JP2006227328A - Sound processor - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To estimate directions of sound sources with high accuracy even when the number of sound sources is lager than the number of microphones. <P>SOLUTION: This sound processor has a sound source duplication judging part which judges whether a band divided signal which is obtained by performing a band division is a signal in which a plurality of sound sources are duplicated or a signal which consists of one sound source, and the sound processor can estimate directions of the sound sources with high accuracy by estimating the directions of the sound sources using only frequency components in which sound sources are not duplicated. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI

Description

  The present invention belongs to a sound source separation technique for restoring only a target sound, for example, from a signal obtained by mixing voice, music, and various noises observed with a plurality of microphone elements.

  Conventionally, there has been a sound source localization technique that estimates the direction of a sound source using a plurality of microphone elements. There are two conventional sound source localization technologies: a blind spot forming type sound source localization technology and a sound source localization technology using the sparseness of speech.

  The blind spot forming type sound source localization technique calculates the power of sound for each direction by forming a blind spot in the direction of the sound source that exists outside the direction of the determination target and extracting only the sound in the direction of the determination target. Then, the sound source direction is estimated from the sound power for each direction. It is known that the blind spot forming type sound source localization technology can estimate the sound source direction with high accuracy when the number of sound sources is less than the number of microphones. (For example, refer nonpatent literature 1).

  The sound source localization technology using the sparseness of speech is based on the premise that the probability that multiple sound sources hold the same frequency component at the same time is low, and assigns each band division signal all in one direction, This is a method of calculating the sound power for each direction and estimating the sound source direction from the sound power for each direction (see, for example, Patent Document 1).

JP 2003-271167 A

Toshiro Oga, Yoshio Yamazaki, Yutaka Kaneda, "Acoustic systems and digital processing," IEICE, pp.203-209, 1995/3/25

The conventional blind spot forming type sound source localization technology has a problem that the sound source localization performance deteriorates when the number of sound sources is larger than the number of microphones.
In addition, the conventional sound source localization technology that uses the sparsity of speech has less degradation in sound source localization performance when the number of sound sources is greater than the number of microphones, compared to the blind spot forming type sound source localization technology, but in principle the same frequency at the same time When the premise that the probability that a plurality of sound sources share a component is low is not satisfied, performance degradation occurs.
When a sound source other than sound such as music is included in the sound source, there is a problem that the probability that a plurality of sound sources share the same frequency component at the same time is increased, resulting in performance degradation.

A sound source duplication determination unit that determines whether a band division signal obtained by band division is a signal in which a plurality of sound sources overlap or a signal composed of only one sound source.
Specifically, a sound source localization unit that estimates a sound source direction from a signal from a microphone array divided into a plurality of frequency bands for each channel, and a sound source separation unit that emphasizes the band division signal for each estimated sound source direction; A sound source duplication determination unit that determines whether the signal is from a plurality or a single sound source for each band using the emphasized band division signal and the information on the estimated sound source direction, and from a single sound source An audio processing apparatus that performs sound source search using a signal determined to be a band division signal.

  In the present invention, it is determined whether or not a plurality of sound sources are overlapped, and only the band division signal from which a single sound source is sounded is used for sound source localization, so that a plurality of sound sources are overlapped and sound source direction information is lost. Do not use band components. Therefore, compared with the prior art, it is possible to know the direction in which voice or music is being played with high accuracy.

  Embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a basic configuration diagram of a speech processing apparatus according to the present invention. The microphone array 1 includes a plurality of microphones and records sound signals. The sound signal recorded by the microphone array 1 is sent to the band dividing unit 2. In the band dividing unit 2, the sound signal is subjected to a short-time Fourier transform for each microphone and converted into a band divided signal. The sound signal divided by the band dividing unit 2 is sent to the sound source localization unit 3. The sound source localization unit 3 estimates the sound source direction for each band and outputs the sound source direction for each band. The sound source separation unit 4 emphasizes and extracts the sound in the sound source direction output from the sound source localization unit 3 for each band, and outputs it. In the sound source overlap amount estimation unit 5, the signal is a signal obtained by mixing a plurality of sound sources for each band from the enhancement signal for each band output from the sound source separation unit 4 and the band division signal output from the band division unit 2. A sound source overlap amount, which is an index for determining whether the signal is composed of only sound sources, is calculated.

  The sound source overlap determination unit 6 determines whether the signal is a signal obtained by mixing a plurality of sound sources for each band or a signal composed of only a single sound source from the sound source overlap amount scale output by the sound source overlap amount estimation unit 5. The sound source direction search unit 7 searches for the sound source direction using only the sound source direction of the band division signal determined to be a signal consisting of only a single sound source by the sound source overlap determination unit 6, and outputs the searched sound source direction. . If a band division signal in which a plurality of sound sources are mixed is used when searching for the sound source direction, it is difficult to estimate the correct sound source direction. The sound source direction searching unit 7 can search the sound source direction using only the band division signal consisting of only a single sound source, and can estimate the sound source direction with high accuracy. Each unit other than the microphone array shown in FIG. 1 is realized by reading a program into a control unit of a computer. Alternatively, it may be realized by hardware, hardware and software cooperative processing.

Details of the processing will be described for each processing unit. The microphone array unit 1 observes the sound pressure signal x (t).
The band dividing unit 2 performs a short-time Fourier transform on x (t) to obtain x (f: τ). τ is a frame index of the short-time Fourier transform, and f is a frequency. When sound is transmitted only from the sound source direction d, x (f: τ) = ad (f) S (f: τ) can be obtained. ad (f) is called a sound spatial transfer characteristic, and can be modeled in consideration of amplitude attenuation and phase delay when sound travels through space to the microphone.

Is a model of ad (f), taking into account amplitude attenuation and phase delay. Here, rd, i is the distance from the sound source d to the microphone i, and τd, i is the time taken for the sound emitted from the sound source d to reach the microphone i. D is the number of sound sources.

Is an expression for obtaining the sound source direction for each band-divided signal. The sound source localization unit 3 obtains the sound source direction jτ: f for each time τ and frequency f according to Equation 2. Here, Λ is a sound source direction set for searching for a sound source.

Is an expression for extracting a signal in the sound source direction from the sound source direction for each band division signal estimated by the sound source localization unit 3. The sound source separation unit 4 separates and extracts only sound in the sound source direction jτ: f direction for each band according to Equation 3.

Is an equation for calculating the overlap amount of sound sources other than the extracted sound source by calculating the difference between the sound source direction for each band division signal separated and output by the sound source separation unit 4 and the signal before enhancement processing. The sound source overlap amount estimation unit 5 estimates the sound source overlap amount for each τ and f according to Equation 4. When x (f: τ) consists of a single sound source, Equation 4 becomes −∞. When x (f: τ) is composed of a plurality of sound sources, Equation 4 takes a finite value. As multiple sound sources overlap, Equation 4 takes a larger value. The sound source duplication determination unit 6 determines that there is no sound source duplication when the sound source duplication amount estimated by the sound source duplication amount estimation unit 5 is equal to or less than a predetermined value for each of τ and f.

Is a formula for calculating the power of sound in each direction using only the band-divided signal when the sound source overlap amount is equal to or less than a predetermined value. j <Λ, and P (j) is a sound source power spectrum for each direction. Pth is a threshold value of the sound source overlap amount used in the sound source overlap amount estimation unit 5. The sound source direction search unit 7 calculates the sound power for each direction using Equation 5 using x (f: τ) of τ and f determined by the sound source overlap determination unit 6 to be non-overlapping. The sound source direction is estimated from the power of the sound. Only the sound source power spectrum P (j) satisfying P (j-1) <P (j) <P (j + 1) is extracted, and P (j) is arranged in descending order. A predetermined number of sound sources are extracted from the largest P (j) arranged in descending order, and j of the extracted P (j) is output as the sound source direction.

  FIG. 2 is a block diagram of an apparatus that combines the speech processing apparatus of the present invention and the interference sound suppression apparatus. The target sound extraction unit 8 extracts a speech component coming from a preset direction or a designated direction via a separate input means from the user from the output signal of the band dividing unit. Let D (j) be the spatial sound source direction of P in P (j). An ideal target sound direction D0 determined in advance is used. The target sound extraction unit 8 sets j_0 = argmax | D (j) −D0 | as the estimated target sound direction (hereinafter referred to as the target sound direction) and the other sound source directions as the interference sound direction. Thereafter, x (f: τ) = x (f) and the frame index of the short-time Fourier transform are omitted. Then, two linear filters having directivity in the target sound direction are applied to the input signal.

  Here, Ω is an interference sound set, d0 is a target sound, S0 (f) is a target sound component, and N0 (f) is a d-th interference sound component. From the output signal after applying two linear filters g and h having directivity in the target sound direction to the input signal, a signal that extracts only the target sound and a signal that extracts only the interfering sound,

Can be calculated. y (1) (f) is a signal obtained by extracting only the target sound, and y (2) (f) is a signal obtained by extracting only the disturbing sound. g and h are a linear filter pair in which at least one linear filter forms a blind spot for each interference sound, and a linear filter pair in which the product of the expected values of the output power of the two linear filters is the smallest. To do. Using the output signals of these two linear filters g and h,

Then, only the target sound is separated and extracted. Equation 7 is an expression for restoring the power of the target sound with high accuracy by subtracting a signal obtained by extracting only the interfering sound from the signal in which the target sound is emphasized in the power spectrum region. The target sound extraction unit 8 uses Equation 7 to extract a signal that emphasizes the target sound.

The waveform generation unit 9 generates a waveform by performing inverse Fourier transform on the voice component extracted by the target sound extraction unit 8 and outputs the waveform.
The interfering sound suppression device based on the configuration of this embodiment can suppress the interfering sound with high accuracy even when the direction of the target sound and the interfering sound is unknown and the number of interfering sounds is larger than the number of microphones. .

The figure which shows one Example of the basic composition of this invention. The block diagram showing the detail of one Example which combined this invention and the interference sound suppression method.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Microphone array, 2 ... Band division part, 3 ... Sound source localization part, 4 ... Sound source separation part, 5 ... Sound source duplication amount estimation part, 6 ... Sound source duplication determination part, 7 ... Sound source direction searching unit, 8 ... Target sound extracting unit, 9 ... Waveform generating unit.

Claims (3)

A microphone array having microphone elements of at least two channels;
A band dividing unit for dividing a signal from the microphone array into a plurality of frequency bands for each channel;
A sound source localization unit that estimates a sound source direction from the band-divided band division signal;
A sound source separation unit that emphasizes the band division signal for each estimated sound source direction;
A sound source duplication determination unit that determines whether the band division signal is a signal from a plurality of or a single sound source using the emphasized band division signal and the information on the estimated sound source direction;
A sound processing apparatus comprising: a sound source search unit that performs sound source search using a signal determined to be a band division signal from the single sound source. Calculate the difference between the emphasized sound source band signal and the sound source band signal output from the previous band dividing unit, and calculate the value obtained by dividing the difference by the magnitude of the signal output from the sound source separating unit A quantity estimation unit;
The sound processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the sound source overlap determination unit performs the determination by determining whether a value obtained by the sound source overlap determination unit is equal to or greater than a preset value. Based on the output from the sound source direction search unit, a target sound extraction unit that extracts a signal from a specific direction from the sound source band signal output from the band dividing unit;
The sound processing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein a waveform generation unit that generates and outputs a waveform of the extracted sound source band signal is used.

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