An echo canceller
processing echo,
noise and near end talk in a narrower, but still intelligible,
frequency band for reducing required
processing power and complexity. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, an input
audio signal of captured sound in an audio communication
system is decimated and then divided into a number of sub bands by an analyze filter. Each sub band is processed as in background audio echo cancelling by subtracting the
signal with an echo estimate from a model of the acoustic
signal in the respective sub band, except from that the
signal is also bypassed, adjusted by a filter and subtracted from the processed signal. The resulting signals are then recombined by a synthesize filter and interpolated to the original sampling rate and bandwidth. Finally, the output from the synthesize filter is added to the input
audio signal, which has been delayed and adjusted by a filter. The filters are controlled by a
control algorithm detecting the presence of near end sound, far end sound and
noise, so that the filters, and consequently the
high pass filter of the echo canceller, only pass
high frequency (above low pass frequencies) when only near end sound is detected.