Patent ID: 8805453

Claim:
A processing system for a combined hands-free telecommunication and in-vehicle communication system for a vehicle, the processing system including an analysis filter bank to obtain microphone sub-band signals or a Fourier transform module to obtain Fourier transformed microphone signals, wherein the processing system is configured to: receive, by a hands-free set, a telephone signal from a party remote from the vehicle; receive, by an in-vehicle microphone of the in-vehicle communication system, a microphone signal from an occupant of the vehicle; detect speech activity in the telephone signal; reduce amplification of the microphone signal when speech activity is present in the telephone signal; process the microphone signal in the time domain; detect speech activity in microphone signals obtained by at least one of the number of microphones and input in the in-vehicle communication system by processing the microphone signals in the time domain; and supply a signal to the hands-free set operating in the sub-band or Fourier domain that indicates speech activity or no speech activity.