further wherein said compensator applies the profile to the signal received at the incoming port.
12. A conferencing pod according to claim 9 , wherein on detection of a null-sidetone a disengagement step is performed selected from the group consisting of resetting coefficients, increasing the rate of adaption of those coefficients, bypassing the sidetone suppressor and holding the value of coefficients.
13. A system according to claim 9 , wherein said set connector is adapted to connect to a device selected from the group consisting of headsets and handsets.
14. A conferencing pod for communicating with a distant party through a telephonic device having a set connector for a set device and an intermittent sidetone generator, said pod adapted to apply remedial measures for sidetone intermittency, said pod comprising:
an intermittent sidetone component compensator;
an outgoing port and an incoming port configured to connect to the set connector of the telephonic device, said outgoing port providing a connection whereby local audio is transmitted to a distant participant through a connected telephonic device; said incoming port providing a connection whereby distant audio is received through a connected telephonic device;
a microphone operable to pick up local audio;
a speaker configured to produce sound in the local vicinity of said pod;
a sidetone suppressor receiving a signal representing the signal transmitted through said outgoing port, said compensator applying a sidetone suppression signal to a signal received through said incoming port and finally produced at said speaker, said sidetone suppressor further including variables controlling the application of sidetone suppression and a controller for adapting said variables, those variables including cancellation coefficients, wherein said controller is operable to convolve said coefficients with the signal transmitted through said outgoing port to generate a sidetone cancellation signal;
a coefficients converger operable to converge said coefficients to a solution corresponding to the sidetone generated by the telephonic device, further wherein said converger halts adaption of said coefficients at times when far-side singletalk or doubletalk is detected;
a sidetone transition detector configured to compare the volume levels before and after application of said suppressor and make a determination of whether said suppressor is generating echo, said detector further configured to perform a disengagement step on condition that echo is determined to be produced;
a null-sidetone detector adapted to detect the absence of a sidetone generated by the intermittent sidetone generator of said telephone device;
wherein said intermittent sidetone compensator ceases to apply sidetone suppression on the detection of a null-sidetone.
15. A conferencing pod according to claim 14 , wherein the disengagement step is to disengage said suppressor.
16. A conferencing pod according to claim 14 , wherein the disengagement step is to halt the convergence of said coefficients.
17. A conferencing pod according to claim 14 , wherein said detector is further configured to perform an engagement step on condition of detection of the presence of a sidetone.
18. A conferencing pod according to claim 17 , wherein the engagement step increases the rate of adaption of said coefficients for a period of time.