Patent ID: 8630426

Claim:
A method for reducing howling in a communication system containing collocated mobile devices, the method comprising: at a first one of the collocated mobile devices: processing an audio signal, received at a microphone, to remove acoustic feedback from the audio signal to produce a modified signal; encoding, via an encoder, the modified audio signal; transmitting, via a transmitter, the encoded audio signal to an intermediate infrastructure device for further transmission to other mobile device; receiving, via a receiver, the encoded audio signal back from the intermediate infrastructure device: decoding, via a decoder, the encoded audio signal; and feeding back the decoded audio signal, via a feedback circuit, while processing the audio signal to enable the acoustic feedback to be removed from the audio signal, the decoded audio signal being sufficiently delayed prior to processing the audio signal to enable processing of the audio signal at an appropriate time, wherein the acoustic feedback comprises a delayed version of the audio signal, and wherein the appropriate time accounts for differces between acoustic paths of the encoded audio signal received at the first one of the collocated mobile devices and the encoded audio signal received at a second one of the collocated mobile devices.