System for processing an audio signal to enhance speech intelligibility

A system for automatically adjusting a voice intelligibility enhancement applied to an audio signal, the system comprising:

• an enhancement module configured to receive an input voice signal comprising formants and to apply an audio enhancement to the input voice signal to provide an enhanced voice signal, the audio enhancement configured to emphasize one or more of the formants in the input voice signal;
• an enhancement controller comprising one or more processors, the enhancement controller configured to adjust an amount of the audio enhancement applied by the enhancement module based at least partly on an amount of detected environmental noise;
• and
• an output gain controller configured to:
• adjust an overall gain of the enhanced voice signal based at least partly on the amount of environmental noise and on the input voice signal, and
• apply the overall gain to the enhanced voice signal to produce an amplified voice signal.

Non-transitory physical computer storage having instructions stored thereon that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to implement a method of adjusting a voice intelligibility enhancement, the method comprising:

• receiving a voice signal from a remote phone and a noise signal from a microphone;
• calculating a value of the noise signal;
• adjusting gains applied to formants of the voice signal based at least partly on the value of the noise signal;
• and
• applying the gains to the formants of the voice signal.

A system for adjusting a sensitivity of a voice intelligibility enhancement, the system comprising:

• a voice enhancement module configured to receive, with a receiving device, an input voice signal received by a receiving device from a remote device and to apply an audio enhancement to the input voice signal to emphasize one or more formants in the input voice signal;
• an enhancement controller configured to adjust an amount of the audio enhancement applied by the voice enhancement module based at least partly on an amount of environmental noise present in the input voice signal;
• and
• a noise sensitivity controller comprising one or more processors configured to adjust a sensitivity of the enhancement controller to the environmental noise based at least partly on a statistical analysis of at least one or both of a microphone input signal obtained from a microphone of the receiving device and a speaker input signal provided as an output signal of the voice enhancement module.