INTELLIGIBILITY CONTROL USING AMBIENT NOISE DETECTION
First Claim
1. A method for modifying intelligibility of speech in a downlink voice signal during a call, comprising:
- determining a current noise level based on sampling ambient acoustic noise during the call, and based on a previously determined noise level;
determining an overall output gain based on the current noise level and based on a user-selected volume setting;
determining a frequency response based on the current noise level and based on the user-selected volume setting; and
modifying the downlink voice signal during the call in accordance with the overall output gain and the frequency response.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A communications device is configured to control the intelligibility of speech in a downlink voice signal during a call. The device determines a current noise level based on sampling ambient acoustic noise and based on a previously determined noise level. The device then determines an overall output gain and a frequency response based on the current noise level and based on a user-selected volume setting of the device. The device modifies the downlink voice signal during the call in accordance with the determined overall output gain and the determined frequency response. Other embodiments are also described and claimed.
48 Citations
24 Claims
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1. A method for modifying intelligibility of speech in a downlink voice signal during a call, comprising:
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determining a current noise level based on sampling ambient acoustic noise during the call, and based on a previously determined noise level; determining an overall output gain based on the current noise level and based on a user-selected volume setting; determining a frequency response based on the current noise level and based on the user-selected volume setting; and modifying the downlink voice signal during the call in accordance with the overall output gain and the frequency response. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7)
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8. An apparatus comprising:
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a communications device housing having integrated therein an acoustic transducer interface circuit coupled to a microphone input to sample ambient acoustic noise, a processor to sense a user-selected volume setting, a slew filter circuit having an input coupled to the acoustic transducer interface circuit, the slew filter to determine a current noise level based on the sampled ambient acoustic noise and based on a previously determined noise level, a gain boost calculator coupled to the slew filter circuit and the processor, the gain boost calculator to determine an overall output gain based on the current noise level and based on the user-selected volume setting, an EQ boost calculator having an input coupled to the slew filter circuit and the processor, the EQ boost calculator to determine a pointer for a coefficients list based on the current noise level and based on the user-selected volume setting, a parameter selection circuit to select a volume level from a volume configuration table corresponding to the overall output gain, and to select a set of coefficients from the coefficients list as indicated by the pointer, an EQ filter having an input to be coupled to a communications network to receive a downlink voice signal, the EQ filter to modify frequency response characteristics of the downlink voice signal in accordance with the set of coefficients, and a gain module having an input coupled to the EQ filter, the gain module to modify an overall loudness of the downlink voice signal in accordance with the volume level. - View Dependent Claims (9, 10, 11, 12, 13)
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14. A method for modifying intelligibility of speech that is in a downlink voice signal during a call, comprising:
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repeatedly sampling ambient acoustic noise during the call to obtain a sampled noise sequence; constraining the sampled noise sequence so that its rate of change is set to a low rate whenever a noise difference between two samples in the noise sequence is small, and to a high rate whenever the noise difference is large; determining an overall gain based on the constrained sequence and based on a user-selected volume setting; determining a frequency response based on the constrained sequence and based on the user-selected volume setting; and modifying the downlink voice signal during the call in accordance with the determined overall gain and the determined frequency response. - View Dependent Claims (15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20)
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21. An article of manufacture comprising:
a non-transitory machine-readable storage medium having stored therein instructions that program a processor, the processor being a component of a portable communications device, to repeatedly sample ambient acoustic noise during the call to obtain a sampled noise sequence, to constrain the sampled noise sequence so that its rate of change is set to a low rate whenever a noise difference between two samples in the noise sequence is small, and to a high rate whenever the noise difference is large, to determine an overall gain based on the constrained sequence and based on a user-selected volume setting, to determine a frequency response based on the constrained sequence and based on the user-selected volume setting, and to modify the downlink voice signal during the call in accordance with the determined overall gain and the determined frequency response. - View Dependent Claims (22, 23, 24)
Specification