EP1258865B1 - Dispositif pour améliorer l'intelligibilité de signaux audio contenant de la parole - Google Patents

Dispositif pour améliorer l'intelligibilité de signaux audio contenant de la parole Download PDF

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Publication number
EP1258865B1
EP1258865B1 EP02005495A EP02005495A EP1258865B1 EP 1258865 B1 EP1258865 B1 EP 1258865B1 EP 02005495 A EP02005495 A EP 02005495A EP 02005495 A EP02005495 A EP 02005495A EP 1258865 B1 EP1258865 B1 EP 1258865B1
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EP
European Patent Office
Prior art keywords
circuit arrangement
input
signal
pass filter
arrangement according
Prior art date
Legal status (The legal status is an assumption and is not a legal conclusion. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation as to the accuracy of the status listed.)
Expired - Fee Related
Application number
EP02005495A
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German (de)
English (en)
Other versions
EP1258865A3 (fr
EP1258865A2 (fr
Inventor
Matthias Vierthaler
Current Assignee (The listed assignees may be inaccurate. Google has not performed a legal analysis and makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy of the list.)
TDK Micronas GmbH
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TDK Micronas GmbH
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Filing date
Publication date
Application filed by TDK Micronas GmbH filed Critical TDK Micronas GmbH
Publication of EP1258865A2 publication Critical patent/EP1258865A2/fr
Publication of EP1258865A3 publication Critical patent/EP1258865A3/fr
Application granted granted Critical
Publication of EP1258865B1 publication Critical patent/EP1258865B1/fr
Anticipated expiration legal-status Critical
Expired - Fee Related legal-status Critical Current

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Classifications

    • 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
    • G10L21/0316—Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation by changing the amplitude
    • G10L21/0364—Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation by changing the amplitude for improving intelligibility
    • 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
    • G10L21/0232—Processing in the frequency domain
    • H—ELECTRICITY
    • H04—ELECTRIC COMMUNICATION TECHNIQUE
    • H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
    • H04R2225/00—Details of deaf aids covered by H04R25/00, not provided for in any of its subgroups
    • H04R2225/43—Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility

Definitions

  • the invention relates to a circuit arrangement for improving the intelligibility of speech-containing audio signals according to the features of the preamble of claim 1.
  • the aim of the present invention is to improve the speech intelligibility of a relatively good audio signal with unchanged volume. This means equal intelligibility at lower volume or improved intelligibility in ambient noise.
  • consonants are about 12 dB weaker than vowels. Increasing the consonants relative to the vowels increases the intelligibility of speech in the audio signal. If you replace the clipper with a fast "peak limiter” (22 msec) you can increase the intelligibility even further. At -10 dBlimitting, intelligibility increased from 56% to 84%.
  • US 5,553,151 describes a so-called "forward masking".
  • weak consonants are temporally covered by the previous strong vowels.
  • This publication proposes a relatively fast compressor with an "attack time” of about 10 msec. and a release time of about 75 to 150 msec. in front.
  • a problem in the previously known systems for increasing the speech intelligibility of speech in audio signals is their relatively high complexity, which means that both a high software cost for calculating the individual algorithms and a high hardware cost is necessary.
  • the audio signal is changed so that the language no longer sounds very natural.
  • the speech signal can be disrupted, which can even counteract improved intelligibility.
  • the aim of the present invention is therefore to provide a circuit arrangement for improving the speech quality of audio signals, on the one hand requires little effort and on the other hand, the language still sound natural.
  • the invention is essentially based on amplifying the audio signal to a predetermined factor and filtering it in a high-pass filter, wherein the cutoff frequency of the high-pass filter is controlled such that the amplitude of the audio signal after the processing path is equal to or proportional to the amplitude of the audio signal at the input of the processing path is.
  • the fundamental wave of the speech signal which contributes relatively little to the intelligibility but has the largest energy, can be attenuated and the usual signal spectrum of the audio signal can be correspondingly increased.
  • the amplitude of the vowels (large amplitude, low frequency) in the transition region consonant (small amplitude, high frequency) can be lowered to vowel to reduce the so-called "backward masking".
  • the entire signal is increased by a factor of g. This factor controls the strength of the signal enhancement effect, with meaningful values for the factor g being between about 1.5 and 4.
  • the circuit arrangement according to the invention are raised as higher-frequency components and lowered the low-frequency fundamental wave to the same extent, so that the amplitude (or energy) of the audio signal remains unchanged.
  • the corner frequency of the variable high-pass filter can be lowered with the circuit arrangement according to the present invention. Therefore, an "offset" can be added in the control to the input signal, which is either fixed or proportional to the peak amplitude of the input-side audio signal.
  • the corner frequency f c of the variable high-pass filter is limited downwards, since the lowest frequency for speech is about 200 Hz. A range of approximately 100 to 120 Hz has proven suitable for a lower corner frequency.
  • the circuit arrangement has a variable high pass 20, which is variable in its corner frequency f c .
  • the variable high-pass filter 20 has a control input 21 to which a control signal for changing the corner frequency f c is can be applied.
  • This variable high-pass filter 20 is preferably supplied via a low pass filter 10 to be improved.
  • an input terminal 1 is provided for applying the audio signal.
  • the low pass 10 must not provided, but is advantageous to eliminate signal interference in the audio signal.
  • At the output of the variable high-pass filter 20 sits an amplifier stage 30, which amplifies the output-side signal of the variable high-pass filter 20 by a factor of g.
  • This factor g is adjustable and is preferably between about 1.5 and 4. Once set gain factor is preferably not changed.
  • the entire processing path consisting of variable high pass 20 and amplifier 30 and optional low-pass filter 10 has an output terminal 2, at which the processed audio signal can be tapped as an output signal.
  • a regulation of the cut-off frequency f c of the variable high-pass filter 20 is carried out in the following manner for improving speech intelligibility of speech within the audio signal. If the amplitude (or energy) of the input signal at the input 1 of the circuit arrangement is greater than the amplitude (or energy) at the output 2 of the transmission path, then the corner frequency f c is lowered. Incidentally, increased. Provided that the amplitudes at the input 1 and output 2 are the same or proportional to a predetermined factor, no further change in the corner frequency f c.
  • FIG. 2 shows a development of the circuit arrangement of Figure 1 is shown.
  • FIG. 2 shows a comparator 36 with a downstream integrator, which is preceded by a scaling factor Ki.
  • the output terminal of the integrator 40 is connected to the control input 21 of the variable high-pass filter 20 in combination.
  • the comparator 36 has two input terminals 34, 35, at the first terminal 34, the input signal and at its terminal 35, the output signal of the transmission path is applied.
  • the circuit arrangement of FIG. 3 differs from the circuit arrangement of FIG. 2 in that the integrator 40 is replaced by a digital circuit arrangement 60.
  • the corner frequency f c is increased or decreased by a step d, depending on whether the output signal xc at the output of the comparator 36 is greater or less than 0.
  • FIG. 4 shows a further development of the circuit arrangement according to the invention.
  • the development consists in adding an offset K to the input signal present at the input 34.
  • This offset may be chosen to be constant or may be a factor K weighted output of a peak detector 70.
  • the audio signal is applied on the input side.
  • variable high-pass filter 20 is responsible.
  • the circuit operates as follows: A vowel is low-frequency with large amplitude. A consonant, in contrast, is high-frequency with a small amplitude.
  • the amplification factor g is set so that a gain of 6 dB is achieved. Due to the low-frequency vowel, the corner frequency of the variable high-pass filter 20 has adjusted to this low frequency. The fundamental wave is lowered so far that the Output amplitude is the same input amplitude of the audio signal, although the gain of 6 dB has been selected.
  • the inventive circuit arrangement of FIG. 1 operates as follows.
  • the high pass filter 20 has adjusted to the frequency of the consonant.
  • the amplitude of the input signal corresponds to the amplitude of the output signal.
  • the relatively high cut-off frequency f c of the high-pass filter 20 attenuates the vowels in the temporal transition and consequently does not cover the consonant.
  • the corner frequency f c is adjusted due to the control loop so that the amplitude of the input signal corresponds to the amplitude of the output signal.
  • the audio path (high pass, low pass, gain) is calculated separately for left and right, but the high passes have the same corner frequency f c .

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  • Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
  • Human Computer Interaction (AREA)
  • Quality & Reliability (AREA)
  • Signal Processing (AREA)
  • Health & Medical Sciences (AREA)
  • Audiology, Speech & Language Pathology (AREA)
  • Computational Linguistics (AREA)
  • Physics & Mathematics (AREA)
  • Acoustics & Sound (AREA)
  • Multimedia (AREA)
  • Tone Control, Compression And Expansion, Limiting Amplitude (AREA)
  • Circuit For Audible Band Transducer (AREA)
  • Stereophonic System (AREA)

Claims (13)

  1. Circuit permettant d'améliorer l'intelligibilité de signaux audio contenant de la parole, dans lequel les parts de fréquence et/ou d'amplitude du signal audio sont modifiées selon des paramètres prédéterminés et le signal audio est guidé dans un trajet de traitement à travers un filtre passe-haut (20) dont la fréquence de transition fc est réglable, et dans lequel après le filtre passe-haut (20), le signal est amplifié avec un facteur g prédéterminé,
    caractérisé en ce que
    pour le réglage de la fréquence de transition fc du filtre passe-haut (20), on enregistre à la fois l'amplitude du signal d'entrée et du signal de sortie du trajet de traitement, et
    lorsque l'amplitude du signal d'entrée est supérieure à l'amplitude du signal de sortie au niveau de la sortie du trajet de traitement, on réduit la fréquence de transition fc, et dans le cas contraire on l'augmente.
  2. Circuit selon la revendication 1,
    caractérisé en ce que
    le facteur g est choisi > = 1.
  3. Circuit selon la revendication 1 ou 2,
    caractérisé en ce que
    le facteur g est choisi environ entre 1,5 et 4.
  4. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 1 à 3,
    caractérisé en ce que
    la modification de la fréquence de transition fc s'effectue de manière incrémentielle, de préférence en étapes Hz.
  5. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 1 à 4,
    caractérisé en ce que
    la fréquence de transition fc est variable dans la plage d'environ 100 Hz à 1 kHz.
  6. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 1 à 5,
    caractérisé en ce que
    la fréquence de transition inférieure fc est égale à environ 100 à 120 Hz.
  7. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 1 à 6,
    caractérisé en ce qu'
    un filtre passe-bas (10) est connecté en amont du filtre passe-haut variable (20).
  8. Circuit selon la revendication 7,
    caractérisé en ce que
    le filtre passe-bas (10) présente une fréquence de transition à environ 6 kHz.
  9. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 1 à 8,
    caractérisé en ce qu'
    au niveau d'une entrée de commande (21) du filtre passe-haut variable (20), pour modifier la fréquence de transition fc, est couplé un comparateur (36), à la première entrée duquel (34) est appliqué le signal d'entrée du trajet de traitement et à l'autre entrée duquel (35) est appliqué le signal de sortie du trajet de traitement.
  10. Circuit selon la revendication 9,
    caractérisé en ce qu'
    entre l'entrée de commande (21) du filtre passe-haut variable (20) et la sortie du comparateur (36) est connecté un intégrateur (40).
  11. Circuit selon la revendication 9,
    caractérisé en ce qu'
    entre l'entrée de commande (21) du filtre passe-haut variable (20) et la sortie du comparateur (36), on prévoit un circuit numérique (60) pour incrémenter la fréquence de transition fc en pas (d).
  12. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 9 à 11,
    caractérisé en ce qu'
    on ajoute un décalage au signal d'entrée, au niveau d'une entrée (34) du comparateur (36).
  13. Circuit selon l'une des revendications 9 à 12,
    caractérisé en ce que
    le signal audio est un signal stéréo, et
    on amène à une première entrée (34) du comparateur (36) la somme des signaux d'entrée pour le canal gauche et droit, et
    on amène à la deuxième entrée (35) du comparateur (36) la somme des signaux de sortie pour le canal gauche et droit.
EP02005495A 2001-05-18 2002-03-11 Dispositif pour améliorer l'intelligibilité de signaux audio contenant de la parole Expired - Fee Related EP1258865B1 (fr)

Applications Claiming Priority (2)

Application Number Priority Date Filing Date Title
DE10124699 2001-05-18
DE10124699A DE10124699C1 (de) 2001-05-18 2001-05-18 Schaltungsanordnung zur Verbesserung der Verständlichkeit von Sprache enthaltenden Audiosignalen

Publications (3)

Publication Number Publication Date
EP1258865A2 EP1258865A2 (fr) 2002-11-20
EP1258865A3 EP1258865A3 (fr) 2004-05-06
EP1258865B1 true EP1258865B1 (fr) 2006-10-18

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EP02005495A Expired - Fee Related EP1258865B1 (fr) 2001-05-18 2002-03-11 Dispositif pour améliorer l'intelligibilité de signaux audio contenant de la parole

Country Status (4)

Country Link
US (1) US7418379B2 (fr)
EP (1) EP1258865B1 (fr)
JP (1) JP4141736B2 (fr)
DE (2) DE10124699C1 (fr)

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Also Published As

Publication number Publication date
EP1258865A3 (fr) 2004-05-06
DE10124699C1 (de) 2002-12-19
DE50208467D1 (de) 2006-11-30
US7418379B2 (en) 2008-08-26
EP1258865A2 (fr) 2002-11-20
JP4141736B2 (ja) 2008-08-27
JP2003018691A (ja) 2003-01-17
US20020173950A1 (en) 2002-11-21

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