Patent ID: 7783478

Claim:
A method for multifunctional processing of input signals in frequency subbands of a preselected frequency band, the method comprising steps of: (a) receiving, via input means, at least one full band input signal; (b) splitting the received input signal or each of the received input signals into N W wide frequency subband (WFS) signals with downsampling said WFS signals by factor of M1>1, wherein each of said WFS signals is associated with one of wide frequency subbands of said preselected frequency band; (c) supplying at least some of the splitted WFS signals and/or one or more combination(s) of the splitted WFS signals, each combination including splitted WFS signals associated with the same wide frequency subband, as primary WFS signals to separate wide subband (WS) channels, each WS channel corresponding to a different wide frequency subband; (d) processing at least one WPS signal in at least one WS channel by at least applying to said at least one WFS signal a processing algorithm selected from a first group of preselected processing algorithms, with transforming said at least one WFS signal into a secondary WFS signal to be further processed in said WS channel or to be applied, as a processed WFS signal, to the exit thereof; and (e) synthesizing WFS signals from exits of all WS channels into a full band output signal; wherein step (d) further includes steps of: (f) splitting at least one of the primary or secondary WFS signals into a group of N N narrow frequency subband (NFS) signals with downsampling said NFS signals by factor of M2≧1, wherein M2/N N <M1/N W , (g) applying to at least one of the NFS signals at least one processing algorithm selected from a second group of preselected processing algorithms, (h) synthesizing, for a single or each group of the NFS signals, at least some of the NFS signals obtained from said group into a synthesized WFS signal or synthesized WFS signals, and (i) supplying the synthesized WFS signal or each of the synthesized WFS signals for further processing in the same WS channel or to the exit of said WS channel; wherein said preselected frequency band is selected in the audio frequency range, N W is selected in the range of 4 to 128, N N is selected in the range of 2 to 8, M1 is selected in the range of N W /4 to N W , and M2 is selected in the range of 1 to M1/2.