System and method for implementing real-time adaptive threshold triggering in acoustic detection systems

A method, comprising:

• monitoring an audio signal;
• estimating a level of background noise in the audio signal;
• generating a static threshold by applying an offset from the estimate of the level of background noise;
• generating a dynamic offset from a post-trigger level of background noise;
• generating an adaptive threshold by applying the dynamic offset to the static threshold;
• comparing a magnitude of the adaptive threshold to a magnitude of the audio signal;
• and
• generating a trigger signal if the magnitude of the audio signal is greater than the magnitude of the adaptive threshold.

The method according to claim 30, said generating a dynamic offset further comprising:

• storing a value representing a peak amplitude of the audio signal in a second peak register when a second trigger is generated;
• storing one of the values representing an instance of an exponentially decaying sinusoidal waveform in a static register;
• multiplying the value representing a peak amplitude of the audio signal when a second trigger is generated by the value stored in the static register to produce an updated dynamic offset;
• comparing the dynamic offset to the updated dynamic offset;
• and
• generating a re-trigger signal if the updated dynamic offset is greater than the dynamic offset.