IP Library › Granted Patent US 9,747,921
Granted Patent B2
US 9,747,921 · App. 15/120,678 · Granted Aug 29, 2017

Signal processing apparatus, method, and program

Inventors: Kenta Niwa (Musashino, JP); Kazunori Kobayashi (Musashino, JP)
Assignee: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
G10L21/0232G10L21/0264G10L21/0324H04R1/406H04R3/00G10L2021/02166
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 9,747,921
App. No.
15/120,678
Granted
Aug 29, 2017
Kind
B2
Abstract

A signal processing technique the noise suppressing performance of which is more improved than conventional one is provided. A first component extraction unit 14 extracts a non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a sound coming from a target area and a stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise from a power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area through processing of time average. A second component extraction unit 15 extracts a non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise and a stationary component ^φ N (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise from a power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of a noise area.

Claims (252)

1. A signal processing apparatus comprising:

a local PSD estimation unit that estimates each of a local power spectrum density of a predetermined target area and that of at least one noise area different from the target area based on an observation signal of a frequency domain obtained from a signal collected with M microphones forming a microphone array;

a target area/noise area PSD estimation unit that estimates a power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area and a power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area based on the estimated local power spectrum density, ω being a frequency and τ being an index of a frame;

a first component extraction unit that extracts a non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a sound coming from the target area and a stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise from the power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area;

a second component extraction unit that extracts a non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise from the power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area; and

a various noise responding gain calculation unit that uses at least the non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a sound coming from the target area, the stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise, and the non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise to calculate a post-filter {tilde over ( )}G(ω, τ) emphasizing the non-stationary component of the sound coming from the target area.

2. The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise is a component obtained by smoothing the power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area, the non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a sound coming from the target area is a component obtained by removing the stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise from the power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area, and

the non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise is a component obtained by removing the component obtained by smoothing the power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area from the power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area.

3. The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein

the second component extraction unit further extracts the non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise from the power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area,

the first component extraction unit, with α S being a predetermined actual number, Y S being a set of indexes of frames for a predetermined interval, and β S (ω) being a predetermined actual number, calculates ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) and ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) defined by a formula below to set ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) thus calculated to the non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a noise coming from the target area and set ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) thus calculated to the stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise,

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the second component extraction unit, with α N being a predetermined actual number, Y N being a set of indexes of frames for a predetermined interval, and β N (ω) being a predetermined actual number, calculates ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) and ^φ N (B) (ω, τ) defined by a formula below to set ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) thus calculated to the non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise and set ^φ N (B) (ω, τ) to the stationary component ^φ N (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise,

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and

the various noise responding gain calculation unit further uses the stationary component ^φ N (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise to calculate the post-filter {tilde over ( )}G(ω, τ) emphasizing the non-stationary component of the sound coming from the target area.

4. The signal processing apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:

a time frequency averaging unit that performs smoothing processing in at least one of a time direction and a frequency direction with respect to the post-filter {tilde over ( )}G(ω, τ); and

a gain shaping unit that performs gain shaping with respect to the post-filter {tilde over ( )}G(ω, τ) subjected to the smoothing processing.

5. A non-transitory computer readable recording medium in which a program for causing a computer to function as each unit of the signal processing apparatus according to claim 1 is stored.

6. A signal processing method comprising:

a local PSD estimation step of estimating each of a local power spectrum density of a target area and that of at least one noise area different from the target area based on an observation signal of a frequency domain obtained from a signal collected with M microphones forming a microphone array;

a target area/noise area PSD estimation step of estimating a power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area and a power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area based on the estimated local power spectrum density, ω being a frequency and τ being an index of a frame;

a first component extraction step of extracting a non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a sound coming from the target area and a stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise from the power spectrum density ^φ S (ω, τ) of the target area;

a second component extraction step of extracting a non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise from the power spectrum density ^φ N (ω, τ) of the noise area; and

a various noise responding gain calculation step of using at least the non-stationary component ^φ S (A) (ω, τ) derived from a sound coming from the target area, the stationary component ^φ S (B) (ω, τ) derived from an incoherent noise, and the non-stationary component ^φ N (A) (ω, τ) derived from an interference noise to calculate a post-filter {tilde over ( )}G(ω, τ) emphasizing the non-stationary component of the sound coming from the target area.

Assignments (1)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Aug 22, 2016
From: NIWA, KENTA; KOBAYASHI, KAZUNORI
To: NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 039499/0546 →
Priority Claims (1)
JP 2014-037820 · Feb 28, 2014 · national
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20160372131A1 · Dec 22, 2016