Patent ID: 8195454

Claim:
A method for enhancing speech in entertainment audio, comprising processing, in response to one or more controls, said entertainment audio to improve the clarity and intelligibility of speech portions of the entertainment audio, said processing including varying the level of the entertainment audio in each of multiple frequency bands in accordance with a gain characteristic that relates band signal level to gain, and generating a control for varying said gain characteristic in each frequency band, said generating including characterizing time segments of said entertainment audio as (a) speech or non-speech or (b) as likely to be speech or non-speech, wherein said characterizing operates on a single broad frequency band, obtaining, in each of said multiple frequency bands, a measure of fluctuations in speech levels, tracking, in each of said multiple frequency bands, the minimum of the audio level in the band, the response time of the tracking being responsive to said measure of fluctuations in speech levels, transforming the tracked minima in each band into a corresponding adaptive threshold level, and biasing said each corresponding adaptive threshold level with the result of said characterizing to produce said control for each band.