A device has a laser unit, which includes: a top-side p-type DBR region; which is on top of and in direct touch with an active region; which is on top of and in direct touch with a bottom-side n-type Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) region; which is on top of a n-type substrate. The laser unit further includes a voltage measurement anode touching or being in proximity to a top surface of the active region; and a voltage measurement cathode touching or being in proximity to a bottom surface of the active region. The voltage between the voltage measurement anode and the voltage measurement cathode is directly measured; and is utilized for determining characteristics of a laser self-mix signal of the laser unit, without having or using a monitor photo-diode.
Laser-based devices utilizing temperature modulation for improved self-mix sensing. A self-mix laser unit includes: an active region having a first side and a second, opposite, side; a p-type Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) region, which is in direct touch with said first side of the active region; an n-type DBR region, which is in direct touch with the second side of the active region; and an n-type or p-type or other substrate. A heating unit provides modulated heating to the active region, either directly via an electrical resistor within the active region; or indirectly by passing or propagating modulated heat through one of the DBR regions or through the substrate. The modulated heating improves the laser-based self-mix signal.
Optical microphone, laser-based microphone, and laser microphone having reduced-noise components of low-noise components. A laser microphone comprises a laser-diode associated with a low-noise laser driver TX; and a photo-diode associated with a low-noise photo-diode receiver RX. The low-noise laser driver TX supplies a drive current which is a combination of a Direct Current component having a first bandwidth, and an attenuated version of an Alternating Current component having a second, different, bandwidth. Additionally or alternatively, the low-noise photo-diode receiver RX utilizes hardware-based demodulation of the analog signal, and operates to remove a Direct Current component of its output signal prior to digitization.
A laser-based device or sensor includes: a first laser transmitter having a first self-mix carrier frequency; a second laser transmitter having a second, different, self-mix carrier frequency; a first monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the first laser transmitter, and to output a first electric signal; a second monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the second laser transmitter, and to output a second electric signal; an electric connection to connect together the first electric signal and the second electric signal, forming a combined electric signal; a single laser receiver to receive the combined electric signal and to generate from it a spectrum that corresponds to both (i) self-mix signal of the first laser transmitter, and (ii) self-mix signal of the second laser transmitter. Alternatively, a single monitor photodiode is used, receiving self-mix signals from multiple laser transmitters, and outputting a single electric signal to a single laser receiver.
A system and method for generating, enhancing, and detecting the amplitude and phase modulation of a laser under a condition of self-mixing is provided. The system may comprise a laser and a detector to extract the characteristic self-mix signal, which is then interpreted using algorithms implemented in hardware or software. In the case of the laser being a Vertical Cavity Surface Emitting laser (VCSEL), the output signal can be detected by monitoring the surface light emission by means of a beam splitter, or in some embodiments as emission from the bottom surface of the laser. In some embodiments, the system may further comprise a wavelength filter such as an etalon in the signal path.
H01S 5/183 - Surface-emitting [SE] lasers, e.g. having both horizontal and vertical cavities having only vertical cavities, e.g. vertical cavity surface-emitting lasers [VCSEL]
6.
DEVICE, SYSTEM, AND METHOD OF USER AUTHENTICATION UTILIZING AN OPTICAL MICROPHONE
Device, system, and method of user authentication utilizing an optical microphone or laser- based microphone. An optical microphone transmits an outgoing optical signal or laser beam towards a face of a human speaker; receives an incoming optical feedback that is reflected back from the face of the human speaker; performs self-mix interferometry that is based on the outgoing optical signal and the incoming reflected optical signal; and generates a user-specific feature or characteristic that uniquely characterizes said human speaker. A user authentication module operates to authenticate the user for performing a privileged or an access-controlled action, based on the user-specific characteristic that was generated, optionally in combination with one or more biometric features or authentication requirements.
Laser-based system and optical microphone having increased bandwidth. The system includes a laser microphone to transmit a laser beam towards a human speaker; to receive an optical feedback signal reflected back from the human speaker; and to perform self-mixing interferometry. An optical feedback signal bandwidth enhancer improves the bandwidth of the optical feedback signal, to improve the quality of remote speech detection that is based on the optical feedback signal. The bandwidth enhancement utilizes takes into account one or more of: the identity of the face-region hit by the laser beam; the skin color or shade; obstruction of the skin by hair or by accessories; ability to allocate increased processing resources for processing of the optical feedback signal; ability to modify modulation frequency of the optical feedback signal; Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) estimation; bandwidth estimation; acoustic-optical transmission channel estimation; or other suitable parameters.
A laser-based device or sensor includes: a first laser transmitter having a first self-mix carrier frequency; a second laser transmitter having a second, different, self-mix carrier frequency; a first monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the first laser transmitter, and to output a first electric signal; a second monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the second laser transmitter, and to output a second electric signal; an electric connection to connect together the first electric signal and the second electric signal, forming a combined electric signal; a single laser receiver to receive the combined electric signal and to generate from it a spectrum that corresponds to both (i) optical feedback of the first laser transmitter, and (ii) optical feedback of the second laser transmitter. Alternatively, a single monitor photodiode is used, receiving optical signals from multiple laser transmitters, and outputting a single electric signal to a single laser receiver.
A laser-based device or sensor includes: a first laser transmitter having a first self-mix carrier frequency; a second laser transmitter having a second, different, self-mix carrier frequency; a first monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the first laser transmitter, and to output a first electric signal; a second monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the second laser transmitter, and to output a second electric signal; an electric connection to connect together the first electric signal and the second electric signal, forming a combined electric signal; a single laser receiver to receive the combined electric signal and to generate from it a spectrum that corresponds to both (i) optical feedback of the first laser transmitter, and (ii) optical feedback of the second laser transmitter. Alternatively, a single monitor photodiode is used, receiving optical signals from multiple laser transmitters, and outputting a single electric signal to a single laser receiver.
A laser-based device or sensor includes: a first laser transmitter having a first self-mix carrier frequency; a second laser transmitter having a second, different, self-mix carrier frequency; a first monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the first laser transmitter, and to output a first electric signal; a second monitor photodiode to receive a first optical signal from the second laser transmitter, and to output a second electric signal; an electric connection to connect together the first electric signal and the second electric signal, forming a combined electric signal; a single laser receiver to receive the combined electric signal and to generate from it a spectrum that corresponds to both (i) optical feedback of the first laser transmitter, and (ii) optical feedback of the second laser transmitter. Alternatively, a single monitor photodiode is used, receiving optical signals from multiple laser transmitters, and outputting a single electric signal to a single laser receiver.
System, device, and method of sound isolation and signal enhancement. A hybrid device, or hybrid microphone, or a directional hybrid acoustic-and-optical microphone device, includes: a laser microphone to transmit a laser beam towards a sound-source, and to receive optical feedback reflected from a vibrating surface of the sound-source; an acoustic microphone to capture an acoustic signal which includes (i) sounds produced by the sound-source, and (ii) other concurrent sounds produced externally to the sound-source; a processing unit (a) to process the received optical feedback, and (b) to dynamically enhance the acoustic signal based on the received optical feedback. The processing unit includes or utilizes a digital filter constructor module to dynamically construct, based on the received optical feedback and based on the acoustic signals captured by the acoustic microphone, a digital filter to filter the other concurrent noises from the acoustic signal.
Laser-based device and optical microphone having increased bandwidth. The system includes a laser microphone to transmit a laser beam towards a human speaker; to receive an optical feedback signal reflected back from the human speaker; and to perform self-mixing interferometry. An optical feedback signal bandwidth enhancer improves the bandwidth of the optical feedback signal, to improve the quality of remote speech detection that is based on the optical feedback signal. The bandwidth enhancement utilizes takes into account one or more of: the identity of the face-region hit by the laser beam; the skin color or shade; obstruction of the skin by hair or by accessories; ability to allocate increased processing resources for processing of the optical feedback signal; ability to modify modulation frequency of the optical feedback signal; Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR) estimation; bandwidth estimation; acoustic-optical transmission channel estimation; or other suitable parameters.
Device, system, and method of source separation, Blind Source Separation (BSS), signal processing, enhancement of acoustic signals, and reduction of noise from acoustic signals. A first acoustic microphone captures a first acoustic signal at a first location. A second acoustic microphone captures a second acoustic signal at a second location. An optical microphone or laser microphone, that targets or aims towards the first location and not towards the second location, captures an optical feedback signal. One or more correlator units, and one or more de-correlator units, perform particular correlation operations and de-correlation operations, among the first acoustic signal, the second acoustic signal, and the optical feedback signal; and produce, separately, a cleaned or reduced-noise version of the first acoustic signal, as well as a cleaned or reduced-noise version of the second acoustic signal. Optionally, two or more optical microphones or laser microphones are used, to achieve further improved Blind Source Separation.
Lens, lens-holder, lens assembly, and packaging arrangement for a laser microphone or optical microphone. An optical lens is structured as a single, integrated, monolithic structure, having the optical lens therein, and having a top-region and a lower-region; and further having an external threading able to engage with internal threading of a lens-holder. Optionally, the entire monolithic structure of the lens-member, having the optical lens and its external threading, is formed of a single injection-molding plastic component. Optionally, expansion or shrinkage or curvature- modification of the optical lens, due to temperature modifications, causes the monolithic structure of the optical lens, and optionally also the lens-holder, to expand or shrink and to compensate for modification of focal length or other optical properties of the optical lens. Optionally, internal panels or surfaces of the monolithic structure of the optical lens, are conical or slanted inwardly.
Laser microphone, laser-based microphone, and optical microphone utilizing mirrors having different properties. A laser microphone includes at least two mirrors: a front-side mirror, and a rear-side mirror. The reflectivity of the front-side mirror, is different from the reflectivity of the rear-side mirror; thereby increasing the efficiency or the accuracy of self-mixing of signals in the laser microphone. Additionally or alternatively, the front-side mirror has a first number of Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR) layers; and the rear-side mirror has a second, different, number of DBR layers; thereby increasing the efficiency or the accuracy of self-mixing of signals in the laser microphone.
Devices, systems, and methods of enhanced automatic speech recognition. An acoustic microphone senses or captures acoustic signals that are uttered by a human speaker. An optical microphone or laser microphone transmits a laser beam aimed towards the face of the human speaker; receives a reflected optical feedback signal; and produces an optical self-mix signal by self-mixing interferometry. The self-mix signal is used by a training unit of a speech recognition processor. Optionally, the self-mix signal is used by an utterance recognition unit of the speech recognition processor. Optionally, the self-mix signal is utilized for enhancing the acoustic signals, or for constructing a digital filter that is applied to the acoustic signal; and the enhanced acoustic signal, or the filtered acoustic signal, is used by the training unit or by the a recognition unit of the speech recognition processor.
G10L 25/06 - Speech or voice analysis techniques not restricted to a single one of groups characterised by the type of extracted parameters the extracted parameters being correlation coefficients
G10L 25/27 - Speech or voice analysis techniques not restricted to a single one of groups characterised by the analysis technique
H04R 23/02 - Transducers using more than one principle simultaneously
A system includes a laser microphone or laser-based microphone or optical microphone. The laser microphone includes a laser transmitter to transmit an outgoing laser beam towards a face of a human speaker. The laser transmitter acts also as a self-mix interferometry unit that receives the optical feedback signal reflected from the face of the human speaker, and generates an optical self- mix signal by self-mixing interferometry of the laser power and the received optical feedback signal; and a speckles noise reducer to reduce speckles noise and to increase a bandwidth of the optical self-mix signal. The speckles noise reducer optionally includes a vibration unit or displacement unit, to cause vibrations or displacement of one or more mirrors or optics elements of the laser microphone, to thereby reduce speckles noise. The speckles noise reducer optionally includes a dynamic laser modulation modifier unit, to dynamically modify modulation properties of a laser modulator associated with the laser transmitter; optionally by modifying an operating temperature of the laser. Optionally, modifications are performed based on a timing scheme, or based on a pseudo-random scheme, or based on a calibration process that selects an advantageous modification scheme. Optionally, the system detects self-mix signal magnitude or bandwidth or quality, and activates the speckles noise reduction mechanism if the self-mix signal appears to be weak or low-quality.
Optical microphone, laser-based microphone, and laser microphone having reduced-noise components of low-noise components. A laser microphone comprises a laser-diode associated with a low-noise laser driver TX; and a photo-diode associated with a low-noise photo-diode receiver RX. The low-noise laser driver TX supplies a drive current which is a combination of a Direct Current component having a first bandwidth, and an attenuated version of an Alternating Current component having a second, different, bandwidth. Additionally or alternatively, the low- noise photo-diode receiver RX utilizes hardware-based demodulation of the analog signal, and operates to remove a Direct Current component of its output signal prior to digitization.
A system includes a laser microphone or laser-based microphone or optical microphone. The laser microphone includes a laser transmitter to transmit an outgoing laser beam towards a human speaker. The laser transmitter acts also as a self-mix interferometry unit that receives the optical feedback signal reflected from the human speaker, and generates an optical self-mix signal by self-mixing interferometry of the laser beam and the received optical feedback signal. Instead of utilizing a single laser beam, multiple laser beams are used, by operating an array of laser transmitters, or by utilizing a laser beam splitter or a crystal to split laser beams or to diffract or scatter laser beams. Optionally, one or more laser beams may temporally scan a target area.
System and method for producing enhanced speech data associated with at least one speaker. The process of producing the enhanced speech data comprises: receiving distant signal data from a distant acoustic sensor; receiving proximate signal data from a proximate acoustic sensor located closer to the speaker than the distant acoustic sensor; receiving optical data originating from an optical unit configured for optically detecting acoustic signals in an area of the speaker and outputting data associated with speech of the speaker; processing the distant and proximate signals data for producing a speech reference and a noise reference; operating an adaptive noise estimation module, which identifies stationary and/or transient noise signal components, using the noise reference; and operating a post filtering module, which uses the optical data, speech reference and identified noise signal components for creating an enhanced speech data.
System and method for operating electric devices based on voice commands, as well as electric devices that can be controlled via voice commands. An electric device comprises or is associated with an audio sensor to capture audio that contains speech; and a transmitter to transmit the captured audio to a remote server, together with a dictionary identifier that indicates to the remote server which particular dictionary or vocabulary-set to utilize for performing speech recognition on the recorded audio. The remote server performs speech recognition using the relevant dictionary table; and selects a command-code that is transmitted back to the electric device, to trigger an operational modification of the electric device.
G10L 21/00 - Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility
22.
System and method for operating devices using voice commands
System and method for operating electric devices based on voice commands, as well as electric devices that can be controlled via voice commands. An electric device comprises an audio sensor to capture audio that contains speech; and a transmitter to transmit the captured audio to a remote server, together with a dictionary identifier that indicates to the remote server which particular dictionary or vocabulary-set to utilize for performing speech recognition on the recorded audio. The remote server performs speech recognition using the relevant dictionary table; and selects a command-code that is transmitted back to the electric device, to trigger an operational modification of the electric device.
A system for detection of speech related acoustic signals by using laser based detection that includes a mask configured for being worn over a face part of a speaker covering the speaker's mouth, where the mask includes at least one reflective coating covering at least one area of the mask that reflects collimated electromagnetic signals; and a laser microphone configured for detecting vibrations of the reflective coating area for detection of acoustic signals associated with speech of the speaker by using collimated electromagnetic signals. The mask the reflective coating area thereof allow enhancing detection of vibrations resulting from speech carried out by the speaker wearing said mask.
Method and system for tracking fundamental frequencies of pseudo-periodic signals in the presence of noise that include receiving a time-frequency representation of signals measured in a predefined environment; estimating and tracking a fundamental frequency of a respective pseudo-periodic signal at each time frame of the time-frequency representation by tracking detections of harmonious frequencies in the time-frequency representation over time; and outputting each respective estimated fundamental frequency associated with the pseudo-periodic signal of each respective time frame.
G10L 21/00 - Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility
G10L 21/02 - Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation
G10L 15/28 - Constructional details of speech recognition systems
25.
METHOD AND SYSTEM FOR IDENTIFICATION OF SPEECH SEGMENTS
A system for distinguishing and identifying speech segments originating from speech of one or more relevant speakers in a predefined detection area. The system includes an optical system which outputs optical patterns, each representing audio signals as detected by the optical system in the area within a specific time frame; and a computer processor which receives each of the outputted optical patterns and analyses each respective optical pattern to provide information that enables identification of speech segments thereby, by identifying blank spaces in the optical pattern, which define beginning or ending of each respective speech segment.
An apparatus and a method that achieve physical separation of sound sources by pointing directly a beam of coherent electromagnetic waves (i.e. laser). Analyzing the physical properties of a beam reflected from the vibrations generating sound source enable the reconstruction of the sound signal generated by the sound source, eliminating the noise component added to the original sound signal. In addition, the use of multiple electromagnetic waves beams or a beam that rapidly skips from one sound source to another allows the physical separation of these sound sources. Aiming each beam to a different sound source ensures the independence of the sound signals sources and therefore provides full sources separation.
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