Method and device for estimating acoustic reverberation

A method for estimating acoustic reverberations in an environment comprising the following steps:

• (a) a measurement step in which at least one acoustic signal emitted in the environment is captured by at least one microphone and transmitting said acoustic signal to at least one processor;
• (b) an observation step during which an acoustic energy decay rate distribution is determined by said at least one processor from the acoustic signal captured in step (a) and a characteristic function of the acoustic energy decay rate distribution is determined;
• (c) an estimation step during which a characteristic reverberation time and a characteristic reverberation level of the sound in the environment thereof are estimated by said at least one processor, by regression from said characteristic function determined in step (b), where the regression is done with reference to:
• reference characteristic functions representative respectively of several acoustic energy decay rate distributions;
• reference characteristic reverberation times corresponding to said reference characteristic functions;
• and
• reference characteristic reverberation levels corresponding to said reference characteristic functions;
• wherein said characteristic reverberation time and said characteristic reverberation level are then used by said at least one processor for optimizing sound signals captured by the microphone.