A portable speakerphone having a housing, a receiving transducer, an electrical cable, a transmitting transducer, and a processor. The receiving transducer is affixed to the housing and is configured to receive a first electrical signal from a mobile device. The electrical cable is coupled to and extends from the housing. The transmitting transducer is affixed to the electrical cable, remote from the housing. Also, the transmitting transducer is configured to transmit a second electrical signal, and the second electrical signal is based in part on the first electrical signal. The processor is configured to suppress acoustic echo by modifying the second electrical signal. The processor is also configured to output the modified second electrical signal to the mobile device. A related method is also disclosed.

A portable speakerphone having a housing, a receiving transducer, an electrical cable, a transmitting transducer, and a processor. The receiving transducer is affixed to the housing and is configured to receive a first electrical signal from a mobile device. The electrical cable is coupled to and extends from the housing. The transmitting transducer is affixed to the electrical cable, remote from the housing. Also, the transmitting transducer is configured to transmit a second electrical signal, and the second electrical signal is based in part on the first electrical signal. The processor is configured to suppress acoustic echo by modifying the second electrical signal. The processor is also configured to output the modified second electrical signal to the mobile device. A related method is also disclosed.

The invention relates to a background noise estimator and a method therein, for supporting sound activity detection in an audio signal segment. The method comprises reducing a current background noise estimate when the audio signal segment is determined to comprise music and the current background noise estimate exceeds a minimum value. This is to be performed when an energy level of an audio signal segment is more than a threshold higher than a long term minimum energy level, lt_min, which is determined over a plurality of preceding audio signal segments, or, when the energy level of the audio signal segment is less than a threshold higher than lt_min, but no pause is detected in the audio signal segment.

The invention relates to a background noise estimator and a method therein, for supporting sound activity detection in an audio signal segment. The method comprises reducing a current background noise estimate when the audio signal segment is determined to comprise music and the current background noise estimate exceeds a minimum value. This is to be performed when an energy level of an audio signal segment is more than a threshold higher than a long term minimum energy level, lt_min, which is determined over a plurality of preceding audio signal segments, or, when the energy level of the audio signal segment is less than a threshold higher than lt_min, but no pause is detected in the audio signal segment.

An electronic device may include a housing and a directional microphone. The housing may include a front surface, a rear surface positioned opposite the front surface, and a hollow cavity positioned between the front surface and the rear surface. The hollow cavity may include a front opening defined in the front surface and a rear opening defined in the rear surface. The directional microphone may include a front port and a rear port. The directional microphone may be mounted in the hollow cavity of the housing with the front port oriented toward the front opening and with the rear port oriented toward the rear opening.

A sound emission and collection device includes a speaker, a filter processing a sound emission signal, microphones, echo cancellers cancelling regression sound signals of the sound emitted by the speaker from the sound collection signals of the corresponding microphones, a first integration section integrating adaptive filter coefficients taken out from the plurality of echo cancellers, a reverberation time estimation section estimating the reverberation time for each frequency band in the space in which the speaker and the plurality of microphones are present on the basis of the integrated adaptive filter coefficient, and an arithmetic operation section specifying a frequency band having a long reverberation time from the sound emission signal based on the estimated reverberation time, calculating a filter coefficient for suppressing power of the specified frequency band, and setting the filter coefficient to the filter.

A sound emission and collection device includes a speaker, a filter processing a sound emission signal, microphones, echo cancellers cancelling regression sound signals of the sound emitted by the speaker from the sound collection signals of the corresponding microphones, a first integration section integrating adaptive filter coefficients taken out from the plurality of echo cancellers, a reverberation time estimation section estimating the reverberation time for each frequency band in the space in which the speaker and the plurality of microphones are present on the basis of the integrated adaptive filter coefficient, and an arithmetic operation section specifying a frequency band having a long reverberation time from the sound emission signal based on the estimated reverberation time, calculating a filter coefficient for suppressing power of the specified frequency band, and setting the filter coefficient to the filter.