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The problem I'd like to solve is that my desktop microphone picks up all my keystrokes very loudly compared with my voice. Even just lightly tapping a key without depressing it causes a loud click to be picked up.

I'd like a way to filter out this type of sound, while picking up voice normally. Is there any software input equalizer/filter that could do this? Or alternatively, some sort of hardware hack?

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  • I have noticed this on some cell phones also, some mics are real sensitive to certain frequencies and amplify them more, I suggest trying a higher quality microphone.
    – Moab
    Sep 25, 2010 at 1:14
  • Great question. +1. I have an IBM T60 with the same problem.
    – Xavierjazz
    Sep 25, 2010 at 1:35

4 Answers 4

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It seems like the microphone is the problem. I would plug in a better mic. You could buy a small clip-on microphone or a headset with a built-in mic. There are really cheap ones available, and they might still be better than you laptop mic, if only for the fact that they would be closer to your mouth.

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This is usually due to low quality motherboard components, or high quality ones that were not thought out well - having unshielded circuits or a few components too close to each other.

The easiest solution by far is to buy another audio card - it can just be a cheap £5 one, although I would advise something such as an OEM creative one (which should be better than any built in / on board motherboard).

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Have you considered buying a new keyboard with something like notebook keys? I guess there are some keyboards on the market, which are specially designed to be silent and to have smooth keystroke. I saw something like this at Gizmodo once. Mabye that can reduce the clicking your microphone is catching.

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I have recently been thinking about this and wondered if it is able to write a filter algorithm based on machine learning. I have a blue-switch keyboard that is quiet loud and therefore have the same problem. While I personally haven't implemented it yet I believe it shuold be possible. What you'd need is:

  • sample data
    • log key stroke timestamps and overlay with recording
    • create NN that can recognize keystrokes very well
  • filter
    • train NN that tries to change the stream so that NN1 won't recognize key strokes anymore
    • add amount of maniupulation of stream as a negative reward --> manipulate as little as possible

If anyone is interested in building this I'd be happy to work on it together.

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  • That's a cool concept! Currently I can't commit to work on it, but I'll probably try to investigate it in a couple of months from now. If you start a project and welcome help, please update the answer with a link. =) Mar 23, 2018 at 1:09
  • I started with creating a question about it: ai.stackexchange.com/questions/5773/… Mar 23, 2018 at 12:26

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