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Bidirectional microphone array with adaptation controlled by voice activity detector based on multiple beamformers

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Abstract

Ambient noise suppression in a reverberant room is usually performed by the microphone array. The adaptive beamforming, whose typical representative is minimum variance distortionless (MVDR) beamformer, is an effective method for noise suppression. However, MVDR beamformer gives poor results in the real room because of its sensitivity to the steering error and the multipath wave propagation. In this paper we propose a noise suppression method based on assumption that the positions of the speakers in the reverberant room are roughly known. Noise reduction is realized by two MVDR beamformers directed toward each of the speakers. Adaptation of the MVDR beamformers are controlled by a speaker activity detector which decision is based on power transfer model of the multiple superdirective beamformers in combined diffuse and coherent noise field. The proposed voice activity detector also provides residual noise reduction. The proposed method and its robustness to steering error were tested on the model of simulated room as well as in real room environment. The improvement of the restored speech signal was evaluated by Signal to Noise Ratio Enhancement (SNRE) and by Perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ) measure.

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Notes

  1. Strictly speaking, it is not beamformer because it uses only one microphone, i.e. fourth microphone, with omnidirectional characteristic.

  2. In experimental tests we used small value of λ, λ=0.25 which provides fast tracking of the power change.

  3. In practice, there is one more hypothesis when both speakers speak simultaneously. In this case we assume that the louder speaker is active.

  4. In this test case SNRE is ratio of speech energy during speech segment and residual noise in pause segment attenuated by (19).

  5. PESQ in this test case relates to whole signal displayed in Fig. 8e (signal with additional noise attenuation by (19)).

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Acknowledgements

This research was supported by grants 178027, TR32032 and TR32035 from the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Acoustics, Life Activities Advancement Center, Gospodar Jovanova 35, Belgrade, 11000, Serbia

    Zoran Šarić, Miško Subotić & Ružica Bilibajkić

  2. Faculty of Electrical Engineering University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia

    Marko Barjaktarović

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  1. Zoran Šarić
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  2. Miško Subotić
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  3. Ružica Bilibajkić
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  4. Marko Barjaktarović
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Correspondence to Zoran Šarić.

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Appendix: Transfer of the acoustic power by diffuse noise field

Appendix: Transfer of the acoustic power by diffuse noise field

Transfer of the diffuse component of the acoustic power from the acoustic source to the output of the beamformer is defined by linear transfer factor.

$$ {\beta}_k=\frac{P_{diff,k}}{P_s} $$
(22)

where Pdiff, k is total diffuse power at the output of the beamformer k, Psis the power of the acoustic source measured at distance 1 m. Taking into account directivity of the microphone array defined by beam pattern hк(j, ϕ, θ), diffuse power component is.

(23)

where Dk(j) is directivity factor, Pdif _ array is diffuse power component at microphone array position. Diffuse power is uniformly distributed in the room. It is equal to the direct path power at critical distance dc.

$$ {P}_{dif\_ array}={P}_{direct}={P}_s{\left(1/{d}_c\right)}^2 $$
(24)

Substituting (24), (23) into (22) we obtain.

$$ {\beta}_k=\frac{1}{d_c^2{D}_k(j)} $$
(25)

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Šarić, Z., Subotić, M., Bilibajkić, R. et al. Bidirectional microphone array with adaptation controlled by voice activity detector based on multiple beamformers. Multimed Tools Appl 78, 15235–15254 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-018-6895-3

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