Codebook-based Bayesian speech enhancement for nonstationary environments

In this paper, we propose a Bayesian minimum mean squared error approach for the joint estimation of the short-term predictor parameters of speech and noise, from the noisy observation. We use trained codebooks of speech and noise linear predictive coefficients to model the a priori information required by the Bayesian scheme. In contrast to current Bayesian estimation approaches that consider the excitation variances as part of the a priori information, in the proposed method they are computed online for each short-time segment, based on the observation at hand. Consequently, the method performs well in nonstationary noise conditions. The resulting estimates of the speech and noise spectra can be used in a Wiener filter or any state-of-the-art speech enhancement system. We develop both memoryless (using information from the current frame alone) and memory-based (using information from the current and previous frames) estimators. Estimation of functions of the short-term predictor parameters is also addressed, in particular one that leads to the minimum mean squared error estimate of the clean speech signal. Experiments indicate that the scheme proposed in this paper performs significantly better than competing method

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