Reverberation suppression apparatus used for auditory device

Inventors: Masahiro Sunohara (Kokubunji, JP); Mariko Nakaichi (Kokubunji, JP)

Assignee: RION CO., LTD.

G10L21/034 G10L21/0208 H04R3/00 G10L2021/02082

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Quick Facts

Patent No.: US 9,530,429
App. No.: 14/836,332
Granted: Dec 27, 2016
Kind: B2

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Abstract

A reverberation suppression apparatus includes: an instantaneous value calculation unit that calculates an instantaneous value/instantaneous values in an envelope of values correlating with the absolute value or the square of an input signal; a reverberation estimation unit that calculates an exponential moving average of the instantaneous value(s) as an estimated reverberation component; a gain derivation unit that derives a gain corresponding to the input signal according to the estimated reverberation component and the instantaneous value(s) when the each instantaneous value is larger than the estimated reverberation component, and derives a lower limit of the gain as the gain corresponding to the input signal when the each instantaneous value is smaller than the estimated reverberation component; a smoothing unit that performs a smoothing process on the gain; and a gain processing unit that applies the gain to amplitude adjustment of the input signal thereafter.

Claims (47)

1. A reverberation suppression apparatus comprising:

an instantaneous value calculation unit that calculates an instantaneous value/instantaneous values in an envelope of values correlating with the absolute value or the square of an input signal;

a reverberation estimation unit that calculates an exponential moving average of the instantaneous value(s) as an estimated reverberation component;

a gain derivation unit that derives a gain corresponding to the input signal according to the estimated reverberation component and the instantaneous value(s) for a period of time during which the each instantaneous value is larger than the estimated reverberation component, and derives a lower limit of the gain as the gain corresponding to the input signal for a period of time during which the each instantaneous value is smaller than the estimated reverberation component;

a smoothing unit that performs a smoothing process on the gain derived by the gain derivation unit; and

a gain processing unit that applies the gain after the smoothing process to amplitude adjustment of the input signal.

2. The reverberation suppression apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the gain derivation unit derives the gain varying according to the estimated reverberation component and the instantaneous value(s) with a predetermined characteristic parameter for the period of time during which the instantaneous value is larger than the estimated reverberation component, and the lower limit is a predetermined constant for the period of time during which the instantaneous value is smaller than the estimated reverberation component.

3. The reverberation suppression apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the predetermined characteristic parameter includes a first exponent a and a second exponent b, and is obtained by a calculation formula by which the difference between the a-th power of the instantaneous value and the a-th power of the estimated reverberation component is divided by the a-th power of the instantaneous value, and the resultant value is raised to the b-th power.

4. The reverberation suppression apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the smoothing process is to calculate the exponential moving average of the gain derived by the gain derivation unit.

5. The reverberation suppression apparatus according to claim 2 , wherein the smoothing process is to calculate the exponential moving average of the gain derived by the gain derivation unit.

6. The reverberation suppression apparatus according to claim 3 , wherein the smoothing process is to calculate the exponential moving average of the gain derived by the gain derivation unit.

7. The reverberation suppression apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising an analysis filter bank and a synthesis filter bank, wherein

the analysis filter bank divides the input signal into a predetermined number of frequency band components,

the values correlating with the absolute value or the square of the input signal are values correlating with the absolute value or the square of each of the predetermined number of frequency band components,

the gain corresponding to the input signal is a gain corresponding to each of the predetermined number of frequency band components,

the gain processing unit applies the corresponding gain after the smoothing process to amplitude adjustment of each of the predetermined number of frequency band components, and