Patents by Inventor Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani

Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani 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).

  • Publication number: 20180040315
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes noise canceling that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is provided proximate the speaker to measure the output of the transducer in order to control the adaptation of the anti-noise signal and to estimate an electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer. The anti-noise signal is adaptively generated to minimize the ambient audio sounds at the error microphone. A processing circuit that performs the adaptive noise canceling (ANC) function also filters one or both of the reference and/or error microphone signals, to bias the adaptation of the adaptive filter in one or more frequency regions to alter a degree of the minimization of the ambient audio sounds at the error microphone.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 18, 2017
    Publication date: February 8, 2018
    Inventors: Nitin Kwatra, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9824677
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes noise canceling that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is provided proximate the speaker to measure the output of the transducer in order to control the adaptation of the anti-noise signal and to estimate an electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer. The anti-noise signal is adaptively generated to minimize the ambient audio sounds at the error microphone. A processing circuit that performs the adaptive noise canceling (ANC) function also filters one or both of the reference and/or error microphone signals, to bias the adaptation of the adaptive filter in one or more frequency regions to alter a degree of the minimization of the ambient audio sounds at the error microphone.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 16, 2012
    Date of Patent: November 21, 2017
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Nitin Kwatra, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9711130
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal that measures the ambient audio and an error microphone signal that measures the output of an output transducer plus any ambient audio at that location and injects the anti-noise signal at the transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. A processing circuit uses the reference and error microphone to generate the anti-noise signal, which can be generated by an adaptive filter operating at a multiple of the ANC coefficient update rate. Downlink audio can be combined with the high data rate anti-noise signal by interpolation. High-pass filters in the control paths reduce DC offset in the ANC circuits, and ANC coefficient adaptation can be halted when downlink audio is not detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 15, 2016
    Date of Patent: July 18, 2017
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Gautham Devendra Kamath, Nitin Kwatra, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9666176
    Abstract: A processing circuit may include: (i) an adaptive filter having a response that generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal, wherein the response is shaped in conformity with the reference microphone signal and a playback corrected error, and wherein the playback corrected error is based on a difference between an error microphone signal and a secondary path estimate; (ii) a secondary path estimate filter configured to model an electro-acoustic path of a source audio signal and having a response that generates a secondary path estimate from the source audio signal; (iii) a secondary coefficient control block that shapes the response of the secondary path estimate filter in conformity with the source audio signal and the playback corrected error by adapting the response of the secondary path estimate filter to minimize the playback corrected error; and (iv) a noise injection portion for injecting a noise signal into the source audio signal, wherein the noise signal is shaped based on the
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 13, 2013
    Date of Patent: May 30, 2017
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Yang Lu, Dayong Zhou, Ning Li
  • Patent number: 9646595
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to estimate an electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer. A processing circuit determines a degree of coupling between the user's ear and the transducer and adjusts the adaptive cancellation of the ambient sounds to prevent erroneous and possibly disruptive generation of the anti-noise signal if the degree of coupling lies either below or above a range of normal operating ear contact pressure.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 9, 2014
    Date of Patent: May 9, 2017
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Gautham Devendra Kamath
  • Patent number: 9633646
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to measure the ambient sounds and transducer output near the transducer, thus providing an indication of the effectiveness of the noise canceling. A processing circuit uses the reference and/or error microphone, optionally along with a microphone provided for capturing near-end speech, to determine whether the ANC circuit is incorrectly adapting or may incorrectly adapt to the instant acoustic environment and/or whether the anti-noise signal may be incorrect and/or disruptive and then take action in the processing circuit to prevent or remedy such conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Date of Patent: April 25, 2017
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Nitin Kwatra, Dayong Zhou, Yang Lu, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9578432
    Abstract: The present invention provides a system and method encompassing a new metric and MATLAB tool box that phone makers may use to improve the design of the secondary path, in order to improve ANC performance. The metric measures how invertible the secondary path is and then evaluates ANC performance at a worst case scenario where P(z)=1 and W(z) becomes a complete predictor. The invention can be easily extended to a multi-channel ANC system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: April 23, 2014
    Date of Patent: February 21, 2017
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, John L. Melanson
  • Patent number: 9502020
    Abstract: An adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit adaptively generates an anti-noise signal that is injected into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. At least one microphone provides an error signal indicative of the noise cancellation at the transducer, and the adaptive filter is adapted to minimize the error signal. In order to prevent improper adaptation or instabilities in one or both of the adaptive filters, spikes are detected in the error signal by comparing the error signal or its rate of change to a threshold. Therefore, if the magnitude of the coefficient error is greater than a threshold value for an update, the update is skipped. Alternatively the step size of the updates may be reduced. Similar criteria can be applied to a filter modeling the secondary path, based on detection applied to both the source audio and the error signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2016
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson, Gautham Devendra Kamath, Yang Lu
  • Publication number: 20160316291
    Abstract: A personal audio device including multiple output transducers for reproducing different frequency bands of a source audio signal, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal for each of the transducers from at least one microphone signal that measures the ambient audio to generate anti-noise signals. The anti-noise signals are generated by separate adaptive filters such that the anti-noise signals cause substantial cancelation of the ambient audio at their corresponding transducers. The use of separate adaptive filters provides low-latency operation, since a crossover is not needed to split the anti-noise into the appropriate frequency bands. The adaptive filters can be implemented or biased to generate anti-noise only in the frequency band corresponding to the particular adaptive filter. The anti-noise signals are combined with source audio of the appropriate frequency band to provide outputs for the corresponding transducers.
    Type: Application
    Filed: July 6, 2016
    Publication date: October 27, 2016
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Jeffrey Alderson, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Dayong Zhou, Yang Lu
  • Publication number: 20160232887
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal that measures the ambient audio and an error microphone signal that measures the output of an output transducer plus any ambient audio at that location and injects the anti-noise signal at the transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. A processing circuit uses the reference and error microphone to generate the anti-noise signal, which can be generated by an adaptive filter operating at a multiple of the ANC coefficient update rate. Downlink audio can be combined with the high data rate anti-noise signal by interpolation. High-pass filters in the control paths reduce DC offset in the ANC circuits, and ANC coefficient adaptation can be halted when downlink audio is not detected.
    Type: Application
    Filed: April 15, 2016
    Publication date: August 11, 2016
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Gautham Devendra Kamath, Nitin Kwatra, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9414150
    Abstract: A personal audio device including multiple output transducers for reproducing different frequency bands of a source audio signal, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal for each of the transducers from at least one microphone signal that measures the ambient audio to generate anti-noise signals. The anti-noise signals are generated by separate adaptive filters such that the anti-noise signals cause substantial cancellation of the ambient audio at their corresponding transducers. The use of separate adaptive filters provides low-latency operation, since a crossover is not needed to split the anti-noise into the appropriate frequency bands. The adaptive filters can be implemented or biased to generate anti-noise only in the frequency band corresponding to the particular adaptive filter. The anti-noise signals are combined with source audio of the appropriate frequency band to provide outputs for the corresponding transducers.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 9, 2016
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Jeffrey Alderson, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Dayong Zhou, Yang Lu
  • Patent number: 9392364
    Abstract: A processing circuit may implement an adaptive filter having a response that generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal, one or more filters for modeling an electro-acoustic path of the anti-noise signal from a location of an error microphone to an eardrum of a listener and having a response that generates a filtered reference microphone signal from the reference microphone signal, one or more filters for modeling an acoustic path of ambient audio sounds from the location of the error microphone to the eardrum and having a response that generates a synthesized playback corrected error signal based on the error microphone signal, wherein the synthesized playback corrected error signal is indicative of ambient audio sounds present at the eardrum, and a coefficient control block that shapes the response of the adaptive filter in conformity with the filtered reference microphone signal and the synthesized playback corrected error signal by adapting the response of the adaptive filter to min
    Type: Grant
    Filed: August 15, 2013
    Date of Patent: July 12, 2016
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Antonio John Miller
  • Patent number: 9368099
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes noise canceling circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone may also be provided proximate the speaker to measure the output of the transducer in order to control the adaptation of the anti-noise signal and to estimate an electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer. A processing circuit that performs the adaptive noise canceling (ANC) function also either adjusts the frequency response of the anti-noise signal with respect to the reference microphone signal, and/or by adjusting the response of the adaptive filter independent of the adaptation provided by the reference microphone signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 28, 2014
    Date of Patent: June 14, 2016
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Jeffrey Alderson, Nitin Kwatra, Gautham Devendra Kamath, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, John L. Melanson
  • Patent number: 9324311
    Abstract: An adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from that is injected into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. At least one microphone provides an error signal indicative of the noise cancellation at the transducer, and the coefficients of the adaptive filter are adapted to minimize the error signal. In order to prevent improper adaptation or instabilities in one or both of the adaptive filters, spikes are detected in the error signal by comparing the error signal to a threshold ambient noise average. Therefore, if the magnitude of the coefficient error is greater than a threshold value for an update, the update is skipped. Alternatively the step size of the updates may be reduced.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 14, 2014
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson, Gautham Devendra Kamath, Yang Lu
  • Patent number: 9325821
    Abstract: A wireless telephone includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to provide an error signal indicative of the effectiveness of the noise cancellation. A secondary path estimating adaptive filter is used to estimate the electro-acoustical path from the noise canceling circuit through the transducer so that source audio can be removed from the error signal. Sidetone is injected into the transducer output, but is not provided to the coefficient control of the secondary path estimating adaptive filter, so that the ambient noise present in the near-end speech microphone signal, and thus present in the sidetone information, does not destabilize the ANC circuit or otherwise cause improper generation of the anti-noise signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: November 27, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 26, 2016
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani
  • Patent number: 9318094
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal that measures the ambient audio and an error microphone signal that measures the output of an output transducer plus any ambient audio at that location and injects the anti-noise signal at the transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. A processing circuit uses the reference and error microphone to generate the anti-noise signal, which can be generated by an adaptive filter operating at a multiple of the ANC coefficient update rate. Downlink audio can be combined with the high data rate anti-noise signal by interpolation. High-pass filters in the control paths reduce DC offset in the ANC circuits, and ANC coefficient adaptation can be halted when downlink audio is not detected.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: March 7, 2012
    Date of Patent: April 19, 2016
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Gautham Devendra Kamath, Nitin Kwatra, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Publication number: 20160063988
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to measure the ambient sounds and transducer output near the transducer, thus providing an indication of the effectiveness of the noise canceling. A processing circuit uses the reference and/or error microphone, optionally along with a microphone provided for capturing near-end speech, to determine whether the ANC circuit is incorrectly adapting or may incorrectly adapt to the instant acoustic environment and/or whether the anti-noise signal may be incorrect and/or disruptive and then take action in the processing circuit to prevent or remedy such conditions.
    Type: Application
    Filed: August 31, 2015
    Publication date: March 3, 2016
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Nitin Kwatra, Dayong Zhou, Yang Lu, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9142207
    Abstract: A personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, includes an adaptive noise canceling (ANC) circuit that adaptively generates an anti-noise signal from a reference microphone signal and injects the anti-noise signal into the speaker or other transducer output to cause cancellation of ambient audio sounds. An error microphone is also provided proximate the speaker to measure the ambient sounds and transducer output near the transducer, thus providing an indication of the effectiveness of the noise canceling. A processing circuit uses the reference and/or error microphone, optionally along with a microphone provided for capturing near-end speech, to determine whether the ANC circuit is incorrectly adapting or may incorrectly adapt to the instant acoustic environment and/or whether the anti-noise signal may be incorrect and/or disruptive and then take action in the processing circuit to prevent or remedy such conditions.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2011
    Date of Patent: September 22, 2015
    Assignee: CIRRUS LOGIC, INC.
    Inventors: Jon D. Hendrix, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani, Nitin Kwatra, Dayong Zhou, Yang Lu, Jeffrey Alderson
  • Patent number: 9107010
    Abstract: An RMS detector uses the concept of the k-NN (classifying using nearest neighbors)—algorithm in order to obtain RMS values. A rms detector using first-order regressor with a variable smoothing factor is modified to penalize samples from center of data in order to obtain RMS values. Samples which vary greatly from the background noise levels, such as speech, scratch, wind and other noise spikes, are dampened in the RMS calculation. When background noise changes, the system will track the changes in background noise and include the changes in the calculation of the corrected RMS value. A minimum tracker runs more often (e.g. two or three times) than the rate as in prior art detectors and methods, tracks the minimum rms value, which is to compute a normalized distance value, which in turn is used to normalize the smoothing factor.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 8, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventor: Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani
  • Patent number: 9106989
    Abstract: Techniques for estimating adaptive noise canceling (ANC) performance in a personal audio device, such as a wireless telephone, provide robustness of operation by triggering corrective action when ANC performance is low, and/or by saving a state of the ANC system when ANC performance is high. An anti-noise signal is generated from a reference microphone signal and is provided to an output transducer along with program audio. A measure of ANC gain is determined by computing a ratio of a first indication of magnitude of an error microphone signal that provides a measure of the ambient sounds and program audio heard by the listener including the effects of the anti-noise, to a second indication of magnitude of the error microphone signal without the effects of the anti-noise. The ratio can be determined for different frequency bands in order to determine whether particular adaptive filters are trained properly.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2013
    Date of Patent: August 11, 2015
    Assignee: Cirrus Logic, Inc.
    Inventors: Ning Li, Antonio John Miller, Jon D. Hendrix, Jie Su, Jeffrey Alderson, Ali Abdollahzadeh Milani