Enhancement of speech corrupted by acoustic noise

TLDR

The spectral noise subtraction method reduces broadband noise but often introduces annoying musical noise. This work proposes a speech enhancement technique that eliminates musical noise while further reducing background noise in broadband‑noise corrupted speech. The technique subtracts an overestimated noise power spectrum, applies a spectral floor to prevent negative components, and automatically adapts to a wide range of signal‑to‑noise ratios, as validated by extensive listening tests. Listeners unanimously preferred the processed speech, and intelligibility remained unchanged at an input signal‑to‑noise ratio of 5 dB.

Abstract

This paper describes a method for enhancing speech corrupted by broadband noise. The method is based on the spectral noise subtraction method. The original method entails subtracting an estimate of the noise power spectrum from the speech power spectrum, setting negative differences to zero, recombining the new power spectrum with the original phase, and then reconstructing the time waveform. While this method reduces the broadband noise, it also usually introduces an annoying "musical noise". We have devised a method that eliminates this "musical noise" while further reducing the background noise. The method consists in subtracting an overestimate of the noise power spectrum, and preventing the resultant spectral components from going below a preset minimum level (spectral floor). The method can automatically adapt to a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios, as long as a reasonable estimate of the noise spectrum can be obtained. Extensive listening tests were performed to determine the quality and intelligibility of speech enhanced by our method. Listeners unanimously preferred the quality of the processed speech. Also, for an input signal-to-noise ratio of 5 dB, there was no loss of intelligibility associated with the enhancement technique.