EP1018854A1 - Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Sprachverständlichkeit - Google Patents

Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Sprachverständlichkeit Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1018854A1
EP1018854A1 EP99610002A EP99610002A EP1018854A1 EP 1018854 A1 EP1018854 A1 EP 1018854A1 EP 99610002 A EP99610002 A EP 99610002A EP 99610002 A EP99610002 A EP 99610002A EP 1018854 A1 EP1018854 A1 EP 1018854A1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
signal
signals
noise
output signals
input signals
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EP99610002A
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English (en)
French (fr)
Inventor
Kim Vejlby Hansen
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Oticon AS
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Oticon AS
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Publication date
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Priority to EP99610002A priority Critical patent/EP1018854A1/de
Priority to AU19652/00A priority patent/AU1965200A/en
Priority to PCT/DK2000/000003 priority patent/WO2000041441A1/en
Publication of EP1018854A1 publication Critical patent/EP1018854A1/de
Withdrawn legal-status Critical Current

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    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R25/00—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception
    • H04R25/40—Arrangements for obtaining a desired directivity characteristic
    • H04R25/407—Circuits for combining signals of a plurality of transducers
    • G—PHYSICS
    • G10—MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS; ACOUSTICS
    • G10L—SPEECH ANALYSIS TECHNIQUES OR SPEECH SYNTHESIS; SPEECH RECOGNITION; SPEECH OR VOICE PROCESSING TECHNIQUES; SPEECH OR AUDIO CODING OR DECODING
    • G10L21/00—Speech or voice signal processing techniques to produce another audible or non-audible signal, e.g. visual or tactile, in order to modify its quality or its intelligibility
    • G10L21/02—Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation
    • G10L21/0208—Noise filtering
    • G10L21/0216—Noise filtering characterised by the method used for estimating noise
    • G10L2021/02161—Number of inputs available containing the signal or the noise to be suppressed
    • G10L2021/02165—Two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the other one mainly the speech signal
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R25/00—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception
    • H04R25/50—Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics
    • H04R25/505—Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics using digital signal processing

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a method for the reduction or elimination of an eventual noise contribution to an audio signal, which is picked up by sensor means.
  • the invention further relates to a device for reduction or elimination of an eventual noise contribution to an audio signal, which is picked up by sensor means.
  • the invention will for practical reasons be explained in connection with a hearing aid.
  • the invention is however not limited to this field as it may be implemented in other technical fields where an audio signal is picked up by sensor means.
  • the commercially available directional devices are either an acoustical two-port design as disclosed in US patent no. 5524056, an electrical combination of the outputs of two omni-directional microphones as disclosed in J. Malsano & W. Hottinger, "A method for electronically beam forming acoustical signals and acoustical sensorapparatus", European Patent EP 0 820 210 A2, or an electrical combination of several microphones into a single highly directional device to be used physically externally to the hearing aid as disclosed in W. Soede, A.J. Berkhout & F.A. Bilsen, 1993, “Development of a directional hearing instrument based on array technology", J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 94(2), p. 785-798.
  • Directionality is also used in a different group of proposed devices, which make use of adaptive noise cancelling principles as disclosed in B. Widrow, J. Glover, J. McCool, J. Kaunitz, C. Williams, R. Hern, J. Zeidler, E. Dong & R. Goodlin, 1975, "Adaptive noise cancelling: Principles and applications", IEEE Proceedings 63, p. 1692-1716.
  • a number of microphones which may be mounted either in hearing aids at each ear of the user, on a headband or in a single hearing aid shell, are combined to form estimates of the interfering noise from which the target signal is removed.
  • a signal containing as much target signal as possible is also formed, and these signals are then used as inputs to an adaptive noise canceller.
  • These devices work on the assumption that the target speech signal impinges from a certain predetermined direction, and are characterised by a directionality and a processing of the individual ingoing sensor signals, which is adaptively varying with time. Further, these devices are characterised by the use of the adaptive noise canceller, as disclosed in P.M. Zurek, J.E. Greenberg & P.M. Peterson, 1990, "Adaptive beamforming for noise reduction". United States Patent 4,956,867; P.V.F. Clough & N.A. Lobo, European Patent 0084892; and J. Vanden Berghe & J. Wouters, 1998, "An adaptive noise canceller for hearing aids using two nearby microphones", J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 103(6), p. 3621-3626.
  • ICA independent component analysis
  • ICA Independent Component Analysis
  • PCA Principal Component Analysis
  • I.T. Jolliffe Principal Component Analysis
  • Springer Verlag which decorrelates signals according to 2 nd -order statistics
  • ICA also reduces higher- order statistical dependencies, in terms of maximising joint output entropy, in order to extract statistically independent signal components.
  • N signals are mixed so that an array of N sensors picks up a set of signals each of which has been mixed, delayed and filtered as follows where D ij are entries in a matrix of delays and a ij are the M - tap filter coefficients between the j th source and the i th sensor.
  • D ij are entries in a matrix of delays
  • a ij are the M - tap filter coefficients between the j th source and the i th sensor.
  • IIR filters are limited to have poles inside the unit circle, which imply that a stable filter only exists for a minimum phase system.
  • FIR filters may be used to approximate the inverse solution.
  • the inverse scrambling is performed according to which has filters, w ij , and delays d ij , which supposedly reproduce, at the output u ( t ) , the original uncorrupted source signals, s ( t ) , apart from a scaling factor for each signal and a permutation of signals.
  • the algorithm can be made more efficient and independent of the conditioning of the mixing process (matrix) by using the so-called natural gradient instead of the absolute gradient, see Amari (11).
  • ICA electroencephalographic
  • the objective of the present invention is to provide a method and a device for reducing noise in an audio signal comprising both noise and target signal, which method and device has an increased functionality and reliability compared with the prior art within the audio field of technology.
  • the target signal is defined as the signal coming from in front of the device performing the method, whereas other signals are considered as noise signals.
  • the noise elimination will disappear meaning that the signal processing strategy will pass the input signals unaltered to the outputs.
  • the method comprises at least two input signals, which are picked up at least at two mutually distanced locations.
  • one signal contains the target signal with a higher signal-to-noise ratio than the other input signal.
  • the sensor may be identical.
  • the method comprises at least two input signals, which are based on differences in the directionality, preferably a directional and an omni-directional sensor.
  • the directionality preferably a directional and an omni-directional sensor.
  • the different embodiments show that the differences in signal-to-noise ratio is based on the actual situation of use, which means that it is the mutual differences in signal-to-noise ratio in relation to a desired target signal, which is relevant, and not the signal-to-noise ratio of the sensor means itself.
  • two or more output signals are produced and where a possibility exists for switching between the two or more output signals or combinations of these.
  • an automatic switching between the two or more output signals according to a predetermined scheme is provided.
  • the device comprises two sensors, preferably microphones, having different signal-to-noise ratio (S/N-ratio).
  • One of the sensors is chosen as the target sensor.
  • S/N-ratio signal-to-noise ratio
  • the device comprises a directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone.
  • the directional microphone will preferably contain the desired output signal based on the position of the user facing the desired audio signal source.
  • the two microphones are mutually distanced.
  • Other ways of beamforming may be used in this connection.
  • two or more output signals are produced and means are provided for switching between the two or more output signals or combinations of these.
  • means are provided for automatic switching between the two or more output signals according to a predetermined scheme.
  • the invention is particularly relevant in connection with the technical field of hearing aids.
  • the invention therefor further relates to a hearing aid comprising: at least two microphones for audio signal input; signal processing means in connection with the microphones; an amplifier in connection with the signal processing means; a receiver in connection with the amplifier for outputting a signal from the amplifier; the signal processing means being adapted to process the signals by means of an independent component analysis method or a similar method based on the input from the at least two microphones, the processing comprising determining whether statistical dependent signal elements are present and removing at least part of the unwanted signal elements, thereby enhancing other parts of the audio signal.
  • the hearing aid according to the invention may further comprise the features set forth above, either separate or in combination.
  • Other fields of relevant use of the invention may be telecommunication or audio systems.
  • the input and output may be connected to antennas or similar transmission and receiving means or may comprise microphones as input means as in the case of a hearing aid.
  • Other elements of such systems may be standard elements, as these are not influenced by the signal processing according to the invention.
  • the fundamental principle of the invention is schematically shown in fig. 1.
  • the invention is basically a system, e.g. a hearing aid, with two or more sensors and a calculation unit.
  • the calculation unit carries out the separation of the target and noise signals, by using the independence of the mixed signals according to ICA or a similar method comprising the basics of the ICA.
  • the sensors are arranged so that one is positioned to receive sound primarily from a target direction in front, whereas the others have arbitrary characteristics that do not specifically favour the target direction.
  • FIG. 2 schematically shows the signal processing system.
  • the system comprises a directional and an omni-directional microphone, and a digital signal processing unit implementing the signal separation algorithm.
  • Using the directional microphone gives the target direction from in front of the user, whereas the omni-directional microphone gives a signal equally representing all signals around the head of the user.
  • a particularly important property of the independent component analysis is that it separates convolved and delayed source signals, where each independent source signal is defined as a signal which appears in the same way within each mixing process.
  • Another important characteristic about the independent component analysis is that knowledge about the ratio of the source signals within the mixed signals can be used for classifying the separated signals. If for instance one source signal appears with a significantly better signal to noise ratio in one of the sensor signals, this information can be used to ensure that this source signal always will appear in a fixed output.
  • these two characteristics combined with an appropriate placement of at least two sensors are exploited to eliminate signals not coming from in front of the user of the device.
  • the essential components of the hearing aid comprise two microphones, preferably a directional microphone and an omni-directional microphone, and an A/D converter connected to each of the microphones.
  • the A/D converters are connected to a digital signal processor, which is adapted to perform the ICA method on the incoming signals.
  • the signal from the signal processor is then lead to an amplifier and from this through a D/A converter to a receiver for performing the output of the processed signal.
  • the devices of the figs. is in a usual manner powered by means of usual power sources, such as batteries.

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  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • General Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Neurosurgery (AREA)
  • Otolaryngology (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Circuit For Audible Band Transducer (AREA)
EP99610002A 1999-01-05 1999-01-05 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Sprachverständlichkeit Withdrawn EP1018854A1 (de)

Priority Applications (3)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP99610002A EP1018854A1 (de) 1999-01-05 1999-01-05 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Sprachverständlichkeit
AU19652/00A AU1965200A (en) 1999-01-05 2000-01-04 A method and a device for providing improved speech intelligibility
PCT/DK2000/000003 WO2000041441A1 (en) 1999-01-05 2000-01-04 A method and a device for providing improved speech intelligibility

Applications Claiming Priority (1)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
EP99610002A EP1018854A1 (de) 1999-01-05 1999-01-05 Verfahren und Vorrichtung zur Verbesserung der Sprachverständlichkeit

Publications (1)

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EP1018854A1 true EP1018854A1 (de) 2000-07-12

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Cited By (15)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2002003754A1 (en) * 2000-07-03 2002-01-10 Nanyang Technological University Microphone array system
WO2003024152A2 (en) * 2001-09-07 2003-03-20 Dspfactory Ltd. Listening device
WO2005031703A1 (en) * 2003-09-25 2005-04-07 Vocollect, Inc. Apparatus and method for detecting user speech
WO2008113137A1 (en) * 2007-03-22 2008-09-25 Cochlear Limited Bilateral input for auditory prostheses
US7496387B2 (en) 2003-09-25 2009-02-24 Vocollect, Inc. Wireless headset for use in speech recognition environment
WO2009034524A1 (en) * 2007-09-13 2009-03-19 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Apparatus and method for audio beam forming
WO2009034536A2 (en) * 2007-09-14 2009-03-19 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Audio activity detection
USD613267S1 (en) 2008-09-29 2010-04-06 Vocollect, Inc. Headset
US7773767B2 (en) 2006-02-06 2010-08-10 Vocollect, Inc. Headset terminal with rear stability strap
US7885419B2 (en) 2006-02-06 2011-02-08 Vocollect, Inc. Headset terminal with speech functionality
US8160287B2 (en) 2009-05-22 2012-04-17 Vocollect, Inc. Headset with adjustable headband
US8417185B2 (en) 2005-12-16 2013-04-09 Vocollect, Inc. Wireless headset and method for robust voice data communication
US8438659B2 (en) 2009-11-05 2013-05-07 Vocollect, Inc. Portable computing device and headset interface
US9352154B2 (en) 2007-03-22 2016-05-31 Cochlear Limited Input selection for an auditory prosthesis
US11277210B2 (en) 2015-11-19 2022-03-15 The Hong Kong University Of Science And Technology Method, system and storage medium for signal separation

Families Citing this family (4)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
KR20020037102A (ko) * 2000-11-13 2002-05-18 조정남 Ｉｃａ 알고리즘을 이용한 이동 통신 단말기와 그 운용 방법
CA2354858A1 (en) † 2001-08-08 2003-02-08 Dspfactory Ltd. Subband directional audio signal processing using an oversampled filterbank
EP1994791B1 (de) 2006-03-03 2015-04-15 GN Resound A/S Automatisches umschalten der mikrophonbetriebsart zwischen omnidirektionaler und richtcharakteristik in einem hörgerät
CN117202077B (zh) * 2023-11-03 2024-03-01 恩平市海天电子科技有限公司 一种麦克风智能校正方法

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US5208786A (en) * 1991-08-28 1993-05-04 Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Multi-channel signal separation
EP0565479A1 (de) * 1992-04-10 1993-10-13 Ramot University Authority For Applied Research & Industrial Development Ltd. Vielkanalige Signaltrennung mit Kreuz-Polyspektren
US5524056A (en) * 1993-04-13 1996-06-04 Etymotic Research, Inc. Hearing aid having plural microphones and a microphone switching system
DE19531388C1 (de) * 1995-08-26 1996-07-25 Heinz Georg Prof Dr Schuster Signaltrennungsverfahren und -einrichtung für nichtlineare Mischungen unbekannter Signale
US5706402A (en) * 1994-11-29 1998-01-06 The Salk Institute For Biological Studies Blind signal processing system employing information maximization to recover unknown signals through unsupervised minimization of output redundancy
WO1998025214A1 (de) * 1996-12-03 1998-06-11 Gmd - Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik Gmbh Verfahren und vorrichtung zur nichtstationären trennung von signalen unterschiedlicher quellen

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US5208786A (en) * 1991-08-28 1993-05-04 Massachusetts Institute Of Technology Multi-channel signal separation
EP0565479A1 (de) * 1992-04-10 1993-10-13 Ramot University Authority For Applied Research & Industrial Development Ltd. Vielkanalige Signaltrennung mit Kreuz-Polyspektren
US5524056A (en) * 1993-04-13 1996-06-04 Etymotic Research, Inc. Hearing aid having plural microphones and a microphone switching system
US5706402A (en) * 1994-11-29 1998-01-06 The Salk Institute For Biological Studies Blind signal processing system employing information maximization to recover unknown signals through unsupervised minimization of output redundancy
DE19531388C1 (de) * 1995-08-26 1996-07-25 Heinz Georg Prof Dr Schuster Signaltrennungsverfahren und -einrichtung für nichtlineare Mischungen unbekannter Signale
WO1998025214A1 (de) * 1996-12-03 1998-06-11 Gmd - Forschungszentrum Informationstechnik Gmbh Verfahren und vorrichtung zur nichtstationären trennung von signalen unterschiedlicher quellen

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Cited By (21)

* Cited by examiner, † Cited by third party
Publication number Priority date Publication date Assignee Title
WO2002003754A1 (en) * 2000-07-03 2002-01-10 Nanyang Technological University Microphone array system
US7558390B2 (en) 2001-09-07 2009-07-07 Ami Semiconductor, Inc. Listening device
WO2003024152A2 (en) * 2001-09-07 2003-03-20 Dspfactory Ltd. Listening device
WO2003024152A3 (en) * 2001-09-07 2003-08-14 Dsp Factory Ltd Listening device
WO2005031703A1 (en) * 2003-09-25 2005-04-07 Vocollect, Inc. Apparatus and method for detecting user speech
US7496387B2 (en) 2003-09-25 2009-02-24 Vocollect, Inc. Wireless headset for use in speech recognition environment
US8417185B2 (en) 2005-12-16 2013-04-09 Vocollect, Inc. Wireless headset and method for robust voice data communication
US8842849B2 (en) 2006-02-06 2014-09-23 Vocollect, Inc. Headset terminal with speech functionality
US7773767B2 (en) 2006-02-06 2010-08-10 Vocollect, Inc. Headset terminal with rear stability strap
US7885419B2 (en) 2006-02-06 2011-02-08 Vocollect, Inc. Headset terminal with speech functionality
US10406359B2 (en) 2007-03-22 2019-09-10 Cochlear Limited Input selection for an auditory prosthesis
US9352154B2 (en) 2007-03-22 2016-05-31 Cochlear Limited Input selection for an auditory prosthesis
WO2008113137A1 (en) * 2007-03-22 2008-09-25 Cochlear Limited Bilateral input for auditory prostheses
WO2009034524A1 (en) * 2007-09-13 2009-03-19 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Apparatus and method for audio beam forming
WO2009034536A3 (en) * 2007-09-14 2009-08-20 Koninkl Philips Electronics Nv Audio activity detection
WO2009034536A2 (en) * 2007-09-14 2009-03-19 Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. Audio activity detection
USD613267S1 (en) 2008-09-29 2010-04-06 Vocollect, Inc. Headset
USD616419S1 (en) 2008-09-29 2010-05-25 Vocollect, Inc. Headset
US8160287B2 (en) 2009-05-22 2012-04-17 Vocollect, Inc. Headset with adjustable headband
US8438659B2 (en) 2009-11-05 2013-05-07 Vocollect, Inc. Portable computing device and headset interface
US11277210B2 (en) 2015-11-19 2022-03-15 The Hong Kong University Of Science And Technology Method, system and storage medium for signal separation

Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
AU1965200A (en) 2000-07-24
WO2000041441A1 (en) 2000-07-13

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