Patent ID: 7813923

Claim:
A computer-implemented method comprising: receiving an array signal based at least in part on two or more microphone signals generated by two or more microphones positioned in a directional array, the two or more microphones facing in a preferred direction; receiving an ambient signal from an ambient microphone that is positioned in the directional array, the ambient microphone facing a direction other than the preferred direction; receiving an indicator signal indicating one or more non-speech time intervals wherein portions of the array signal received during the non-speech time intervals do not represent speech; evaluating a beamformer signal based at least in part on the array signal and the ambient signal; evaluating a noise transfer function based at least in part on one or more portions of the beamformer signal received during the non-speech time intervals indicated by the indicator signal, and one or more portions of the ambient signal received during the same non-speech time intervals, wherein a noise suppression factor is based at least in part on the noise transfer function, the one or more portions of the ambient signal received during the non-speech time intervals, and the beamformer signal; and generating an output signal based at least in part on a product of the beamformer signal and the noise suppression factor that is based at least in part on the noise transfer function.