Patent ID: 7917359

Claim:
A noise suppressor for removing noise components from a speech signal, comprising: a peak detector for detecting a peak position in a spectrum of the speech signal; and a masking processor for reducing components of the spectrum as a function of the peak position, thereby generating a noise-suppressed spectrum; wherein for each component of the spectrum, the masking processor obtains a masking value as a function of the peak position, a magnitude of the spectrum at the peak position, and a frequency number, and reduces the component if the component has a magnitude satisfying a predetermined condition with respect to the masking value, and wherein the predetermined condition is that the magnitude of the component is less than the magnitude of the spectrum at the peak position by at least the masking value, the masking value being a sum of a first function of the peak position and the frequency number and a second function of the magnitude of the spectrum at the peak position.