IP Library Granted Patent US 6,952,482
Granted Patent B2
US 6,952,482 · App. 10/007,460 · Granted Oct 4, 2005

Method and apparatus for noise filtering

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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 6,952,482
App. No.
10/007,460
Granted
Oct 4, 2005
Kind
B2
Abstract

Disclosed is an apparatus for and a method of filtering noise from a mixed sound signal to obtained a filtered target signal, comprising the steps of inputting the mixed signal through a pair of microphones into a first channel and a second channel, separately Fourier transforming each said mixed signal into the frequency domain, computing a signal short-time spectral amplitude |Ŝ| from said transformed signals, computing a signal short-time spectral complex exponential e i arg(S) from said transformed signals, where arg(S) is the phase of the target signal in the frequency domain, computing said target signal S in the frequency domain from said spectral amplitude and said complex exponential.

Claims (947)

1. A method of filtering noise from a mixed sound signal to obtained a filtered target signal, comprising the steps of:

inputting the mixed signal through a pair of microphones into a first channel and a second channel;

separately Fourier transforming each said mixed signal into the frequency domain;

computing a signal short-time spectral amplitude |Ŝ| from said transformed signals;

computing a signal short-time spectral complex exponential e i arg(S) from said transformed signals, where arg(S) is the phase of the target signal in the frequency domain;

computing said target signal S in the frequency domain from said spectral amplitude and said complex exponential, further comprising the step of computing a spectral power matrix and using said spectral power matrix to compute said spectral amplitude and said spectral complex exponential.

2. The method of claim 1 wherein said target signal S in the frequency domain is inverse Fourier transformed to produce a filtered target signal s in the time domain.

3. The method of claim 1 wherein said spectral power matrix is computed by spectral channel subtraction.

4. The method of claim 1 wherein said signal short-time spectral amplitude is computed by the estimation equation

S

^

=

E

[

S

|

X

1

,

X

2

]

=

π

2

1

C

1

exp

(

-

C

2

2

8

C

1

)

[

1

+

C

2

2

4

C

1

I

0

(

C

2

2

8

C

1

)

+

C

2

2

4

C

1

I

1

(

C

2

2

8

C

2

)

]

where

I

0

(

z

)

=

1

2

π

0

2

π

exp

(

z

cos

β

)

β

,

I

n

(

1

)

=

1

2

π

0

2

π

cos

(

β

)

exp

(

z

cos

β

)

β

,

C

1

=

1

ρ

s

+

1

det

R

n

(

R

22

+

R

11

K

2

-

K

R

12

-

K

_

R

21

)

,

C

2

=

2

det

R

n

X

_

1

R

22

+

X

_

2

K

R

11

-

X

2

R

12

-

X

1

K

_

R

21

,

X 1 and X 2 are the Fourier transformed first and second signals respectively, R nm are elements of said spectral power matrix, and K is a constant.

5. The method of claim 1 wherein said signal short-time spectral complex exponential is computed by the estimation equation

z

ar

g

^

(

S

)

=

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

.

6. The method of claim 1 wherein said signal short-time spectral complex exponential is computed by the estimation equation

z

ar

g

^

(

S

)

=

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

.

7. The method of claim 6 wherein said target signal S in the frequency domain is computed by the equation

S=zA.

8. The method of claim 1 wherein said target signal is computed by multiplying said signal short-time spectral amplitude by said signal short-time spectral complex exponential.

9. The method of claim 1 further comprising the step of calibrating a function K(ω), said function equal to a ratio of one said Fourier transformed signal to the other, by the estimation equation

K

(

ω

)

=

t

=

1

F

X

2

c

(

l

,

ω

)

X

1

c

(

l

·

ω

)

_

t

=

1

F

X

1

c

(

l

,

ω

)

2

where X 1 c (l,ω), X 2 c (l,ω) represents the discrete windowed Fourier transform at frequency ω, and time-frame index l of the transformed signals x 1 c , x 2 c within time frame c.

10. An apparatus for filtering noise from a mixed sound signal to obtained a filtered target signal, comprising:

a pair of input channels for receiving mixed signals from a pair of microphones;

a pair of Fourier transformers, each receiving a mixed signal from one of said channels and Fourier transforming said mixed signal into a transformed signal in the frequency domain;

a filter, said filter receiving said transformed signals and computing a signal short-time spectral amplitude |Ŝ| and a signal short-time spectral complex exponential e i arg(S) from said transformed signals, where arg(S) is the phase of the target signal in the frequency domain;

Wherein said filter computes said target signal S in the frequency domain from said spectral amplitude and said complex exponential and further comprising a spectral power matrix updater, said updater receiving said transformed signals and computing therefrom a spectral power matrix, and outputting said spectral power matrix to said filter.

11. The apparatus of claim 10 further comprising an inverse Fourier transformer receiving said target signal S in the frequency domain and inverse Fourier transforming said target signal into a filtered target signal s in the time domain.

12. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by machine to perform method steps for filtering noise from a mixed sound signal to obtained a filtered target signal, said method steps comprising:

inputting the mixed signal through a pair of microphones into a first channel and a second channel;

separately Fourier transforming each said mixed signal into the frequency domain;

computing a signal short-time spectral amplitude |Ŝ| from said transformed signals;

computing a signal short-time spectral complex exponential e i arg(S) from said transformed signals, where arg(S) is the phase of the target signal in the frequency domain;

computing said target signal S in the frequency domain from said spectral amplitude and said complex exponential, further comprising the step of computing a spectral power matrix and using said spectral power matrix to compute said spectral amplitude and said spectral complex exponential.

13. The device of claim 12 wherein said target signal S in the frequency domain is inverse Fourier transformed to produce a filtered target signal s in the time domain.

14. The device of claim 12 wherein said spectral power matrix is computed by spectral channel subtraction.

15. The device of claim 12 wherein said signal short-time spectral amplitude is computed by the estimation equation

S

^

=

E

[

S

|

X

1

,

X

2

]

=

π

2

1

C

1

exp

(

-

C

2

2

8

C

1

)

[

1

+

C

2

2

4

C

1

I

0

(

C

2

2

8

C

1

)

+

C

2

2

4

C

1

I

1

(

C

2

2

8

C

2

)

]

where

I

0

(

z

)

=

1

2

π

0

2

π

exp

(

z

cos

β

)

β

,

I

n

(

1

)

=

1

2

π

0

2

π

cos

(

β

)

exp

(

z

cos

β

)

β

,

C

1

=

1

ρ

s

+

1

det

R

n

(

R

22

+

R

11

K

2

-

K

R

12

-

K

_

R

21

)

,

C

2

=

2

det

R

n

X

_

1

R

22

+

X

_

2

K

R

11

-

X

2

R

12

-

X

1

K

_

R

21

,

X 1 and X 2 are the Fourier transformed first and second signals respectively, R nm are elements of said spectral power matrix, and K is a constant.

16. The device of claim 12 wherein said signal short-time spectral complex exponential is computed by the estimation equation

z

ar

g

^

(

S

)

=

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

.

17. The device of claim 12 wherein said signal short-time spectral complex exponential is computed by the estimation equation

z

ar

g

^

(

S

)

=

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

R

22

X

1

+

R

11

K

_

X

2

-

R

21

K

_

X

1

-

R

12

X

2

.

18. The device of claim 17 wherein said target signal S in the frequency domain is computed by the equation

S=zA.

19. The device of claim 12 wherein said target signal is computed by multiplying said signal short-time spectral amplitude by said signal short-time spectral complex exponential.

20. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by machine to perform method steps for filtering noise from a mixed sound signal to obtained a filtered target signal, said method steps comprising:

inputting the mixed signal through a pair of microphones into a first channel and a second channel;

separately Fourier transforming each said mixed signal into the frequency domain;

computing a signal short-time spectral amplitude |Ŝ| from said transformed signals;

computing a signal short-time spectral complex exponential e i arg(S) from said transformed signals, where arg(S) is the phase of the target signal in the frequency domain;

computing said target signal S in the frequency domain from said spectral amplitude and said complex exponential, further comprising the step of calibrating a function K(ω), said function equal to a ratio of one said Fourier transformed signal to the other, by the estimation equation

K

(

ω

)

=

t

=

1

F

X

2

c

(

l

,

ω

)

X

1

c

(

l

·

ω

)

_

t

=

1

F

X

1

c

(

l

,

ω

)

2

where X 1 c (l,ω), X 2 c (l,ω) represents the discrete windowed Fourier transform at frequency ω, and time-frame index l of the transformed signals x 1 c , x 2 c within time frame c.

21. A program storage device readable by machine, tangibly embodying a program of instructions executable by machine to perform method steps for filtering noise from a mixed sound signal to obtained a filtered target signal, said method steps comprising:

inputting the mixed signal through a pair of microphones into a first channel and a second channel;

separately Fourier transforming each said mixed signal into the frequency domain;

computing a signal short-time spectral amplitude |Ŝ| from said transformed signals;

computing a signal short-time spectral complex exponential e i arg(S) from said transformed signals, where arg(S) is the phase of the target signal in the frequency domain;

computing said target signal S in the frequency domain from said spectral amplitude and said complex exponential, further comprising the step of updating a function K(ω), said function equal to a ratio of one said Fourier transformed signal to the other, said updating effected by using a linear combination between a previous value for K(ω) at a time t−1 and a current value for K(ω) at a time t according to the equation

K t (ω)=(1−α) K t−1 (ω)+α K (ω)

where α is an adaptation rate.

Assignments (2)
MERGER Recorded Apr 5, 2010
From: SIEMENS CORPORATE RESEARCH, INC.
To: SIEMENS CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 024185/0042 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Feb 19, 2002
From: BALAN, RADU VICTOR; ROSCA, JUSTINIAN
To: SIEMENS CORPORATE RESEARCH, INC.
Reel/Frame 012624/0632 →