Method and apparatus for audio intelligibility enhancement and computing apparatus

1. A method for audio intelligibility enhancement in a computing device, comprising:

detecting environment noise by performing a voice activity detection according to a detected audio signal from at least a microphone of the computing device;

obtaining noise information according to the detected environment noise and a first audio signal; and

outputting a second audio signal by boosting the first audio signal under an adjustable headroom by the computing device according to the noise information and the first audio signal, wherein the adjustable headroom is at a first value when a signal level of the first audio signal is under a threshold level and the adjustable headroom is at a second value less than the first value when the signal level of the first audio signal is over the threshold level, wherein the adjustable headroom is a maximum allowable increase in a gain of the boosting of the first audio signal.

2. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the noise information indicates a measurement level of the detected environment noise with respect to the first audio signal.

3. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting environment noise comprises:

performing the voice activity detection to determine whether the detected audio signal indicates noise or not; and

outputting the detected environment noise when the detected audio signal indicates noise.

4. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the step of detecting environment noise comprises:

outputting a de-echoed version of the detected audio signal; and

outputting the detected environment noise when the detected audio signal indicates noise;

wherein the voice activity detection is performed according to the de-echoed version of the detected audio signal to determine whether the detected audio signal indicates noise or not.

5. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the adjustable headroom is adjusted according to the signal level of the first audio signal such that a signal level of the second audio signal is proportional to the signal level of the first audio signal and below a clipping level.

6. The method according to claim 1 , further comprising:

determining whether the first audio signal is noise by performing a pre-processing on the first audio signal;

wherein in the step of outputting the second audio signal, the second audio signal is outputted without boosting the first audio signal if it is determined by the pre-processing that the first audio signal is noise.

7. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the pre-processing is performed on the first audio signal by using voice activity detection.

8. The method according to claim 6 , wherein the pre-processing is performed on the first audio signal by using noise estimation.

9. The method according to claim 1 , wherein the second audio signal is outputting by boosting the first audio signal with respect to at least one frequency band for human hearing.

10. An apparatus for audio intelligibility enhancement in a computing device, comprising:

an environment noise determination unit for detecting environment noise according to a detected audio signal from at least a microphone of the computing device; and

an intelligibility enhancement unit, coupled to the environment noise determination unit, for obtaining noise information according to the detected environment noise and a first audio signal, outputting a second audio signal by boosting the first audio signal under an adjustable headroom according to the noise information and the first audio signal, changing the adjustable headroom to a first value when a signal level of the first audio signal is under a threshold level and changing the adjustable headroom to a second value less than the first value when the signal level of the first audio signal is over the threshold level, wherein the adjustable headroom is a maximum allowable increase in a gain of the boosting of the first audio signal.

11. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the noise information indicates a measurement level of the detected environment noise with respect to the first audio signal.

12. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the environment noise determination unit comprises:

a pro-processing module, for outputting an audio signal according to the detected audio signal, comprising: a voice activity detection module to determine whether the detected audio signal indicates noise or not and output result of the determination; and

a noise estimation module, in response to the determination result and the audio signal from the pre-processing module, for outputting a reference noise signal.

13. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the intelligibility enhancement unit is operative to adjust the adjustable headroom according to the signal level of the first audio signal such that a signal level of the second audio signal is proportional to the signal level of the first audio signal and below a truncated threshold.

14. The apparatus according to claim 10 , wherein the intelligibility enhancement unit comprises:

a signal-to-noise ratio estimation module, in response to a reference noise signal and the first audio signal, for outputting the noise information;

a boosting module; and

a gain calculation module, coupled between the boosting module and the signal-to-noise ratio estimation module, in response to the noise information and the first audio signal, for controlling the boosting module to boost the first audio signal.

15. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the intelligibility enhancement unit further comprises:

a pre-processing module, for determining whether the first audio signal is noise;

wherein if the pre-processing module determines that the first audio signal is noise, the pre-processing module informs the gain calculation module to control the boosting module to output the second audio signal without boosting the first audio signal.

16. The apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the pre-processing module determines whether the first audio signal is noise according to voice activity detection or noise estimation of the first audio signal.

17. A computing apparatus, comprising:

at least a microphone;

a processing unit for controlling the computing apparatus;

a communication unit;

a signal processing unit, coupled to the processing unit and the communication unit, for audio intelligibility enhancement, comprising:

an environment noise determination unit for detecting environment noise according to a detected audio signal from the at least a microphone; and

an intelligibility enhancement unit, coupled to the environment noise determination unit, for obtaining noise information according to the detected environment noise and a first audio signal, outputting a second audio signal by boosting the first audio signal under an adjustable headroom according to the noise information and the first audio signal, changing the adjustable headroom to a first value when a signal level of the first audio signal is under a threshold level and changing the adjustable headroom to a second value less than the first value when the signal level of the first audio signal is over the threshold level, wherein the adjustable headroom is a maximum allowable increase in a gain of the boosting of the first audio signal.

18. The computing apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the intelligibility enhancement unit is operative to adjust the adjustable headroom according to the signal level of the first audio signal such that a signal level of the second audio signal is proportional to the signal level of the first audio signal and below a truncate threshold.

19. The computing apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the intelligibility enhancement unit comprises:

a signal-to-noise ratio estimation module, in response to a reference noise signal and the first audio signal, for outputting the noise information;

a boosting module; and

a gain calculation module, coupled between the boosting module and the signal-to-noise ratio estimation module, in response to the noise information and the first audio signal, for controlling the boosting module to boost the first audio signal.

20. The computing apparatus according to claim 19 , wherein the intelligibility enhancement unit further comprises:

a pre-processing module, for determining whether the first audio signal is noise;

wherein if the pre-processing module determines that the first audio signal is noise, the pre-processing module informs the gain calculation module to control the boosting module to output the second audio signal without boosting the first audio signal.

21. The computing apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the communication unit outputs the first audio signal to the signal processing unit and the first audio signal is a downlink audio signal for voice communication.

22. The computing apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the processing unit outputs the first audio signal to the signal processing unit according to a multimedia source.

23. The computing apparatus according to claim 17 , wherein the second audio signal is outputting by boosting the first audio signal with respect to at least one frequency band for human hearing.