Patents by Inventor Andrew D. Unruh

Andrew D. Unruh has filed for patents to protect the following inventions. This listing includes patent applications that are pending as well as patents that have already been granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

  • Patent number: 11562724
    Abstract: A system and method can provide nose, such as wind noise, mitigation and/or microphone blending. Some methods may include sampling a sound signal from a plurality of microphones to generate a frame comprising a plurality of time-frequency tiles of the sound signal, each time-frequency tile including respective values of at least one feature from the plurality of microphones, comparing the respective values of the at least one feature to determine whether each time-frequency tile satisfies a similarity threshold, and flagging each time-frequency tile as noise if it fails to satisfy the similarity threshold, grouping the plurality of time-frequency tiles into sets of frequency-adjacent time-frequency tiles, and for each set of frequency-adjacent time-frequency tiles in the frame: counting a number of flagged time-frequency tiles, and attenuating all of the time-frequency tiles in the each set if the number exceeds a noise bin count threshold to thereby reduce noise in the sound signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 26, 2020
    Date of Patent: January 24, 2023
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Andrew D. Unruh, Thomas E. Miller, Aidan Meacham
  • Patent number: 11368783
    Abstract: A microphone device includes a substrate having a first surface, a wall disposed on the first surface, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer, and an integrated circuit. Both the MEMS transducer and the integrated circuit are mounted on the first surface of the wall. The wall separates the MEMS transducer from the integrated circuit and acoustically isolates the MEMS transducer from the integrated circuit. The microphone device additionally includes a first set of wires extending through the wall and electrically connecting the MEMS transducer to the integrated circuit. The microphone device further includes a second set of wires electrically connecting the integrated circuit to a conductor on the substrate.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 10, 2020
    Date of Patent: June 21, 2022
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventors: Thomas E. Miller, Andrew D. Unruh
  • Patent number: 11303758
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improved acoustic echo cancellation are provided. In various embodiments, a microphone located in the loudspeaker enclosure provides a first signal that is used to estimate the loudspeaker displacement which is proportional to the sound pressure level (SPL) inside the enclosure. A second signal is then derived by mapping the displacement to the loudspeaker's force factor (Bl(x)) and then modulating this by a measured current to a voice coil inside the speaker to provide an estimate of the force acting on the moving mass of the loudspeaker. The first signal is highly correlated with the echo signal for low frequencies and the second signal is highly correlated with the echo signal for high frequencies. The two signals are then combined to provide a single improved AEC reference signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 28, 2020
    Date of Patent: April 12, 2022
    Assignee: Knowles Electronics, LLC
    Inventor: Andrew D. Unruh
  • Publication number: 20210065670
    Abstract: A system and method can provide nose, such as wind noise, mitigation and/or microphone blending. Some methods may include sampling a sound signal from a plurality of microphones to generate a frame comprising a plurality of time-frequency tiles of the sound signal, each time-frequency tile including respective values of at least one feature from the plurality of microphones, comparing the respective values of the at least one feature to determine whether each time-frequency tile satisfies a similarity threshold, and flagging each time-frequency tile as noise if it fails to satisfy the similarity threshold, grouping the plurality of time-frequency tiles into sets of frequency-adjacent time-frequency tiles, and for each set of frequency-adjacent time-frequency tiles in the frame: counting a number of flagged time-frequency tiles, and attenuating all of the time-frequency tiles in the each set if the number exceeds a noise bin count threshold to thereby reduce noise in the sound signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 26, 2020
    Publication date: March 4, 2021
    Inventors: Andrew D. Unruh, Thomas E. Miller, Aidan Meacham
  • Publication number: 20200382649
    Abstract: Systems and methods for improved acoustic echo cancellation are provided. In various embodiments, a microphone located in the loudspeaker enclosure provides a first signal that is used to estimate the loudspeaker displacement which is proportional to the sound pressure level (SPL) inside the enclosure. A second signal is then derived by mapping the displacement to the loudspeaker's force factor (Bl(x)) and then modulating this by a measured current to a voice coil inside the speaker to provide an estimate of the force acting on the moving mass of the loudspeaker. The first signal is highly correlated with the echo signal for low frequencies and the second signal is highly correlated with the echo signal for high frequencies. The two signals are then combined to provide a single improved AEC reference signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: May 28, 2020
    Publication date: December 3, 2020
    Inventor: Andrew D. Unruh
  • Publication number: 20200329299
    Abstract: A microphone device includes a substrate having a first surface, a wall disposed on the first surface, a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) transducer, and an integrated circuit. Both the MEMS transducer and the integrated circuit are mounted on the first surface of the wall. The wall separates the MEMS transducer from the integrated circuit and acoustically isolates the MEMS transducer from the integrated circuit. The microphone device additionally includes a first set of wires extending through the wall and electrically connecting the MEMS transducer to the integrated circuit. The microphone device further includes a second set of wires electrically connecting the integrated circuit to a conductor on the substrate.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 10, 2020
    Publication date: October 15, 2020
    Inventors: Thomas E. Miller, Andrew D. Unruh