Speech enhancement using an equivalent source inverse filtering-based microphone array

Abstract

This paper presents a microphone array technique aimed at enhancing speech quality in a reverberant environment. This technique is based on the central idea of single-input-multiple-output equivalent source inverse filtering (SIMO-ESIF). The inverse filters required by the time-domain processing in the technique serve two purposes: de-reverberation and noise reduction. The proposed approach could be useful in telecommunication applications such as automotive hands-free systems, where noise-corrupted speech signal generally needs to be enhanced. SIMO-ESIF can be further enhanced against uncertainties and perturbations by including an adaptive generalized side-lobe canceller. The system is implemented and validated experimentally in a car. As indicated by numerous performance measures, the proposed system proved effective in reducing noise in human speech without significantly compromising the speech quality. In addition, listening tests were conducted to assess the subjective performance of the proposed system, with results processed by using the analysis of variance and a post hoc Fisher's least significant difference (LSD) test to assess the pairwise difference between the noise reduction (NR) algorithms. (C) 2010 Acoustical Society of America. [DOI: 10.1121/1.3291684]