US 12,395,772 B2
Sound pickup device
Seigo Enomoto, Kyoto (JP); Yoshifumi Hirose, Kyoto (JP); and Shinichi Yuzuriha, Osaka (JP)
Assigned to PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY CORPORATION OF AMERICA, Torrance, CA (US)
Filed by Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America, Torrance, CA (US)
Filed on Apr. 21, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/137,789.
Application 18/137,789 is a continuation of application No. PCT/JP2021/037473, filed on Oct. 8, 2021.
Claims priority of application No. 2020-187537 (JP), filed on Nov. 10, 2020.
Prior Publication US 2023/0262374 A1, Aug. 17, 2023
Int. Cl. H04R 1/08 (2006.01)
CPC H04R 1/08 (2013.01) [H04R 2430/00 (2013.01)] 5 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A sound pickup device comprising:
a plurality of microphone elements that are arranged three-dimensionally in a distributed manner, wherein
among microphone pairs each of which is a different combination of two microphone elements of the plurality of microphone elements, a total number of effective microphone pairs is greater than a total number of the plurality of microphone elements, the effective microphone pairs each being a combination of two microphone elements having a distance less than a distance D between each other,
the distance D is represented by D=c/2f, where f represents a frequency of a target sound obtained from the plurality of microphone elements and c represents a velocity of the target sound,
any one of straight lines each of which connects the two microphone elements of a different one of the effective microphone pairs is not parallel to any other of the straight lines, and
the plurality of microphone elements include n microphone elements that are located on a same plane and one or more microphone elements that are not located on the same plane, n being a natural number greater than or equal to 3.