Signal processing methods and systems for beam forming with wind buffeting protection

1. A method of generating of a wind-reduced output signal from sound received by at least two microphones arranged as microphone array, said method comprising:

transforming the sound received by each of said microphones and represented by analog-to-digital converted time-domain signals provided by each of said microphones into corresponding complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals each having a frequency component value for each of a plurality of frequency components, wherein one of said complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals is selected as a frequency domain reference signal, the method further comprising:

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components, real-valued Wind Reduction Factors as minima of the reciprocal and non-reciprocal frequency components of a plurality of real-valued Deviation Spectra if said minimum is below a preselected deviation threshold and set to one if said minimum is above or equal to said deviation threshold;

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, each frequency component value of a Deviation Spectrum of said plurality of real-valued Deviation Spectra is calculated by dividing the frequency component magnitude of said frequency-domain reference signal by the frequency component magnitude of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of said microphone; and

for each of the plurality of frequency components, said Wind Reduction Factors are multiplied with the frequency component values of said frequency-domain reference signal, forming a frequency-domain wind-reduced output signal.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

calculating from the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals for a Beam Focus Direction a Beam Focus Spectrum by means of a Characteristic Function with values between zero and one, said Beam Focus Spectrum comprises, for each of the plurality of frequency components, a time-dependent, real-valued attenuation factor;

multiplying, for each of the plurality of frequency components, the attenuation factor with the frequency component value of said complex-valued frequency-domain reference signal and with said Wind Reduction Factor to obtain a directional, wind-reduced frequency component value; and

forming a frequency-domain directional wind-reduced output signal from the wind-reduced directional frequency component values for each of the plurality of frequency components.

3. The method of claim 1 , further comprising calculating a linear combination of the microphone signals of said microphones; and

wherein, in the multiplying, the attenuation factor is multiplied with the frequency component value of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of the linear combination of the microphone signals.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein a time-domain wind-reduced directional output signal is synthesized from the frequency-domain wind-reduced directional output signal by means of inverse transformation.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein calculating the Beam Focus Spectra further comprises:

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components, a real-valued Beam Spectra value from the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals for the Beam Focus Direction by means of predefined, microphone-specific, time-constant, complex-valued Transfer Functions; and

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, said Beam Spectra value is an argument of said Characteristic Function, providing a Beam Focus Spectrum for said Beam Focus Direction.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein said Transfer Functions are calculated by means of an analytic formula incorporating the spatial distance of the microphones, and the speed of sound.

7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of at least one of said microphones, a respective tolerance compensated frequency component value by multiplying the frequency component value of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of said microphone with a real-valued correction factor;

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, said real-valued correction factor is calculated as temporal average of frequency component values of the plurality of said Deviation Spectra; and

wherein the Beam Focus Spectrum for a Beam Focus Directions is calculated from the respective tolerance compensated frequency component values for said microphone.

8. The method of claim 5 , wherein said temporal averaging of the frequency component values is only executed if said frequency component value of said Deviation Spectrum is above a predefined magnitude threshold value.

9. The method of claim 2 , wherein, when the Beam Focus Spectrum for the respective Beam Focus Direction is provided, for each of the plurality of frequency components, Characteristic Function values of different Beam Spectra are multiplied.

10. An apparatus for generating a directional output signal from sound received by at least two microphones arranged as microphone array, said apparatus comprising at least one processor adapted to perform:

transforming the sound received by each of said microphones and represented by analog-to-digital converted time-domain signals provided by each of said microphones into corresponding complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals each having a frequency component value for each of a plurality of frequency components, wherein one of said complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals is selected as a frequency domain reference signal;

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components, real-valued Wind Reduction Factors as minima of the reciprocal and non-reciprocal frequency components of a plurality of real-valued Deviation Spectra if said minimum is below a preselected deviation threshold and set to one if said minimum is above or equal to said deviation threshold;

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, each frequency component value of a Deviation Spectrum of said plurality of real-valued Deviation Spectra is calculated by dividing the frequency component magnitude of said frequency-domain reference signal by the frequency component magnitude of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of said microphone; and

for each of the plurality of frequency components, said Wind Reduction Factors are multiplied with the frequency component values of said frequency-domain reference signal, forming a frequency-domain wind-reduced output signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 , further comprising said at least two microphones.

12. An apparatus comprising processing means for carrying out the method of claim 1 .

13. One or more non-transitory computer-readable media having instructions stored thereon, the instructions for generating of a wind-reduced output signal from sound received by at least two microphones arranged as microphone array, and the instructions to cause one or more processors to perform the following operations:

transforming the sound received by each of said microphones and represented by analog-to-digital converted time-domain signals provided by each of said microphones into corresponding complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals each having a frequency component value for each of a plurality of frequency components, wherein one of said complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals is selected as a frequency domain reference signal, the method further comprising:

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components, real-valued Wind Reduction Factors as minima of the reciprocal and non-reciprocal frequency components of a plurality of real-valued Deviation Spectra if said minimum is below a preselected deviation threshold and set to one if said minimum is above or equal to said deviation threshold;

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, each frequency component value of a Deviation Spectrum of said plurality of real-valued Deviation Spectra is calculated by dividing the frequency component magnitude of said frequency-domain reference signal by the frequency component magnitude of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of said microphone; and

for each of the plurality of frequency components, said Wind Reduction Factors are multiplied with the frequency component values of said frequency-domain reference signal, forming a frequency-domain wind-reduced output signal.

14. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating from the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals for a Beam Focus Direction a Beam Focus Spectrum by means of a Characteristic Function with values between zero and one, said Beam Focus Spectrum comprises, for each of the plurality of frequency components, a time-dependent, real-valued attenuation factor;

multiplying, for each of the plurality of frequency components, the attenuation factor with the frequency component value of said complex-valued frequency-domain reference signal and with said Wind Reduction Factor to obtain a directional, wind-reduced frequency component value; and

forming a frequency-domain directional wind-reduced output signal from the wind-reduced directional frequency component values for each of the plurality of frequency components.

15. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating a linear combination of the microphone signals of said microphones; and

wherein, in the multiplying, the attenuation factor is multiplied with the frequency component value of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of the linear combination of the microphone signals.

16. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 15 , wherein a time-domain wind-reduced directional output signal is synthesized from the frequency-domain wind-reduced directional output signal by means of inverse transformation.

17. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13 , wherein calculating the Beam Focus Spectra further comprises:

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components, a real-valued Beam Spectra value from the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signals for the Beam Focus Direction by means of predefined, microphone-specific, time-constant, complex-valued Transfer Functions; and

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, said Beam Spectra value is an argument of said Characteristic Function, providing a Beam Focus Spectrum for said Beam Focus Direction.

18. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17 , wherein said Transfer Functions are calculated by means of an analytic formula incorporating the spatial distance of the microphones, and the speed of sound.

19. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 13 , wherein the operations further comprise:

calculating, for each of the plurality of frequency components of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of at least one of said microphones, a respective tolerance compensated frequency component value by multiplying the frequency component value of the complex-valued frequency-domain microphone signal of said microphone with a real-valued correction factor;

wherein, for each of the plurality of frequency components, said real-valued correction factor is calculated as temporal average of frequency component values of the plurality of said Deviation Spectra; and

wherein the Beam Focus Spectrum for a Beam Focus Directions is calculated from the respective tolerance compensated frequency component values for said microphone.

20. The one or more non-transitory computer-readable media of claim 17 , wherein said temporal averaging of the frequency component values is only executed if said frequency component value of said Deviation Spectrum is above a predefined magnitude threshold value.