Side: OMADA-Optimal Microphone Array Directivity Algorithm (Annen støtte - FORNY) Søknadsnummer: ES Prosjektnummer: -1 Søker Prosjektansvarlig

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OMADA-Optimal Microphone Array Directivity Algorithm (Annen støtte - FORNY) Søknadsnummer: ES459515 Prosjektnummer: -1

Side: 1

Søker

Prosjektansvarlig

Institusjon / bedrift NTNU Technology Transfer AS Fakultet Institutt Avdeling Adresse Klæbuveien 153 Postnummer 7491 Poststed Trondheim Land NORWAY

E-post til postmottak [email protected] Internettadresse http://www.tto.ntnu.no Organisasjonsnummer 986251782 Revideres av Andre eAdministrasjon

Administrativt ansvarlig

Fornavn Karl Etternavn Klingsheim

Stilling/tittel Managing Director

Telefon 90051111 E-post [email protected] Bekreftelse ✔ Søknaden er godkjent av prosjektansvarlig

Prosjektleder

Fornavn Martin

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Etternavn Stok

Institusjon / bedrift NTNU Technology Transfer AS Fakultet Institutt Avdeling Adresse Klæbuveien 153 Postnummer 7491 Poststed Trondheim Land Norway

Stilling/tittel Project Manager

Akademisk grad MSc

Ønsket målform Bokmål

Telefon 48180185

E-post [email protected]

Prosjektinformasjon

Prosjekttittel

Prosjekttittel OMADA-Optimal Microphone Array Directivity Algorithm

Prosjektets hovedmål og delmål

Verify feasibility and quality of OMADA implemented in an array of industrial standard omni-directional microphones

Subgoals:

- verify that the implementation is able to deliver a Directivity Index (DI) as well as

- balance between DI and White Noise Gain as anticipated Activities:

-meetings with industrial partners in order to define a set of technological and economical constraints

-design specifications for one application scenario based on

business/industrial need, within the boundaries of the previous defined set of constraints. Including type and amount of microphones, type of array, microphone amplifier and of ADC

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-testing and reporting with focus on: Directivity Index (DI), White Noise Gain (WNG) and perceived quality of sound

-commercial validation: interpretation of the results of the verification project by the industrial partners and other potential customers of OMADA

-obtain strong IPR protection

Prosjektsammendrag

Application for 1.980.000 NOK funding to verify the feasibility and quality of OMADA implemented in an array of standard omni-directional microphones. Through better audio-/videoconference and telepresence equipment

OMADA contributes to reducing carbon footprint, travelling time and cost for end-users. The novel signal processing algorithm enables increased quality of sound for microphone arrays combined with low computational costs. OMADA enables higher quality microphone arrays for lower cost.

The verification of the feasibility and quality of implementing OMADA in an array of standard omni-directional microphones is of critical importance for further commercialization efforts.

The goals with the verification project are:

- verify feasibility of implementing OMADA in an array of industrial standard omni-directional microphones and

- verify that the implementation is able to deliver a Directivity Index as well as - balance between DI and White Noise Gain as anticipated

Given a positive outcome, OMADA will offer the following technological benefits:

- Lower manufacturing costs because of higher computational efficiency and - Better user experience

The biggest challenges in this project are:

-defining a set of technological and economical constraints that meet the different constraining regimes at our industrial partners

-design specifications for one application scenario based on

business/industrial need, within the boundaries of the previous defined set of constraints. Including type and amount of microphones, type of array, microphone amplifier and of ADC

-implement OMADA in an array of standard omni-directional microphones OMADA has potential for audio conference phones, videoconference systems, telepresence solutions, recording equipment for broadcasting and film, room acoustics and soundfield analysis.

In this verification project however we will primarily focus on audio and videoconferencing and telepresence as entry markets

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Plassering i Forskningsrådet - tilleggsinformasjon fra søker

Program / aktivitet FORNY

Søknadstype Annen støtte

Delprogram/tema

Andre relevante programmer/

aktiviteter/prosjekter Quality of Experience in Virtual Collaboration, NFR prosjekt 183186 Disiplin(er)/fagfelt Teknologi/Informasjons kommunikasj.tekn.

Prosjektnr. v/ tilleggssøknad Er relatert(e) søknad(er) sendt Forskningsrådet og/eller annen offentlig finansieringsordning

Nei

Hvis ja, gi nærmere opplysninger

Framdriftsplan

Prosjektperiode

Fra dato (ååååmmdd) 20100701

Til dato (ååååmmdd) 20111231

Hovedaktiviteter og milepæler i prosjektperioden (år og kvartal)

Milepæler fordelt over prosjektperioden Fra Til

Identify & choose scenarios/application 2010 3 2010 4

Design specifications 2010 4 2010 4

Implementation 2010 4 2011 2

Testing and reporting 2011 1 2011 2

Commercial validation 2011 3 2011 4

IPR management 2010 3 2011 4

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Formidlingsplan

Dissemination through of the results of this verification project will be done through:

1. COMMERCIALIZATION

In case of positive verification the strategy is to license OMADA to equipmentmanufacturers within the entry markets for audio conference phones, videoconference systems and telepresence solutions.

2. PATENTING

NTNU Technology Transfer AS will monitor all ongoing research projects to identify and protect new, patentable ideas that may further strengthen the core technology.

3. PUBLICATION

The scientific team has the intention to write several papers about the findings of this verification project.

Budsjett

Kostnadsplan (i 1000 kr)

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Sum Personal- og indirekte kostnader 300 530 830 Innkjøp av FoU-tjenester 450 450 Utstyr 0 Andre driftskostnader 40 660 700 Totalsum 340 1640 Spesifikasjonsfelt

Kostnadssted (i 1000 kr)

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Sum Næringsliv 180 770 950

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Side: 6 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Sum Instituttsektor 450 450 UoH-sektor 160 420 580 Andre sektorer 0 Utlandet 0 Totalsum 340 1640

Finansieringsplan (i 1000 kr)

2010 2011 2012 2013 2014 2015 2016 2017 Sum Egne midler 68 328 396 Internasjonale midler 0

Andre offentlige midler 0 0 0

Andre private midler 0

Søkes Norges forskningsråd 272 1312 1584

Totalsum 340 1640

Spesifikasjonsfelt

NTNU will contribute with funding for use of infrastructure and equipment. NTNU Technology Transfer AS will also contribute with project management, IPR management and project assistance during the entire project.

Stipend

Type stipend Doktorgradsstipend

Fra dato (ååååmmdd) Til dato (ååååmmdd)

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Samarbeidspartnere som skal delta i prosjektet med faglige og/eller

økonomiske ressurser

1

Institusjon/ bedrift NTNU Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Avdeling/ seksjon

Adresse O.S. Bragstads plass 2B

Postnummer 7491

Poststed Trondheim

Land Norway

Organisasjonsnummer 974767880

Kontaktperson U. Peter Svensson

Kontaktperson telefon 73 59 05 46

Kontaktperson e-post [email protected]

Partners rolle Utførende

2

Institusjon/ bedrift SINTEF IKT

Avdeling/ seksjon Akustikk

Adresse S. P. Andersens veg 15 B, Trondheim

Postnummer 7491

Poststed Trondheim

Land Norway

Organisasjonsnummer 948 007 029

Kontaktperson Odd K Østern Pettersen

Kontaktperson telefon 73592637

Kontaktperson e-post [email protected]

Partners rolle Utførende

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Prosjektbeskrivelse

Filnavn FORNY Verification application - OMADA.pdf Referanse ES459515_001_1_Prosjektbeskrivelse_20100421

Annet

Filnavn CURRICULUM VITAE OF PROJECT MEMBERS.pdf Referanse ES459515_010_4_Annet_20100420

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NTNU Technology Transfer AS – 3D beamforming framework Application for verification project from the FORNY programme

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Application for proof of concept funding from the FORNY programme

OMADA – Optimal Microphone Array Directivity Algorithm

3D beamforming for microphone arrays through integration of all signal processing functions into one optimization framework

Summary

Description of business concept (maximum 250 words)

Application for 1.980.000 NOK funding to verify the feasibility and quality of OMADA implemented in an array of standard omni-directional microphones. OMADA enables higher sound quality for lower cost.

The market for audio/videoconferencing and telepresence is increasing, driven by the need for cutting travelling time, costs and carbon footprint. Frost & Sullivan expects this global market to reach $4.7 billion by 2014i.

Voice communication is still the dominating application. Microphone arrays using beamforming enable high voice quality, but still major disadvantages exist:

• High costs

Current microphone arrays are not computationally efficient in implementation and steering of beamforming and offer only little flexiblity in performance tuning, meaning high costs

• Varying quality of sound

To cope with the above mentioned, only predefined beamforming patterns are currently used. Since different users, in changing situations and room environments have varying requirements the soundquality is not stable and perceived as low.

OMADA is a 3D beamforming optimization framework for microphone arrays integrating all signal processing functions. Previous solutions are based on computationally intensive transforms from the time domain into the frequency domain, optimization and then transforms again back to the time domain. OMADA solves all optimization in the time domain only, leading to an increase of computational efficiency, independent of frequency.

The advantages of OMADA:

• Lower manufacturing costs because of higher computational efficiency and

• Better user experience

Our commercialization project aims at licensing OMADA to equipmentmanufacturers within the entry markets for audio conference phones, videoconference systems and telepresence solutions.

Anticipated results and objective for the proof of concept project (maximum 250 words) The background for OMADA is the aim to:

• significantly improve the processing power and memory requirements of microphone arrays and

• increase the flexibility in performance tuning

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In this verification project we verify the feasibility and quality of OMADA by measuring:

1. how high Directivity Index (DI) we achieve, and

2. if we achieve balance between DI and White Noise Gain (WNG)

OMADA has already been implemented in an Eigenmike, a unique microphone using 32 microphone elements, resulting in a maximum directivity index (DI) of 13.98 dB (for comparison: ideal cardioid microphones have a DI of 4.8 dB, but in practice often below 4.5 dB). Being both proprietary and very expensive, the Eigenmike is little suited for use in mass-produced audio- and

videoconferencing and telepresence solutions.

Moderately successful when:

• …documenting similar or improved processing power and memory

requirements of the microphone array, compared to the

Eigenmike-implementation of OMADA

• …documenting similar or improved DI

• …achieving expected balance between DI and WNG

• …documenting similar or improved sound quality, measured through useability tests

• …integrating one industrial partners in our project

Highly successful when we in addition:

• …document similar or improved processing power and memory requirements, improved DI, balans between DI and WNG as well as improved sound qualilty

• …have at least one industrial partners invest in the implementation of OMADA in their own products, based on a patent license agreement.

Time frame for commercialisation project

The verificationproject will run from 1st of July 2010 until the 31st of December 2011.

• The time expected until external stakeholders are integrated into the project ensuring further financing is approximately 18 months from project start. The goal of the commercialization project is to have exclusive or non-exclusive patent license agreement with several commercial partners in different fields of us

• The time to market for OMADA is estimated to be at least 36 months

Part 1. Business and technological concepts

1.1 Describe the need or problem the commercialisation project will address.

In modern audio and video conferencing as well as telepresence, voice communication is still the dominating application. However, acoustic echo, interferences, and reverberation in a room always lead to impaired voice quality and low user experience. This is also expressed by analyst firm Frost & Sullivan:

Projectgoal: verify the feasibility and quality of OMADA implemented in an array of industrial standard omni-directional microphones.

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In order to ameliorate sound quality beamforming, that is signal post-processing, is required. Beamforming allows great improvements of sound quality by increasing the directivity and noise reduction properties of a microphone array. In audio conferencing, video conferencing and

telepresence applications, microphone array beamformers are now commonly used to performe these functions and obtain better quality of sound.

However, current microphone arrays still have some major disadvantages:

• High costs

Current microphone arrays are not computationally efficient in implementation and steering of beamforming and offer only little flexiblity in performance tuning, meaning high costs

• Varying quality of sound

To cope with the above mentioned problem, only predefined beamforming patterns are currently used. Since different users, changing situations and room environments have varying requirements the quality of sound is not stable meaning low quality of sound. Improved quality of sound would increase the adoption and sales of video and audiconference-equipment.

The need for more intelligent microphone arrays is also known from the fields of recording equipment for broadcasting and film, room acoustics and soundfield analysis.

1.2 Describe the technological basis and scientific methodology underlying the project. OMADA is based on the

spherical harmonics domain array pattern synthesis approach. OMADA unifies the automatic multiple-null steering, side lobe control, main lobe protection, and

robustness control into one convex optimization framework. The spherical harmonics domain array processing problems are expressed in matrix formulations. The optimum array weights

are designed by minimizing beamformer output power while maintaining the distortionless response in the main lobe direction and guaranteeing the side lobes to be below given threshold values. White noise gain constraint is also employed to

improve the robustness of the beamformer. Convex optimization formulation for our beamformer is derived, and implemented by second order cone programming (SOCP) method.

OMADA enables the beamformer to

adaptively optimize the array beampattern in real time even with the application of multiple constraints. Processing can be done in the

time domain, which is particularly advantageous because there is no need to perform a

computationally intensive Fourier transform into the frequency domain before optimization and a “Videoconferencing is held back by sound quality.”

Dominic Dodd, senior industry analyst and program manager for conferencing and collaboration in Europe at Frost & Sullivan1

Best Paper Award at the 2009 IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and

Acoustics (WASPAA)

The paper describing the foundations of OMADA was selected as the best paper at the biennial IEEE

WASPAA conference 18-21 October 2009.. There were 181 paper submissions, 89 of which were selected for the conference after a peer-review process.

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similar transform back to the time domain after optimization. OMADA also provides only a single optimization problem to solve for all the FIR filter tap weights, leading to an increase of

computational efficiency.

OMADA has been implemented in a highly advanced spherical microphone array from MH Acoustics called “Eigenmike”. Design examples and simulation results demonstrate the satisfactory

performance. Early testresults of this implementation of the framework in have been analyzed and documented through several scientific publications (see also factbox).

1.3 Describe the expected result of the commercialisation project (a product, process or service)

Given a positive result of this verification project, OMADA enables the introduction of

computationally effectiv optimal 3D beamforming in circular and spherical microphone arrays, indepent of acoustic echo, interferences, reverberation or any other noise.

In business terms this means OMADA both cheaper and better microphone arrays. This again can lead to increased sales of videoconferencing systems, which again enables less travel cost, less travel time and a reduced carbon footprint.

1.4 Describe in brief how this project is embedded in the strategies of the research institution(s).

OMADA has been developed at NTNU Department of Electronics and Telecommunications, by combining the unique competence of mathematics, electronics and acoustics of Professor Peter Svensson, PostDoc Shefeng Yan and PhD Haohai Sun. The work was performed in the research project with Sintef, Tandberg and StatoilHydro (NFR project 183186), which will run until March 2011.

In addition to the QUEVIRCO project, NTNU is intensively cooperating with SINTEF in the Acoustic Research Center, a Gemini center jointly established by NTNU and Sintef. This center is the arena for further research and development cooperation. Opportunities for further research building upon basis of OMADA are currently investigated together with Sintef.

Part 2. Commercial potential

2.1 Description of the customer/end-user/buyer

OMADA has potential for recording equipment for audio conference phones, videoconference

systems, telepresence solutions, broadcasting and film, room acoustics and soundfield analysis. In this verification project however we will primarily focus on audio and videoconferencing and telepresence as entry markets (see also 2.6).

Customer

Whether it is a customer in videoconferencing, audio conferencing or telepresence, OMADA can provide cheaper and better microphone arrays. Beamforming technology is perhaps not the largest cost driver in manufacturing, but it is definitely crucial for obtaining high sound quality. The main value of OMADA is therefore in the increase of sound quality, at same cost. Since soundquality gives

competitive advantage, the willingness to pay for OMADA is considered relatively high. Examples of potential OMADA-customers are Tandberg (recently acquired by Cisco), Polycom, Logitech (previous LifeSize) and ClearOne. Also smaller Norwegian companies as for example Squarehead Technology, Pixavi and Videoworks are considered as potential customers for OMADA. Other potential customers, serving other markets, are companies within for example room acoustics and soundfield analysis as Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S, Norsonic AS and Head Acoustics GmbH. Also Eigenmike-manufacturer MH Acoustics is a potential partner customer.

End-user

Typical potential end-users of OMADA are customers purchasing solutions within audio- and videoconferencing and/or telepresence to replace face-to-face meetings. Travelling costs and time are saved, jetlags avoided and carbon footprint reduced. These companies purchase these solutions both for communicating internally within the organization and externally with clients, partners and

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suppliers. Recently also Eyjafjallajökull makes a good argument for video conferencing products. This is also expressed by Ciscoii: “the videoconferencing industry is getting a boost in demand from the disruption to business travel across Europe caused by a volcano in Iceland.”

The advantages of audio/videoconferencing and telepresence Saving costsiii:

• Hewlett Packard cut travel expenses by 30% from 2007 to 2008

• Cisco trimmed its travel budget from $740 million to $240 million

Reducing carbon footprintiv

• Nortel's calculations show that Deloitte – with annual travel costs of US$23 million - can reduce its carbon footprint by 4,200 tons (in addition to recovering 385,000 hours of lost productivity, and save US$7 million)

• British Telecom has reduced its carbon footprint by 97,000 tons of CO2 per year (15 percent of its CO2 use)

2.2 Description of the market

Our commercialization strategy targets the following three entry markets:

1. Video conferencing - $3.1 billion by 2010v

Market analyst Wainhouse Research has monitored videoconferencing equipment the last 10 years, showing an increasing growth rate. The value of

videoconferencing is being received by more customers while the of telepresence is helping to solidify average selling prices.

In 2005 video conferencing was worth about $1.15 billion globally, according to Frost & Sullivan. Now the market is expected to reach $3.1 billion by 2010.

2. Telepresence - $2.7 Billion by 2015vi

Despite tough economic environment, the market for telepresence hardware, software and services is growing. Manufacturers such as Polycom, Tandberg and Life Size routinely selling tens of thousands of units a year worldwide. The sales of telepresence hardware, software and services grew to $567 million in 2009, according to ABI Research.The sales is projected to reach $2.7 Billion by 2015.

3. Audio conferencing - $182.8 million in 2005vii

In 2004, the worldwide audio conferencing bridge systems market attained revenues of $174.1 million. Revenues in 2005 reached $182.8 million, a 5.0 percent growth over 2004.

2.3 Description of the competitive situation in relation to current approaches

Current 3D beamforming technology within array microphones is based on sequental execution of the relevant signal processing functions. With these functions being interdependent, it is with this

approach not possible to optimize the beamforming with respect to one of the parameters. One known technology is the LifeSize Phone™ by LifeSize (recently acquired by Logitech). The Directivity Index (DI) of the LifeSize Phone is claimed to be higher than 4 dBviii. This is however not near the 13.98 dB as we have reported with OMADA.

Other known products are the AudioScope Video Conference and Zoom Audioix by Squarehead Technology and Polycoms HDX Ceiling Microphone Arrayx. Neither these products have advanced enough algorithms to provide a stable quality of sound over a large range of frequencies. To our knowledge there is no technology (in the process of becoming) available offering high and stable quality of sound, independent of frequency.

The advantages of OMADA over current solutions are:

• computationally efficient in implementation and steering,

• freely and correctly tuning and controlling of the beamformer performance through the inclusion of all kinds of beamforming objectives and robustness into one optimization framework

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We are in dialogue with several potential strategic partners that have shown interest in OMADA, both Norwegian and abroad. They operate in the following relevant business areas: audio conference phones, videoconference systems, telepresence solutions, recording equipment for broadcasting and film, room acoustics and soundfield analysis.

The NTNU acoustics research group in general and professor Svensson in particular have previously cooperated with many of these companies.

In addition to the above mentioned contacts the NTNU research group has intensive cooperation with the acoustics department at Sintef, both through the jointly established Gemini center and through several research projects. With its wide industrial network and understanding of the business as well as technological competence, our cooperation with Sintef can possibly be of critical importance for the verification project.

Finally, PhD Haohai Sun has valuable industrial experience and market knowledge. As a senior DSP/CAE engineer Sun has gained experience with algorithm implementation and optimization and Low power Assembly programming on DSP/VLSI/MCU.

2.5 Industrial and regulatory issues

The audio/video conferencing and telepresence industry are characterized by several key features relevant to our verification and commercialization project. As to our knowledge no regulatory issues or formal approval procedures creating barriers for the commercialization project exist.

The business does however have some other features that have to be taken into account:

1. Cost is key

Meeting demanding cost requirements from industry is essential for industrial adoption of OMADA. The Eigenmike-implementation is not suited for high volume due to the high price of the Eigenmike. This project verifies the feasibility and quality of OMADA on a standardised and more costeffective platform, based on an array of standard omnidirectional microphones

2. IP ownership: ownership preferred

The electronics industry in general and the audio and video communication industry in particular are known for priorietary solutions in a stringent IPR strategy. Crosslicensing is important, but owning IPR is preferred. To illustrate this: Polycom, Tandberg and LifeSize have got assigned respetively 341, 199 and 39 patents!

The role of IPR ownership has already been discussed with Tandberg as a part of the QUEVIRCO research project, resulting in Tandberg acknowledgment of the value of a university owning IPR – instead of industry – and accepting NTNU TTO owning the IPR

Further a few issued have been defined that might improve sales of videoconferencing equipment:

1. currently boardmeetings are not allowed to be held on videoconference. Several political parties and organisation however advocate for holding boardmeeting using videoconference and telepresence solutions, e.g. NHO and Høyre in Norwayxi.

2. also several governmental and public initiatives have started to increase the use of

videoconferencing and telepresence solutions to reduce carbon footprint, e.g. Fornyings – og administrasjonsdepartementetxii and Bellonaxiii in Norway.

2.6 Describe the commercialisation process for the product, process or service in broad terms.

Earlier in this commercialization project we have had meetings with a number of companies covering all relevant market areas (fields of use). These companies have confirmed the need for new signal processing algorithms , the uniqueness of OMADA as well as the need for verification (see also letter of recommendation by Tandberg at the end of this application)..

The commercializationstrategy has the following background:

The commercialization strategy is to license OMADA to several players within the different fields of use through both exclusive and non-exclusive patent license agreements.

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1. Market potential

The markets for videoconferencing and telepresence are clearly the markets with the highest willingness to pay, both at customer and end-user level as well as R&D spending. This is also illustrated by Cisco’s $3.4 billion deal for telepresence competitor Tandberg (march 2010) and Logitech acquiring LifeSize Communications for $405 million in cash (december 2009).

2. Relations

our project team has strong relations with several companies in these markets (e.g. Tandberg), and have established contact with others in the same business (e.g. Squarehead Technology).Although we have been in contact with the majority of potential licensees, also companies we have not been in contact with are on our short list:

Audio-/videoconferencing and telepresence: Tandberg, Squarehead Technology, Polycom, LifeSize, ClearOne, Videoworks (Norwegian startup), Pixavi (nichemarket for rugged wireless video communication).

Room acoustics and soundfield analysis: Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration

Measurement A/S, NorSonic AS, Head Acoustics GmbH, MH Acoustics

Part 3. Intellectual property rights

NTNU Technology Transfer AS has a patent application on OMADA with priority from 09.04.2009. Earlier a thorough freedom to operate analysis has been conducted, and there is no reason to believe that any critical part of OMADA infringes valid patents. Also, we received a positive Search Report issued by the UK IPO.

The IP that will exist at the end of the verification project is the sole property of NTNU Technology Transfer AS. The IPR from the project will belong to NTNU Technology Transfer AS and together with know-how and experience developed through working with the industry and the patent

application this gives a strong IPR base in the project. NTNU Technology Transfer AS has a signed inventor agreement with the inventors U. Peter Svensson, Haohai Sun and Shefeng Yan and will make the intellectual property available to industrial partners based on ordinary commercial terms through separate development and licensing agreements.

NTNU Technology Transfer AS will monitor all ongoing research projects to identify and protect new, patentable ideas that may further strengthen the core technology of OMADA.

Part 4. Competence

Project team - CVs of the project members are attached to the application.

Name Place of employ Role in the project % of position

allocated to project

Professor Peter Svensson

NTNU, Dep. of Electronics and Telecommunications

Inventor and Scientific Project Manager

10-20% (up to 60% in periods)

PhD Haohai Sun NTNU, Dep. of Electronics and Telecommunications

Inventor, Researcher 10-20% (up to 60% in periods)

Martin Stok NTNU Technology Transfer AS

Project manager for technology transfer project

10-20% Hans-Christian

Blom

NTNU Technology Transfer AS

IPR manager 5%

Partners and sub-contractors Company/institution

(other than own TTO or research institution(s) where idea originated) Role in the project Contributing funding to project (yes/no) Will receive remuneration for activities over project budget (yes/no) Comments

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SINTEF, acoustics department

R&D, business consultancy

No Yes SINTEF’s contribution will be in phase 3 and 4, based on contract research as well as phase 1 and 2 Tandberg, possibly -also others Premise supplier, potential customer Possibly, depends on Cisco

No Tandberg/other industrial partners give direction to the project in phase 1 and 2, and are in focus in phase 5

Part 5. Activity plan, milestones plan, budget and funding sources

5.1 Activity plan

2010 2011

# Task

Q3 Q4 Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 1 Identify & choose scenarios/application X X

2 Design specifications X

3 Implementation X X X

4 Testing and reporting X X

5 Commercial validation X X

7 IPR management X X X X X X

Project management is an integral part of the project. 5.2 Milestones plan

A. Milestones connected to proof of technological concept Milestone 1A Agree with industrial partner(s)

on scenario/application

Planned completion date: 01.11.2010 Potential customers of OMADA can have different strategies on technological and economical constraints, e.g. Design for Cost or Design for Manufacturability. OMADA offers flexibility when it comes to manufacturing cost and quality level. In order to increase chances for commercialization, different constraining regimes are investigated in cooperation with industrial partners. Ultimately a set of technological and economical constraints for the implementation of OMADA is to be agreed upon.

Activities: meetings with several industrial partners followed by a workshop

Milestone 2A Final specification design Planned completion date: 01.01.2011 Within the boundaries of the constraints, now the specification for one design (for one application scenario) is to be decided: type and amount of microphones, type of array, type of microphone amplifier, type of ADC and other technical specifications based on business/industrial need.

Activities: meetings with industry, specification design, electronic design

Milestone 3A Technology implemented in array of omnidirectional microphones

Planned completion date: 01.05.2011

Based on the specifications from the previous phase now OMADA is to be implemented.

Activities:purchase of microphones, microphone amplifie, ADC and mechanical structures, mechanical and electronic engineering

Milestone 4A Final testreport Planned completion date: 01.07.2011 Testing of the implementation and benchmarking to the Eigenmike-implementation. Focus on:

Directivity Index (DI), White Noise Gain (WNG) and perceived quality of sound

Activities: technical testing for DI, WNG, useability tests

B. Milestones connected to commercial aspects (partner search, in-licensing, intellectual property protection, etc.)

Milestone 1B Projectresults validated Planned completion date: 31.12.2011 Commercial validation: interpretation of the results of the verification project by the industrial partners and other potential customers of OMADA.

Activities: follow up of industrial partners involved in the project and others, possibly through a workshop, initiate development and patent licensing agreements

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IPR protection

Activities:execute IPR strategy, prepare and file patent application for national phase

5.3 Risk

The result of this verificationproject is fully compatible with current technology status and business standards due to the involvement of industrial partners and use of standard available components. Manufacturability of OMADA is therefore not a large risk factor.

If it proves to be difficult to implement OMADA with the expected balance between high directivity index and high white noise gain, the value proposition of OMADA might not be as good as expected. The main risk factors are found in:

• not being able to demonstrate a sufficiently high directivity index, or the expected balance between a moderate directivity index and white noise gain

• not being able to meet the constraints as agreed upon with the industrial partners, as described under milestone 1A (but nevertheless demonstrate a sufficient directivity index)

Commercially there is the risk of commercial partners not willing to adopt (license) OMADA and invest time and resources in OMADA. Our project deals with this risk by involving industrial partners early on in the project and work towards a result based on standard available technology. The goal is that the results can be interpreted by and have value for industrial companies outside this project. 5.4 Budget

Milestone/

Cost category 1A 2A 3A 4A 1B 2B … TOTAL Comments

Payroll+social security costs,

own personnel 150000 150000 240000 140000 110000 40000 830000 TTO, NTNU Procurement of R&D services 200000 250000 450000 SINTEF R&D services Costs/procureme nt IPR services 400000 400000 Patentauthorities (national phase) Procurement of other services Equipment 0 Other operating expenses 20000 20000 200000 20000 20000 20000 300000 travel/meetingcost, materialpurchase TOTAL 170000 170000 640000 410000 130000 460000 0 1980000 5.5 Funding sources

Has the research project received funding from

Which programmes/schemes

and years (from-to) Comments

- Research Council programmes other than the FORNY programme?

2007 - 2011, NRC #183186 (type: KMB, 80% funding)

Quality of Experience in Virtual Collaboration

- international sources? No

- any other sources? Yes, KMB projectfinancing by Tandberg (10%), StatoilHydro (10%)

Previously FORNY application? No

References i http://next-generation-communications.tmcnet.com/topics/nextgen-voice/articles/81941-telepresence-sales-hit-27b-2015.htm ii http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63I4ZC20100419 iii http://singularityhub.com/2009/10/02/business-travel-declines-with-telepresence-conference-calls/ iv http://www2.nortel.com/go/news_detail.jsp?cat_id=-8055&oid=100243171 v http://www.clmaascpconference.org/video-conference-market-size/ vi http://www.abiresearch.com/press/1636-Telepresence+at+an+Inflection+Point%3B+Sales+Projected+to+Reach+%242.7+Billion+by+2015

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10 vii http://www.frosttest.com/uat/servlet/report-toc.pag?bdata=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvc3R0ZXN0LmNvbS9zcmNoL2NhdGFsb2ctc2VhcmNoLmRvP3BhZ2U9MTEyN yZwYWdlU2l6ZT04QH5AU2VhcmNoIFJlc3VsdHNAfkAxMjcxODQyNzY2MzU4&ctxixpLabel=FcmCtx2&repid=F609-01-00-00-00&ctxixpLink=FcmCtx1 viii http://www.lifesize.com/~/media/Media_Kit/Product_Datasheets/Phone/datasheet_phone.ashx ix http://squarehead.no/SpecificationBroad.html x http://www.polycom.com/global/documents/support/sales_marketing/products/video/hdx_ceiling_microphone_array.pdf xi http://www.tu.no/it/article197990.ece xii http://www.regjeringen.no/nb/dep/fad/pressesenter/pressemeldinger/2009/smart-bruk-av-ikt-kan-redusere-klimagass.html?id=574920 xiii http://101-solutions.org/

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CURRICULUM VITAE OF HAOHAI SUN

Personal Data

Given Name: Haohai Family Name: Sun

Education: B. Eng., M. Eng., and now the PhD candidate in NTNU Membership: IEEE Member

Contact: [email protected], [email protected] Work Experience:

• 02/2010~08/2010 Visiting Scientist, Chair of Multimedia Communications and Signal Processing, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Germany

R&D on microphone array based 3D adaptive beamforming and 3D acoustic source localization algorithms, and hardware systems.

• 04/2008~present PhD Candidate and Research Fellow, NTNU, Norway

Research and develop the advanced audio communication technologies for the next generation of video conferencing system. Research fields include: array signal processing, 3D beamforming, 3D source localization, room acoustics, and algorithm implementation.

• 05/2005~03/2008 Senior DSP/CAE Engineer, Fortemedia Inc., Cupertino, CA, U.S.A.

• Microphone array based voice signal processing algorithm Design (beamforming, acoustic echo cancellation, noise suppression, dynamic range control, etc.), algorithm implementation and optimization, Low power Assembly programming on DSP/VLSI/MCU

• Corporate application engineering for small array microphone based voice processor, on-site DSP performance optimization, acoustic design, and hardware system prototyping.

• Provide technical consulting to European customer (TomTom, Nokia, Motorola IS, and Sony-Ericsson, etc.).

Education:

• 04/2008~04/2011 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, PhD of Engineering Dr.–Ing. In Info. & Comm. Technology

• 09/2002~02/2005 PLA University of Science & Technology, China, Master of Engineering M. E. in Comm. & Info. System

• 09/1997~06/2001 PLA University of Science and Technology, China, Bachelor of Engineering B. E. in Comm. & Info. System, with one year of internship in Jinan telecommunication station Selection of Awards and Honors:

• Grant for Personal Overseas Researchers in NRC VERDIKT Project (100,000 NOK), Norway, 2010

• Best Paper Award at the IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA), New Paltz, New York, U.S.A., 2009

• IET Ambassador Prize for Outstanding Researcher, NTNU, Norway, 2009

• Innovation Award for PhD Candidates (15, 000 NOK), Norwegian Research Council and FORNY program, Norway, 2009

• Corporate Award for Excellence Performance in the Training of Advanced Voice Processing Algorithm, DSP Software Development and Voice Processor Application Engineering, Fortemedia Inc., Cupertino, CA, U.S.A., 2006

• Excellent Master Student Award in 2005, and Excellent Bachelor Student Award in 2001 Professional Activities:

• Membership: Member of the IEEE

• Reviewer for: IEEE Transactions on Audio, Speech and Language Processing

• Reviewer for: 2010 European Signal Processing Conference (EUSIPCO) Selected conferences

1. Haohai Sun, Shefeng Yan, and U. Peter Svensson, "Optimal spherical array model beamformer in the presence of array errors," Joint 159th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America (ASA) and NOISE-CON 2010, Baltimore, MD, U.S.A., Apr. 2010. (Invited paper)

2. Haohai Sun, Shefeng Yan, and U. Peter Svensson, "Space domain optimal beamforming for spherical microphone arrays," in Proc. 2010 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 117-120, Dallas, TX, U.S.A., Mar. 2010. (Acceptance rate 48.8%)

3. Haohai Sun, Shefeng Yan, and U. Peter Svensson, "Robust spherical microphone array beamforming with multi-beam-multi-null steering, and sidelobe control," in Proc. 2009 IEEE Workshop on

Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics (WASPAA), 113-116, New Paltz, NY, U.S.A., Oct. 2009. (Best Paper Award, top 1 out of 89 accepted papers, acceptance rate 49.2%)

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CV

U. Peter Svensson

1

CV - Ulf Peter Svensson

E

DUCATION

M.Sc. 1987 Eng. Phys., Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg, Sweden.

Ph.D. 1994, Dept. of Applied Acoustics, Chalmers University of Technology, Gothenburg,

Sweden. Thesis: "On reverberation enhancement in auditoria".

W

ORK EXPERIENCE

1999- Professor in electroacoustics, Dept. of telecommunications, NTNU, Trondheim,

1995-99 Post-doc., Chalmers University of Technology, including guest research visits at

University of Waterloo, Canada (3 months 1995); and at Kobe University, Kobe, Japan (1

month 1996, and 12 months 1997-1998).

A

CADEMIC SERVICE

Associate

editor

for

Acta

Acustica

united

with

Acustica

since

2002.

Reviewer for three professor promotions. Project reviewer for National Research Agencies in

six countries. Member of sixteen PhD thesis committees. Vice president of the European

Acoustics Association (2007-). Chairman (2 years) and secretary (2 years) of the Norwegian

Acoustical Society. Board member of the Swedish Acoustical Society (3 years).

S

UPERVISING AT THE

P

H

D

LEVEL

Has supervised and co-supervised twelve PhD students, four of which have finished.

A

WARDS

Co-author for three papers that have received awards: best paper in the years 1999-2000 of the

Journal of the AES by an author of 35 years or under; one of seven awards at the International

Conference on Digital Telecommunications (ICDT 2006), France; single best paper award at

the IEEE Workshop on Applications of Signal Processing to Audio and Acoustics

(WASPAA), USA, 2009.

E

XTERNAL FUNDING

Project leader for the Strategic University Program "Acoustic Research Centre" in

collaboration with SINTEF IKT, funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Core group member of "Quantifiable Quality of Service in Communication Systems", a

Norwegian Centre of Excellence, funded by the Research Council of Norway.

Project leader for QUEVIRCO, a project in collaboration with SINTEF IKT, TANDBERG

AS, Statoil AS, funded by the Research Council of Norway, TANDBERG AS and Statoil AS.

P

UBLICATIONS

29 papers and short communications published in peer-reviewed journals. In addition 10

papers at peer-reviewed conferences; 79 published, non-refereed conference papers; 27

published abstracts for conference presentations. 10 research reports and other publications.

P

ATENTS

H. Sun, S. Yan, U. P. Svensson, “Array signal processing algorithm” Patent application filed

in the UK, 9 April 2009.

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CURRICULUM VITAE OF MARTIN STOK

Personal Data

Given Name: Martin Family Name: Stok

Education: B. Eng., M. Eng. Contact: [email protected] Work Experience:

• 04/2007 – present Project manager at NTNU Technology Transfer AS Project manager for several commercialization projects from NTNU

Project manager for several NRC FORNY Verification projects (NRC # 192491 and #199764)

• 10/2006 – 04/2007 Senior Consultant, Evatic AS Businessdevelopment in Scandinavia, Benelux, Germany

Projectmanager for several implementations of servicemanagement software

• 10/2004 – 05/2006 Customer Support Professional, Exact Software BV (the Netherlands) Customer support on logistic, financial and technical issues for ERP software for manufacturing, logistic and service companies

Education:

• 08/2006 – present Lillehammer University College, Master of Business Innovation and business development

Masterstudies at department for Management and economy

• 2001 – 2004 University of Technology Delft (the Netherlands), Master of Science Innovation Management

MSc at Faculty Industrial Design Engineering

• 2002 Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway, Master of Science

Engineering at Department of Product Design

Masterstudies at Faculty of Engineering Science and Technology

• 1998 – 2001 University of Technology Delft (the Netherlands), Bachelor of Science Product Design Engineering

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Hans-Christian Blom

Experience:

2008- IPR Coordinator NTNU Technology Transfer AS Technology assessment

Patent filing

Freedom to operate analysis

IPR handling and strategic advisor 2005-2008 Patent agent Fluges Patent Fredrikstad

Drafting, filing and prosecution of patent and design applications. Norwegian and International patent applications

Strategic advisor in IPR-related matters. 1999-2001 Accounting assistant Bolig- og Eiendomsetaten Oslo Education

2001-2004 Master of Science NTNU Trondheim Norway

Chemical Engineering

1994- 1999 Master of Science I.N.S.A- Toulouse France Chemical Engineering