• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.30 no.7
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• pp.383-389
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• 2011

In this paper, we propose a improved speech absence probability estimation algorithm by applying environmental noise classification for speech enhancement. The previous speech absence probability required to seek a priori probability of speech absence was derived by applying microphone input signal and the noise signal based on the estimated value of a posteriori SNR threshold. In this paper, the proposed algorithm estimates the speech absence probability using noise classification algorithm which is based on Gaussian mixture model in order to apply the optimal parameter each noise types, unlike the conventional fixed threshold and smoothing parameter. Performance of the proposed enhancement algorithm is evaluated by ITU-T P.862 PESQ (perceptual evaluation of speech quality) and composite measure under various noise environments. It is verified that the proposed algorithm yields better results compared to the conventional speech absence probability estimation algorithm.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.7
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• pp.668-673
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose the minima controlled speech presence uncertainty tracking method to improve a speech enhancement. In the conventional tracking speech presence uncertainty, we propose a method for estimating distinct values of the a priori speech absence probability for different frames and channels. This estimation is inherently based on a posteriori SNR and used in estimating the speech absence probability (SAP). In this paper, we propose a novel estimation of distinct values of the a priori speech absence probability, which is based on minima controlled speech presence uncertainty tracking method, for different frames and channels. Subsequently, estimation is applied to the calculation of speech absence probability for speech enhancement. Performance of the proposed enhancement algorithm is evaluated by ITU-T P. 862 perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) under various noise environments. We show that the proposed algorithm yields better results compared to the conventional tracking speech presence uncertainty.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.153-158
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• 2007

This paper presents a new approach to noise estimation to improve speech enhancement in non-stationary noisy environments. The proposed method combines the two separate noise power estimates provided by the minimum statistics (MS) for speech presence and soft decision (SD) for speech absence in accordance with SAP (Speech Absence Probability) on a separate frequency bin. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by the subjective test under various noise environments and yields better results compared with the conventional MS or SD-based schemes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Broadcast Engineers Conference
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• 2010.07a
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• pp.150-151
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• 2010

본 논문에서는 잡음환경에서의 이중채널 음성인식을 위한 통계모델 기반 음성구간 검출 방법을 제안한다. 제안된 방법에서는 다채널 입력 신호로부터 얻어진 공간정보를 이용하여 음성 존재 및 부재 확률모델을 구하고 이를 통해 음성구간 검출을 행한다. 이때, 공간정보는 두 채널간의 상호 시간 차이와 상호 크기 차이로, 음성 존재 및 부재 확률은 가우시안 커널 밀도 기반의 확률모델로 표현된다. 그리고 음성구간은 각 시간 프레임 별 음성 존재 확률 대비 음성 부재 확률의 비를 추정하여 검출된다. 제안된 음성구간 검출 방법의 평가를 위해 검출된 구간만을 입력으로 하는 음성인식 성능을 측정한다. 실험결과, 제안된 공간정보를 이용하는 통계모델 기반의 음성구간 검출 방법이 주파수 에너지를 이용하는 통계모델 기반의 음성구간 검출 방법과 주파수 스펙트럼 밀도 기반 음성구간 검출 방법에 비해 각각 15.6%, 15.4%의 상대적 오인식률 개선을 보였다.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.34 no.6C
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• pp.588-592
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• 2009

In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the performance of the global soft decision which is based on the second-order conditional maximum a posteriori (CMAP). Conventional global soft decision scheme has an disadvantage in that the speech absence probability adjusted by a fixed-parameter was sensitive to the various noise environments. In proposed approach using the second-order CMAP, speech absence probability value is more flexible which exploit not only the current observation but also the speech activity decisions in the previous two frames. Experimental results show that the proposed improved global soft decision method based on second-order conditional MAP yields better results compared to the conventional global soft decision technique with the performance criteria of the ITU-T P. 862 perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ).

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.27 no.2
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• pp.75-79
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• 2008

In this paper, we propose a novel speech enhancement technique using global soft decision (GSD) based on the probabilistic outputs of support vector machine (SVM). Generally, speech enhancement algorithms applied soft decision gain modification and noise power estimation have bettor performance than those employing hard decision. Especially, global speech absence probability (GSAP), which is known as an effective measure of the speech absence in each frame, has been adopted to SD-based speech enhancement methods. For this reason, we introduce a new GSAP estimated from the probabilistic output of SVM using sigmoid function. The performance of the proposed algorithm is evaluated by the PESQ and MOS test under various noise environments and yields better results compared with the conventional GSD scheme.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.47 no.1
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• pp.175-182
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• 2010

In this paper, we propose a robust speech reinforcement technique to enhance the intelligibility of the degraded speech signal under the ambient noise environments based on soft decision scheme incorporating a speech absence probability (SAP) with speech reinforcement gains. Since the ambient noise significantly decreases the intelligibility of the speech signal, the speech reinforcement approach to amplify the estimated clean speech signal from the background noise environments for improving the intelligibility and clarity of the corrupted speech signal was proposed. In order to estimate the robust reinforcement gain rather than the conventional speech reinforcement method between speech active periods and nonspeech periods or transient intervals, we propose the speech reinforcement algorithm based on soft decision applying the SAP to the estimation of speech reinforcement gains. The performances of the proposed algorithm are evaluated by the Comparison Category Rating (CCR) of the measurement for subjective determination of transmission quality in ITU-T P.800 under various ambient noise environments and show better performances compared with the conventional method.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.97-103
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a novel voice activity detection (VAD) algorithm to effectively distinguish speech from nonspeech in various noisy environments. Global speech absence probability (GSAP) derived from likelihood ratio (LR) based on the statistical model is widely used as the feature parameter for VAD. However, the feature parameter based on conventional GSAP is not sufficient to distinguish speech from noise at low SNRs (signal-to-noise ratios). The presented VAD algorithm utilizes GSAP based on Teager energy (TE) as the feature parameter to provide the improved performance of decision for speech segments in noisy environment. Performances of the proposed VAD algorithm are evaluated by objective test under various environments and better results compared with the conventional methods are obtained.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SP
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• v.49 no.1
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• pp.104-111
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• 2012

In this paper, we propose a novel method to improve the performance of the improved minima controlled recursive averaging (IMCRA). From an examination for various noise environment, it is shown that the IMCRA has a fundamental drawback for the noise power estimate at the offset region of continuity speech signals. Espectially, it is difficult to obtain the robust estimates of the noise power in non-stationary noisy environments that is rapidly changed the spectral characteristics such as babble noise. To overcome the drawback, we apply the global speech absence probability (GSAP) conditioned on both a priori SNR and a posteriori SNR to the speech detection algorithm of IMCRA. With the performance criteria of the ITU-T P.862 perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) and a composite measure test, we show that the proposed algorithm yields better results compared to the conventional IMCRA-based scheme under various noise environments. In particular, in the case of babble 5 dB, the proposed method produced a remarkable improvement compared to the IMCRA ( PESQ = 0.026, composite measure = 0.029 ).

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.77-83
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• 2009

This paper proposes a new noise-biased compensation of minimum statistics(MS) method using a nonlinear function and a priori speech absence probability(SAP) for speech enhancement in non-stationary noisy environments. The minimum statistics(MS) method is well known technique for noise power estimation in non-stationary noisy environments. It tends to bias the noise estimate below that of true noise level. The proposed method is combined with an adaptive parameter based on a sigmoid function and a priori speech absence probability (SAP) for biased compensation. Specifically. we apply the adaptive parameter according to the a posteriori SNR. In addition, when the a priori SAP equals unity, the adaptive biased compensation factor separately increases ${\delta}_{max}$ each frequency bin, and vice versa. We evaluate the estimation of noise power capability in highly non-stationary and various noise environments, the improvement in the segmental signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and the Itakura-Saito Distortion Measure (ISDM) integrated into a spectral subtraction (SS). The results shows that our proposed method is superior to the conventional MS approach.