Method and apparatus for detecting a near-end speech signal

Abstract

An acoustic echo canceler (10) includes an adaptive filter circuit (12) and a near-end speech detection circuit (14). The adaptive filter circuit (12) includes an adaptive filter that may be of a single or dual filter structure for generating an e(t) acoustic echo canceler output signal (26) in response to an s(t) far-end speech signal (20) and an x(t) send-in signal (28). The near-end detection circuit (14) receives the s(t) far-end speech signal (20) and the x(t) send-in signal (28) at a high pass filter (32) and a high pass filter (36), respectively. The filtered s(t) far-end speech signal (20) and the filtered x(t) send-in signal (28) are averaged over a selected sampling period by a far-end sampling circuit (34) and a send-in sampling circuit (38). A divider circuit (40) generates a γ(t) acoustic echo path gain/loss signal (42) in response to the filtered and averaged s ¯ (t) far-end speech signal (20) and x ¯ (t) send-in signal (28). A near-end detector (44) compares the γ(t) acoustic echo path gain/loss signal (42) with a P γ long term average signal (46) generated from the γ(t) acoustic echo path gain/loss signal (42) to determine a first condition for near-end speech detection. Near-end detector (44) also compares an e ¯ (t) average power signal (51) of the e(t) acoustic echo canceler output signal (26) as generated by a power sampling circuit (50) with its ρ e long term average signal (53) generated by a long term echo canceler averaging circuit (52) as a second condition.