Method and apparatus for spatial filtering and noise suppression

A method comprising:

• receiving acoustic input signals;
• performing spatial filtering of the acoustic input signals;
• performing noise suppression after the performing the spatial filtering;
• applying a voice activity detection indication obtained from the performing noise suppression to select an updated spatial parameter value for further spatial filtering;
• and
• providing spatially filtered noise-suppressed output.

An apparatus comprising:

• a plurality of microphones situated at spatially diverse locations to provide microphone signals;
• a spatial filter coupled to the microphones, the spatial filter configured to spatially filter the microphone signals;
• a noise suppressor coupled to the spatial filter, the noise suppressor for suppressing noise according to a recurrent neural network (RNN);
• and
• an audio processor coupled to the noise suppressor, the audio processor comprising a speech recognizer, the speech recognizer providing a spatial filter feedback signal to control the spatial filter and a noise suppressor feedback signal to control the noise suppressor.