NONSTATIONARY NOISE ESTIMATOR (NNSE)

A method for estimating acoustic noise in an environment where a mobile communication device is operating and where the acoustic noise includes nonstationary noise or speech-like noises, and wherein the environment also includes speech signals. The method includes searching for a local minimum energy over a plurality of frames using at least two reference signals including a first signal comprised of a time-sensitive current local minimum energy estimate, emin, and a second signal comprised of a time-weighted average of previous detected local energy minima, eminmean; and deciding whether the detected local energy minima of the second reference signal is a noise signal. Also, binning the detected input signal energy minima values within a plurality of histograms; and calculating a composite noise energy estimate comprised of a weighted sum of a maximum probability noise energy estimate and an expected value noise energy estimate. As such a nonstationary noise estimator is formed.