Patent ID: 7136813

Claim:
A method, comprising: estimating probability values that at least part of a signal represents content, wherein the content is voice activity selected from a group consisting of a tone, speech, near-end voice activity, and far-end voice activity; combining each probability value into an overall probability value using a probabilistic network that uses a ratio of probabilities; estimating initial probability values; obtaining initial inverse probability values; obtaining a prior overall inverse probability value; obtaining a first quantity comprising a product of initial probability values; obtaining a second quantity comprising the prior overall inverse probability value raised to an exponent; obtaining a third quantity comprising the product of all initial inverse probability values; obtaining a fourth quantity comprising the prior overall probability value raised to an exponent; multiplying the first quantity by the second quantity to obtain a fifth quantity; multiplying the third quantity by the fourth quantity to obtain a sixth quantity; and obtaining a current overall probability value by dividing the fifth quantity by the sum of the fifth quantity and the sixth quantity, the combining probability values into an overall probability value further comprising combining based at least in part upon at least one prior probability value.