Patent ID: 7242783

Claim:
An audio limiting circuit adapted to receive an unattenuated audio input signal and produce an attenuated, audio limited output signal, said audio limiting circuit comprising: 1) a delay element for delaying the unattenuated input signal; and 2) an attenuating circuit generating an attenuation to be applied to the unattenuated input signal, said attenuating circuit comprising a spectral energy detector for decomposing an input signal into spectral bands and determining a time weighted average energy measure of the amount by which an acoustic energy associated with each of the spectral bands exceeds a predetermined limit, wherein an instantaneous gain is determined from the time weighted average energy measure; 3) a gain block for applying the instantaneous gain to the unattenuated input signal in order to prevent the sound pressure level of an acoustic signal that would be generated by an acoustic transducer from exceeding predetermined limits.