Patent ID: 8571855

Claim:
An audio enhancement system for compensating for ambient noise in a listening environment, comprising: a first circuit for producing a first electrical signal in the time domain and for generating a re-transformed first electrical signal, comprising a time-to-frequency transformation unit responsive to the first electrical signal in the time domain for generating a second electrical signal in the frequency domain; a multiplier that receives the second electrical signal in the frequency domain and a spectral gain signal in the frequency domain, and provides an equalized signal in the frequency domain; and a frequency-to-time transformation unit responsive to the equalized signal in the frequency domain for generating the re-transformed first electrical signal in the time domain; at least one loudspeaker responsive to the re-transformed first electrical signal for generating a sound output; a sensor for producing a total sound signal representative of a total sound level in the listening environment, where the total sound level comprises both the sound output from the at least one loudspeaker and the ambient noise within the listening environment; and a second circuit for extracting an ambient noise signal representative of the ambient noise within the listening environment from the total sound signal, and for providing the spectral gain signal in the frequency domain, comprising a noise estimation unit that receives the total sound signal, extracts the ambient noise signal, and generates a third electrical signal; a mean value calculation unit that receives the third electrical signal, and provides a fourth electrical signal; a voice activity detector that receives the fourth electrical signal, and provides a fifth electrical signal indicative of the ambient noise in the listening environment; and a psychoacoustic gain shaping unit that receives the fifth electrical signal and the second electrical signal, and provides the spectral gain signal in the frequency domain to the multiplier of the first circuit.