Patent ID: 6889187

Claim:
A voice activity detection apparatus, comprising: a) an input for receiving an input signal derived from audio information, the input signal including a plurality of frames, each frame containing either one of active audio information and passive audio information; b) a processing functional block coupled to said input for processing the input signal for generating an output signal capable to acquire at least two possible states, namely a first state and a second state, said first state being indicative of an input signal containing active audio information, said second state being indicative of an input signal containing passive audio information, said processing functional block being operative to: i) for one or more frames received at said input and containing active audio information, compute a hangover time period, the computation including determining whether the hangover time period has a fixed duration or a variable duration, the determining being done on the basis of characteristics of the active audio information contained in the one or more frames; ii) detecting a frame received at said input subsequently to the one or more frames containing the active audio information, that contains passive audio information; and iii) causing the output signal to acquire said second state after the expiry of the computed hangover time period from the detecting of the frame containing the passive audio information.