Patents by Inventor Cristian M. Hera

Cristian M. Hera 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: 11792567
    Abstract: A system for capturing a user's voice, including a plurality of microphones disposed about a vehicle cabin, each of the plurality of microphones generating a microphone signal, wherein the vehicle cabin defines a plurality of seating positions; a voice-activity detector configured to detect when, at least, a user seated in a target seat of the plurality of seating positions is speaking; and an adaptive beamformer configured to receive the microphone signals from the plurality of microphones and to generate, based on the microphone signals and a noise coherence matrix, an estimate of the acoustic signal at the target seating position, according to an adaptive beamforming algorithm, wherein the noise coherence matrix ceases to be updated when, according to the voice-activity detector, the user seated in the target seating position is speaking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Date of Patent: October 17, 2023
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Publication number: 20230027266
    Abstract: A system for capturing a user's voice, including a plurality of microphones disposed about a vehicle cabin, each of the plurality of microphones generating a microphone signal, wherein the vehicle cabin defines a plurality of seating positions; a voice-activity detector configured to detect when, at least, a user seated in a target seat of the plurality of seating positions is speaking; and an adaptive beamformer configured to receive the microphone signals from the plurality of microphones and to generate, based on the microphone signals and a noise coherence matrix, an estimate of the acoustic signal at the target seating position, according to an adaptive beamforming algorithm, wherein the noise coherence matrix ceases to be updated when, according to the voice-activity detector, the user seated in the target seating position is speaking.
    Type: Application
    Filed: October 4, 2022
    Publication date: January 26, 2023
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Publication number: 20220392476
    Abstract: A method for preparing reference signals for an echo cancellation system disposed in a vehicle, comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of drive signals, each drive signal being provided to an associated transducer of a plurality of acoustic transducers such that the associated acoustic transducer transduces the drive signal into an acoustic signal, filtering each drive signal with a respective filter of a plurality of filters to produce a plurality of filtered signals, wherein each of the plurality of filters approximates a transfer function from an associated acoustic transducer to a microphone disposed within the vehicle such that the plurality of filtered signals each estimate a respective acoustic signal at the microphone; summing together at least a subset of the plurality of filtered signals to produce a summed reference signal; and outputting the summed reference signal to an echo cancellation system.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Publication date: December 8, 2022
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera, Vigneish Kathavarayan
  • Patent number: 11514922
    Abstract: A method for preparing reference signals for an echo cancellation system disposed in a vehicle, comprising the steps of: receiving a plurality of drive signals, each drive signal being provided to an associated transducer of a plurality of acoustic transducers such that the associated acoustic transducer transduces the drive signal into an acoustic signal, filtering each drive signal with a respective filter of a plurality of filters to produce a plurality of filtered signals, wherein each of the plurality of filters approximates a transfer function from an associated acoustic transducer to a microphone disposed within the vehicle such that the plurality of filtered signals each estimate a respective acoustic signal at the microphone; summing together at least a subset of the plurality of filtered signals to produce a summed reference signal; and outputting the summed reference signal to an echo cancellation system.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 4, 2021
    Date of Patent: November 29, 2022
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera, Vigneish Kathavarayan
  • Patent number: 11508192
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for determining whether the noise floor of a sensor is deviated from an expected value, comprising the steps of: receiving a sensor signal from a sensor; determining a plurality of power spectral densities from a plurality of successive frames of samples of the sensor signal, each of the plurality of power spectral densities being determined from a respective frame of the plurality of successive frames, each power spectral density being comprised of a plurality of frequency bins, each frequency bin being associated with a power of the respective frame at the frequency of the respective frequency bin, wherein each successive frame of the plurality of successive frames differs by at least one sample; identifying a minimum power of the plurality of power spectral densities; and determining whether the minimum power exceeds a threshold value.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: January 21, 2020
    Date of Patent: November 22, 2022
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Patent number: 11483647
    Abstract: A system for capturing a user's voice, including a plurality of microphones disposed about a vehicle cabin, each of the plurality of microphones generating a microphone signal, wherein the vehicle cabin defines a plurality of seating positions; a voice-activity detector configured to detect when, at least, a user seated in a target seat of the plurality of seating positions is speaking; and an adaptive beamformer configured to receive the microphone signals from the plurality of microphones and to generate, based on the microphone signals and a noise coherence matrix, an estimate of the acoustic signal at the target seating position, according to an adaptive beamforming algorithm, wherein the noise coherence matrix ceases to be updated when, according to the voice-activity detector, the user seated in the target seating position is speaking.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: September 17, 2020
    Date of Patent: October 25, 2022
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Patent number: 11405739
    Abstract: In an audio system with a plurality of input signals, the input signals are prioritized from least important to most important. The level of the aggregate of all of the input signals is compared to a threshold level. If the level is greater than the threshold, the levels of one or more of the input signals are reduced one at a time, in order from the least important input signal to the most important input signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: December 1, 2020
    Date of Patent: August 2, 2022
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera, Shiufun Cheung
  • Patent number: 11380298
    Abstract: A vehicle-implemented noise-cancellation system, includes: a noise-cancellation system disposed in a vehicle, the noise-cancellation system comprising an adaptive filter being adjusted according to a reference signal and an error signal, the adaptive filter outputting a noise-cancellation signal, which, when transduced into a noise-cancellation audio signal by a speaker, cancels road noise within at least one zone within a cabin of the vehicle; and an adjustment module configured to vary a power of the noise-cancellation signal or a rate of adaptation of the adaptive filter from a first value to a second value, passing through at least one intermediate value between the first value and the second value, based on a time-varying signal indicative of a signal-to-noise ratio of the reference signal with respect to a first criterion.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: February 5, 2020
    Date of Patent: July 5, 2022
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Siamak Farahbakhsh
  • Publication number: 20220174442
    Abstract: In an audio system with a plurality of input signals, the input signals are prioritized from least important to most important. The level of the aggregate of all of the input signals is compared to a threshold level. If the level is greater than the threshold, the levels of one or more of the input signals are reduced one at a time, in order from the least important input signal to the most important input signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: December 1, 2020
    Publication date: June 2, 2022
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera, Shiufun Cheung
  • Publication number: 20220086564
    Abstract: A system for capturing a user's voice, including a plurality of microphones disposed about a vehicle cabin, each of the plurality of microphones generating a microphone signal, wherein the vehicle cabin defines a plurality of seating positions; a voice-activity detector configured to detect when, at least, a user seated in a target seat of the plurality of seating positions is speaking; and an adaptive beamformer configured to receive the microphone signals from the plurality of microphones and to generate, based on the microphone signals and a noise coherence matrix, an estimate of the acoustic signal at the target seating position, according to an adaptive beamforming algorithm, wherein the noise coherence matrix ceases to be updated when, according to the voice-activity detector, the user seated in the target seating position is speaking.
    Type: Application
    Filed: September 17, 2020
    Publication date: March 17, 2022
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Publication number: 20210241748
    Abstract: A vehicle-implemented noise-cancellation system, includes: a noise-cancellation system disposed in a vehicle, the noise-cancellation system comprising an adaptive filter being adjusted according to a reference signal and an error signal, the adaptive filter outputting a noise-cancellation signal, which, when transduced into a noise-cancellation audio signal by a speaker, cancels road noise within at least one zone within a cabin of the vehicle; and an adjustment module configured to vary a power of the noise-cancellation signal or a rate of adaptation of the adaptive filter from a first value to a second value, passing through at least one intermediate value between the first value and the second value, based on a time-varying signal indicative of a signal-to-noise ratio of the reference signal with respect to a first criterion.
    Type: Application
    Filed: February 5, 2020
    Publication date: August 5, 2021
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Siamak Farahbakhsh
  • Publication number: 20210225097
    Abstract: A computer-implemented method for determining whether the noise floor of a sensor is deviated from an expected value, comprising the steps of: receiving a sensor signal from a sensor; determining a plurality of power spectral densities from a plurality of successive frames of samples of the sensor signal, each of the plurality of power spectral densities being determined from a respective frame of the plurality of successive frames, each power spectral density being comprised of a plurality of frequency bins, each frequency bin being associated with a power of the respective frame at the frequency of the respective frequency bin, wherein each successive frame of the plurality of successive frames differs by at least one sample; identifying a minimum power of the plurality of power spectral densities; and determining whether the minimum power exceeds a threshold value.
    Type: Application
    Filed: January 21, 2020
    Publication date: July 22, 2021
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Patent number: 11046256
    Abstract: An audio system, including an accelerometer positioned to produce an accelerometer signal representative of road noise within a vehicle cabin; a microphone disposed within the vehicle cabin such that the microphone receives the road noise and produces a microphone signal having a road-noise component; and a road-noise canceler, comprising a road-noise cancellation filter, configured to receive the accelerometer signal and the microphone signal and to minimize the road-noise component of the microphone signal according to the accelerometer signal, to produce an estimated microphone signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 29, 2021
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Ankita D. Jain, Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Ben John Feng
  • Patent number: 11044556
    Abstract: An audio system, including an echo canceler being configured to receive a first reference signal and a microphone signal, and to minimize an echo signal of the microphone signal, according to the first reference signal, the echo signal being a component of the microphone signal correlated to the first reference signal, to produce a residual signal; a post filter configured to receive a second reference signal and the residual signal, and to suppress at least one residual component correlated to the second reference signal, according to the second reference signal, to produce an estimated voice signal, wherein the first reference signal is received from a first location of an audio processing chain and the second reference signal is received from a second location of the audio processing chain, the first location and the second location being separated by at least one audio processing module of the audio processing chain.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Date of Patent: June 22, 2021
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Tobe Z. Barksdale, Vigneish Kathavarayan, Ankita D. Jain
  • Patent number: 11017792
    Abstract: An audio system includes: a head unit comprising at least a first processor, the head unit being configured to generate a plurality of program content signals, one of the plurality of program content signals being a phone program content signal being received from a phone, wherein the plurality of program content signals are transduced by an acoustic transducer into an acoustic signal within a vehicle cabin; a microphone disposed within the vehicle cabin such that the microphone receives the acoustic signal and produces a microphone signal comprising a plurality of echo signals; and a multichannel echo-cancellation unit being implemented by a second processor, the multichannel echo-cancellation unit being configured to receive a plurality of reference signals and to minimize the plurality of echo signals, according to the plurality of reference signals, to produce an estimated voice signal, and to provide the estimated voice signal to the head unit.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: June 17, 2019
    Date of Patent: May 25, 2021
    Assignee: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Jeffery R. Vautin, Vigneish Kathavarayan, Ankita D. Jain, Tobe Z. Barksdale
  • Patent number: 10964305
    Abstract: A method of suppressing residual echo includes calculating a spectral mismatch of an acoustic echo canceler based upon a program content signal and a residual signal; determining a set of filter coefficients based at least in part upon a selected spectral mismatch; filtering the residual signal based upon the set of filter coefficients; freezing the calculation of the selected spectral mismatch in response to detecting a double talk condition in the residual signal; waiting a predetermined hold period in response to detecting that the double talk condition has ended; and, after the predetermined hold period, resuming the calculation of the spectral mismatch based upon the program content signal and the residual signal.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: May 20, 2019
    Date of Patent: March 30, 2021
    Assignee: BOSE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera
  • Publication number: 20200413191
    Abstract: An audio system, including an echo canceler being configured to receive a first reference signal and a microphone signal, and to minimize an echo signal of the microphone signal, according to the first reference signal, the echo signal being a component of the microphone signal correlated to the first reference signal, to produce a residual signal; a post filter configured to receive a second reference signal and the residual signal, and to suppress at least one residual component correlated to the second reference signal, according to the second reference signal, to produce an estimated voice signal, wherein the first reference signal is received from a first location of an audio processing chain and the second reference signal is received from a second location of the audio processing chain, the first location and the second location being separated by at least one audio processing module of the audio processing chain.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 28, 2019
    Publication date: December 31, 2020
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Tobe Z. Barksdale, Vigneish Kathavarayan, Ankita D. Jain
  • Publication number: 20200391670
    Abstract: An audio system, including an accelerometer positioned to produce an accelerometer signal representative of road noise within a vehicle cabin; a microphone disposed within the vehicle cabin such that the microphone receives the road noise and produces a microphone signal having a road-noise component; and a road-noise canceler, comprising a road-noise cancellation filter, configured to receive the accelerometer signal and the microphone signal and to minimize the road-noise component of the microphone signal according to the accelerometer signal, to produce an estimated microphone signal.
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2019
    Publication date: December 17, 2020
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Ankita D. Jain, Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Ben John Feng
  • Publication number: 20200395030
    Abstract: An audio system, comprising: a head unit comprising at least a first processor, the head unit being configured to generate a plurality of program content signals, one of the plurality of program content signals being a phone program content signal being received from a phone, wherein the plurality of program content signals are transduced by an acoustic transducer into an acoustic signal within a vehicle cabin; a microphone disposed within the vehicle cabin such that the microphone receives the acoustic signal and produces a microphone signal comprising a plurality of echo signals, each echo signal of the plurality of echo signals being a component of the microphone signal correlated to at least one program content signal of the plurality of program content signals; a multichannel echo-cancellation unit being implemented by a second processor, the multichannel echo-cancellation unit being configured to receive a plurality of reference signals, each of the plurality of reference signals being correlated to at
    Type: Application
    Filed: June 17, 2019
    Publication date: December 17, 2020
    Applicant: Bose Corporation
    Inventors: Cristian M. Hera, Elie Bou Daher, Jeffery R. Vautin, Vigneish Kathavarayan, Ankita D. Jain, Tobe Z. Barksdale
  • Patent number: 10863269
    Abstract: Double-talk detection systems and methods are provided that include a plurality of microphones and array processing to detect when a vehicle occupant is speaking. One or more array processors combine the microphone signals to provide a primary signal and a reference signal. The responses of the primary signal and the reference signal are different in the direction of an occupant location. A comparison of energy content is made between the primary signal and reference signal to selectively indicate double-talk based on the comparison.
    Type: Grant
    Filed: October 2, 2018
    Date of Patent: December 8, 2020
    Assignee: BOSE CORPORATION
    Inventors: Elie Bou Daher, Cristian M. Hera, Vigneish Kathavarayan, Tobe Z. Barksdale