Patent ID: 8112283

Claim:
An audio apparatus for correcting an audio signal in response to a noise level, the audio apparatus comprising: a correction unit configured to correct an input audio signal on the basis of a weighting factor; an output unit that produces a played-back audio sound on the basis of the corrected input audio signal; a microphone for receiving an external sound, which includes the played-back audio sound and a noise signal, the noise signal including a speech signal and a driving noise signal; a noise-extracting unit configured to extract the noise signal from the external sound detected by the microphone, the noise-extracting unit including: an audio-cancelling unit configured to remove the input audio signal from the played-back audio sound and noise signal; a speech-determining unit configured to identify and isolate the speech signal included in the noise signal on the basis of predetermined noise spectrum data having a plurality of frequency bands corresponding to a noise spectrum of vehicle noise present in a vehicle cabin, wherein a lower frequency band and an adjacent upper frequency band form a frequency band pair; a speech-removing unit configured to compare noise signal levels in the lower frequency band and the upper frequency band of each of a plurality of frequency band pairs, and if the difference in the respective noise levels in a frequency band pair is greater than a noise difference threshold value, the noise signal is replaced with the noise difference threshold value, so as to eliminate the speech signal from the noise signal in the frequency band pair, to thereby generate an extracted noise signal free of the speech signal; and a weighting factor calculation unit configured to calculate the weighting factor on the basis of the extracted noise signal, and configured to supply the calculated weighting factor to the correction unit.