Apparatus and method for noise reduction and speech enhancement with microphones and loudspeakers
First Claim
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1. A noise reduction and speech enhancement apparatus, comprising:
- a computation unit including a programmable circuitry which implements a noise reduction and speech enhancement algorithm. a sound receiving unit or generating unit.
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Abstract
The present invention helps to reduce the noise level and to enhance the quality of speech signals, in communications, computers, entertainment and other applications, where microphones and loudspeakers are involved. Additionally, the invention includes a new noise reduction and speech enhancement algorithm which is created based on the principles of human hearing mechanism. Further, the algorithm uses a new set of speech recognition parameters instead of just signal-to-noise ratio (“SNR”) as used in the prior art.
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18 Claims
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1. A noise reduction and speech enhancement apparatus, comprising:
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a computation unit including a programmable circuitry which implements a noise reduction and speech enhancement algorithm. a sound receiving unit or generating unit. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 18)
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17. A method for reducing noise in speech and enhancing speech quality, comprising the steps of:
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receiving the speech signal;
sending received speech signal through a pre-amplifier;
converting the amplified signal into digital format using A/D converter;
transforming the digital signal to different frequency bands using the Cochlear Transform algorithm and the auditory-based filter bank;
estimating the background noise from filter bank output based on the pre-knowledge of speech and noise;
removing or reducing noise using a nonlinear function or unit;
re-synthesizing the processed, i.e. cleaned, signal through the Inverse Cochlear Transform;
converting the time-domain signal from digital format into analog signal through a digital-to-analog (“
D/A”
) converter if necessary;
outputting the analog or digital signal.
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Specification