Minimum variance deconvolution based-speech enhancement system for a new generation of hearing aids

Abstract

Describes a novel method for the enhancement of speech of a particular speaker in a noisy multispeaker environment. Many potential applications of the method are possible including the implementation in a new generation of hearing aids. The system is based on the minimum variance deconvolution (MVD) algorithm. The method was tested using the TIMIT speech database. The utterances of two speakers were first combined to create a multispeaker environment, and then separated using the MVD algorithm. The intelligibility of the separated and enhanced speech was high. Likewise the frequency spectra of the original speech were very similar to the spectra of the separated and enhanced speech for each of the two speakers.<>