1,106 research outputs found
Speech Dereverberation Based on Integrated Deep and Ensemble Learning Algorithm
Reverberation, which is generally caused by sound reflections from walls,
ceilings, and floors, can result in severe performance degradation of acoustic
applications. Due to a complicated combination of attenuation and time-delay
effects, the reverberation property is difficult to characterize, and it
remains a challenging task to effectively retrieve the anechoic speech signals
from reverberation ones. In the present study, we proposed a novel integrated
deep and ensemble learning algorithm (IDEA) for speech dereverberation. The
IDEA consists of offline and online phases. In the offline phase, we train
multiple dereverberation models, each aiming to precisely dereverb speech
signals in a particular acoustic environment; then a unified fusion function is
estimated that aims to integrate the information of multiple dereverberation
models. In the online phase, an input utterance is first processed by each of
the dereverberation models. The outputs of all models are integrated
accordingly to generate the final anechoic signal. We evaluated the IDEA on
designed acoustic environments, including both matched and mismatched
conditions of the training and testing data. Experimental results confirm that
the proposed IDEA outperforms single deep-neural-network-based dereverberation
model with the same model architecture and training data
Block-Online Multi-Channel Speech Enhancement Using DNN-Supported Relative Transfer Function Estimates
This work addresses the problem of block-online processing for multi-channel
speech enhancement. Such processing is vital in scenarios with moving speakers
and/or when very short utterances are processed, e.g., in voice assistant
scenarios. We consider several variants of a system that performs beamforming
supported by DNN-based voice activity detection (VAD) followed by
post-filtering. The speaker is targeted through estimating relative transfer
functions between microphones. Each block of the input signals is processed
independently in order to make the method applicable in highly dynamic
environments. Owing to the short length of the processed block, the statistics
required by the beamformer are estimated less precisely. The influence of this
inaccuracy is studied and compared to the processing regime when recordings are
treated as one block (batch processing). The experimental evaluation of the
proposed method is performed on large datasets of CHiME-4 and on another
dataset featuring moving target speaker. The experiments are evaluated in terms
of objective and perceptual criteria (such as signal-to-interference ratio
(SIR) or perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), respectively).
Moreover, word error rate (WER) achieved by a baseline automatic speech
recognition system is evaluated, for which the enhancement method serves as a
front-end solution. The results indicate that the proposed method is robust
with respect to short length of the processed block. Significant improvements
in terms of the criteria and WER are observed even for the block length of 250
ms.Comment: 10 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables. Modified version of the article
accepted for publication in IET Signal Processing journal. Original results
unchanged, additional experiments presented, refined discussion and
conclusion
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