US 11,895,478 B2
Sound capture device with improved microphone array
Pierre Lecomte, Le Mans (FR); Rozenn Nicol, Chatillon (FR); Laurent Simon, Le Mans (FR); Manuel Melon, Le Mans (FR); Katell Peron, Chatillon (FR); Cyril Plapous, Chatillon (FR); and Kais Hassan, Le Mans (FR)
Assigned to Orange; and Universite Du Mans
Appl. No. 17/622,679
Filed by Orange, Issy-les-Moulineaux (FR); and Universite Du Mans, Le Mans (FR)
PCT Filed May 20, 2020, PCT No. PCT/FR2020/050852
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Dec. 23, 2021,
PCT Pub. No. WO2020/260780, PCT Pub. Date Dec. 30, 2020.
Claims priority of application No. 1906840 (FR), filed on Jun. 24, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2022/0256302 A1, Aug. 11, 2022
Int. Cl. H04S 3/02 (2006.01); H04R 1/40 (2006.01); H04R 3/00 (2006.01)
CPC H04S 3/02 (2013.01) [H04R 1/406 (2013.01); H04R 3/005 (2013.01); H04R 2201/401 (2013.01); H04S 2400/01 (2013.01); H04S 2400/15 (2013.01); H04S 2420/11 (2013.01)] 14 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sound capture device, comprising at least:
a plurality of microphone capsules, distributed over a portion P of a sphere S circumscribed between two or three planes perpendicular to each other, the three planes intersecting at a point corresponding to a center of the sphere S, and two of the aforementioned planes intersecting in a straight line passing through the center of the sphere S, and the sphere portion P being such that P=n S/8, with n=1,2; and
a processing unit connected to the capsules to receive signals captured by the capsules, the processing unit being arranged to:
matrix the signals in an ambisonic representation which retains only ambisonic components associated with spherical harmonics that are symmetrical in relation to at least two of the aforementioned planes, and
process a matrix thus obtained in order to identify at least one sound source in a space surrounding the sphere portion, and to interpret a sound signal originating from this source.