Patent ID: 7974841

Claim:
An electronic device comprising: a microphone that generates a microphone signal responsive to incident sound; and a sound processor that is configured to recognize a targeted speaker's voice within the microphone signal and to regulate filtering of the microphone signal responsive to the recognition of the targeted speaker's voice, wherein the sound processor comprises: a speaker characterization circuit that is configured to operate in a training mode to learn characteristics of the targeted speaker's voice component in the microphone signal, and to store the learned characteristics; an adaptive sound filter circuit that is configured to adaptively filter the microphone signal responsive to a control signal, the adaptive sound filter circuit comprises a variable bandpass filter having bandpass frequencies that are varied in response to the control signal; and a speaker recognition circuit that is configured to operate during a recording mode to use the learned characteristics to recognize the presence of the targeted speaker's voice in the microphone signal and to regulate the control signal to cause the adaptive sound filter circuit to adapt the filtering to increase the targeted speaker's voice component of the microphone signal relative to other components, the adaptive sound filter circuit comprises a high-pass filter having a cutoff frequency that is varied in response to the control signal; and the speaker recognition circuit is further configured to operate during the recording mode to respond to recognition of the presence of the targeted speaker's voice in the microphone signal by using the learned characteristics to determine a lower frequency range of the targeted speaker's voice and by regulating the control signal to vary the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter in response to the determined lower frequency range of the targeted speaker's voice.