Recent Patents in Signal Processing (June 2012) - Array Signal Processing

For the June 2012 edition, we focus on recent patents in array signal processing. These are inventions primarily concerning the use of microphone arrays in video conferencing, beam-forming and echo cancellations, and there are few inventions on the use of radar imaging using sensor arrays.

US 8,189,808, "Signal processing system and method for calibrating channel signals supplied from an array of sensors having different operating characteristics", by A. Sugiyama, filed 19 October 2011, issued 29 May 2012, assigned to NEC Corporation (Tokyo, Japan).

US 8,189,807, "Satellite microphone array for video conferencing", by R. Cutler, filed 27 June 2008, issued 29 May 2012, assigned to Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA) .

US 8,187,192, "Method and apparatus for scan conversion and interpolation of ultrasonic linear array steering imaging", by B. Yao, Y. Jiang, Y. Huang and Q. Hu, filed 14 November 2008, issued 29 May 2012, assigned to Shenzhen Mindray Bio-Medical Electronics Co., Ltd. (Shenzhen, China).

US 8,184,819, "Microphone array signal enhancement", by H. Malvar, D. Florencio and B. Gillespie, filed 29 December 2005, issued 22 May 2012, assigned to Microsoft Corporation (Redmond, WA).

US 8,184,801, "Acoustic echo cancellation for time-varying microphone array beamsteering systems", by M. Hamalainen, filed 28 June 2007, issued 22 May 2012, assigned to Nokia Corporation (Espoo, Finland).

US 8,170,223, "Constant-beamwidth loudspeaker array", by D. Keele Jr., filed 4 January 2010, issued 1 May 2012, assigned to Harman International Industries, Incorporated (Northridge, CA).

US 8,160,270, "Method and apparatus for acquiring multi-channel sound by using microphone array", by K.-c. Oh, J.-h. Jeong, K.-h. Kyu and S.-y. Jeong, filed 13 March 2008, issued 17 April 2012, assigned to Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Suwon-Si, Korea) .

US 8,144,049, "Radar with non-uniformly spaced antenna array", by A. Mizutani and K. Suzuki, filed 27 July 2009, issued 27 March 2012, assigned to Denso Corporation (Kariya, Aichi-Pref, Japan).

US 8,134,510, "Coherent near-field array", by D. Crouch and M. Schweiger, filed 9 August 2006, issued 13 March 2012, assigned to Raytheon Company (Waltham, MA).

US 8,130,294, "Imaging array with non-linear light response", by B. Fowler and X. Liu, filed 8 December 2008, issued 6 March 2012, assigned to BAE Systems Imaging Solutions, Inc. (Milpitas, CA).

If you have an interesting patent to share when we next feature patents on array signal processing, or if you are especially interested in a signal processing research field that you would want to be highlighted in this section, please send email to Shantanu Rane (rane AT merl DOT com).