Reverberation suppressing apparatus and reverberation suppressing method

1. A reverberation suppressing apparatus, comprising: a sound acquiring unit which acquires a sound signal; a reverberation data computing unit which computes reverberation data from the acquired sound signal;

a reverberation characteristics estimating unit which estimates reverberation characteristics based on the computed reverberation data;

a filter length estimating unit which estimates an amount of filtering time based on the estimated reverberation characteristics; wherein the filter length estimating unit estimates the filter length by calculating reverberation intensities for a plurality of sound levels, and performing a regression analysis with respect to the calculated reverberation intensities; and

a reverberation suppressing unit which applies a filter having a filter length of the estimated amount of filtering time to suppress a reverberation of a received sound signal.

2. The reverberation suppressing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein:

the reverberation characteristics estimating unit estimates a reverberation time based on the computed reverberation data; and

the filter length estimating unit estimates the filter length based on the estimated reverberation time.

3. The reverberation suppressing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the filter length estimating unit estimates the filter length based on a rate between a direct sound and an indirect sound.

4. The reverberation suppressing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an environment detecting unit which detects a change in an environment where the reverberation suppressing apparatus is set, wherein the reverberation data computing unit computes the reverberation data when the change in the environment is detected.

5. The reverberation suppressing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein when the environment detecting unit detects the change in the environment, the reverberation suppressing unit switches, based on the detected environment, at least one of a parameter used by the reverberation suppressing unit to suppress the reverberation and a parameter used by the filter length estimating unit to estimate the filter length.

6. The reverberation suppressing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising a sound output unit which outputs a test sound signal, wherein:

the sound acquiring unit acquires the output test sound signal; and

the reverberation data computing unit computes the reverberation data from the acquired test sound signal.

7. A reverberation suppressing method, comprising the following steps of:

acquiring a sound signal;

computing reverberation data from the acquired sound signal;

estimating reverberation characteristics based on the computed reverberation data; estimating an amount of filtering time based on the estimated reverberation characteristics; and

applying a filter having a filter length of the estimated amount of filtering time to suppress a reverberation of the received sound signal; wherein the filter length estimating unit estimates the filter length by calculating reverberation intensities for a plurality of sound levels, and performing a regression analysis with respect to the calculated reverberation intensities.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the reverberation data computing unit calculates a separation matrix (Wr) for cancelling an echo using the acquired sound signal and the generated sound signal.

9. A reverberation suppressing apparatus, comprising:

a sound acquiring unit which acquires a sound signal;

a reverberation data computing unit which computes reverberation data from the acquired sound signal;

a reverberation characteristics estimating unit which estimates reverberation characteristics based on the computed reverberation data;

a filter length estimating unit which estimates an amount of filtering time based on the estimated reverberation characteristics, wherein the amount of filtering time is estimated to be shorter as the acquired sound signal decays more quickly; wherein the filter length estimating unit estimates the filter length by calculating reverberation intensities for a plurality of sound levels, and performing a regression analysis with respect to the calculated reverberation intensities; and

a reverberation suppressing unit which applies a filter having a filter length of the estimated amount of filtering time to suppress a reverberation of a received sound signal.