结合幅度谱和功率谱字典的语音增强方法

从双路字典学习、噪声功率谱估计、语音幅度谱重构角度提出了一种改进的谱特征稀疏表示语音增强方法。在字典学习阶段,融合功率谱与幅度谱特征,采用区分性字典降低语音字典和噪声字典的相干性;在语音增强阶段,提出一种噪声功率谱估计方法对非平稳噪声进行跟踪估计;考虑到幅度谱和功率谱特征对不同噪声的适应程度不同,设计了语音重构权值表。对分别由幅度谱和功率谱恢复而来的两路信号进行自适应加权重构,结合相位补偿函数得到增强后的语音信号。实验结果表明,该方法在平稳、非平稳噪声环境下相比于单一谱特征的语音增强方法平均提高31.6%,改善了语音增强方法的性能。     

面向语音增强的约束序贯高斯混合模型噪声功率谱估计

提出了一种基于极大似然的噪声对数功率谱估计方法,采用高斯混合模型对每一个频带上的功率谱包络构建统计模型,将时序包络划分为语音和非语音类,它们分别对应于高斯混合模型的两个高斯分量,描述语音和非语音的统计分布,其中非语音高斯分量的均值即为噪声功率谱的最优估计.采用序贯学习的方法,在极大似然准则下逐帧更新模型参数,并逐帧给出噪声功率谱的最优估计值。此外,由于序贯更新过程中语音信号长时缺失,容易导致模型失稳,提出了一种在线的最小描述长度准则(MDL)来判断语音信号是否长时缺失,从而保证了模型的稳定性.实验表明,算法性能整体优于经典的MS和IMCRA算法。     

An iterative noise cross-PSD estimation for two-microphone speech enhancement

Among various speech enhancement methods, dual-microphone methods are of a great importance for their low cost implementation and for exploiting spatial-filtering benefits of the microphone arrays. Coherence based methods are well-known as efficient two-microphone noise reduction techniques. These techniques do not work well, when received noise signals are correlated. These can be improved when the cross power spectral density (CPSD) of noise is available. In this paper, we propose an iterative approach for estimation of the noise CPSD to be employed in coherence based methods. We compare the proposed iterative noise CPSD estimation with a noise CPSD estimation technique based on voice activity detector (VAD), both of which are employed in a two-microphone speech enhancement, separately. Evaluation results show that the two-microphone speech enhancement scheme utilizing the proposed noise CPSD estimation technique performs superior than the enhancement system using the VAD-based noise CPSD estimation.     

A study on the optimal English speech level for Chinese listeners in classrooms

Speech intelligibility in classrooms affects the learning efficiency of students directly, especially for the students who are using a second language. The speech intelligibility value is determined by many factors such as speech level, signal to noise ratio, and reverberation time in the rooms. This paper investigates the contributions of these factors with subjective tests, especially speech level, which is required for designing the optimal gain for sound amplification systems in classrooms. The test material was generated by mixing the convolution output of the English Coordinate Response Measure corpus and the room impulse responses with the background noise. The subjects are all Chinese students who use English as a second language. It is found that the speech intelligibility increases first and then decreases with the increase of speech level, and the optimal English speech level is about 71 dBA in classrooms for Chinese listeners when the signal to noise ratio and the reverberation time keep constant. Finally, a regression equation is proposed to predict the speech intelligibility based on speech level, signal to noise ratio, and reverberation time.     

Aircrafts’ taxi noise. Sound power level and directivity frequency band results

When noise mapping airports, the main noise sources are take offs and landings. But aircrafts’ taxi noise can also be important, and should be considered, for instance when there are residential buildings near the airport’s terminal.Main prediction tools, like Integrated Noise Model (INM), do not consider taxiing and standard outdoors noise predictions software applications must be used, to model taxi as industrial noise sources.This technical note shows frequency band sound power levels and directivity data for several aircrafts’ classes; so that an acoustic consultant can include taxi for noise mapping an airport.     

A new efficient two-channel backward algorithm for speech intelligibility enhancement: A subband approach

This paper addresses the problem of speech intelligibility enhancement by adaptive filtering algorithms employed with subband techniques. The two structures named the forward and backward blind source separation structures are extensively used in the speech enhancement and source separation areas, and largely studied in the literature with convolutive and non-convolutive mixtures. These two structures use two-microphones to generate the convolutive/non-convolutive mixing signal, and provide at the outputs the target and the jammer signal components. In this paper, we focus our interest on the backward structure employed to enhance the speech signal from a convolutive mixture. Furthermore, we propose a subband implementation of this structure to improve its behavior with speech signal. The new proposed subband-Backward BSS (SBBSS) structure allows a very important improvement of the convergence speed of the adaptive filtering algorithms when the subband-number is selected high. In order to improve the robustness of the proposed subband structure, we have adapted then applied a new criterion that combines the System Mismatch and the Mean-Errors criterion minimization. The proposed subband backward structure, when it is combined with this new criterion minimization, allows to enhance the output speech signal by reducing the distortion and the noise components. The performance of the proposed subband backward structure is validated through several objective criteria which are given and described in this paper.     

Noise reduction of speech signals using time-varying and multi-band adaptive gain control for smart digital hearing protectors

In this paper, a single-channel speech enhancement algorithm based on non-linear and multi-band Adaptive Gain Control (AGC) is proposed. The algorithm requires neither Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) nor noise parameters estimation. It reduces the background noise in the temporal domain rather than the spectral domain using a non-linear and automatically adjustable gain function for multi-band AGC. The gain function varies in time and is deduced from the temporal envelope of each frequency band to highly compress the frequency regions where noise is present and lightly compress the frequency regions where speech is present. Objective evaluation using the PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) metric shows that the proposed algorithm performs better than three benchmarks, namely: the spectral subtraction, the Wiener filter based on a priori SNR estimation and a band-pass modulation filtering algorithm. In addition, blind subjective tests show that the proposed algorithm introduces less musical noise compared to the benchmark algorithms and was preferred 78.8% of the time in terms of signal quality. The proposed algorithm is implemented in a miniature low power digital signal processor to validate its feasibility and complexity for smart hearing protection in noisy environments.     

Dielectric inserts for sensitivity and RF magnetic field enhancement in NMR volume coils

A method for enhancing the signal to noise ratio (SNR) in NMR volume coils is described. By introducing inserts made of low-loss, high dielectric constant material into specific locations in the coil, the SNR can often be enhanced by up to 20%, while B₁ homogeneity is hardly affected. A model for predicting the limit of the SNR improvement is also presented. The model accurately predicts the SNR gain obtained in both numerical simulations and experiment. An experiment was conducted on a mini-MRI system. Experimental results are in very good agreement with the simulations in regard to both SNR improvement and B₁ enhancement in transmission. Inserts made of ultra high dielectric constant materials can be as thin as few millimeters, thus, conveniently fitting into existing coil-sample gaps in volume coils.