SPEECH SIGNAL PROCESSING

• US 20110246187A1
• Filed: 12/10/2009
• Published: 10/06/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 12/16/2008
• Status: Abandoned Application

• Current Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Original Assignee: Koninklijke Philips Electronics N.V. (Koninklijke Philips N.V.)
• Inventors: Pandharipande, Ashish Vijay, Srinivasan, Sriram
• Application Number:
  US13/133,797
• Publication Number:
  US 20110246187A1
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 704/201
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/389 Electromyography [EMG]
• CPC Class Codes: A61B 5/4803 Speech analysis specially adapted for diagnostic purposes
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 15/24 Speech recognition using non-acoustical features
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/02 Speech enhancement, e.g. noise reduction or echo cancellation reducing echo effects in line transmission systems H04B3/20; echo suppression in hands-free telephones H04M9/08
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/78 Detection of presence or absence of voice signals switching of direction of transmission by voice frequency in two-way loud-speaking telephone systems H04M9/10
• CPC Class Codes: H04R 3/005 for combining the signals of two or more microphones specially adapted for hearing aids H04R25/407

Abstract

A speech signal processing system comprises an audio processor (103) for providing a first signal representing an acoustic speech signal of a speaker. An EMG processor (109) provides a second signal which represents an electromyographic signal for the speaker captured simultaneously with the acoustic speech signal. A speech processor (105) is arranged to process the first signal in response to the second signal to generate a modified speech signal. The processing may for example be a beam forming, noise compensation, or speech encoding. Improved speech processing may be achieved in particular in an acoustically noisy environment.

Claims

1. A speech signal processing system comprising:

first means (103) for providing a first signal representing an acoustic speech signal for a speaker;

second means (109) for providing a second signal representing an electromyographic signal for the speaker captured simultaneously with the acoustic speech signal, and

processing means (105) for processing the first signal in response to the second signal to generate a modified speech signal.

2. The speech signal processing system of claim 1 further comprising an electromyographic sensor (107) arranged to generate the electromyographic signal in response to a measurement of skin surface conductivity of the speaker.

3. The speech signal processing system of claim 1 wherein the processing means (105, 209, 213) is arranged to perform a speech activity detection in response to the second signal and the processing means (105, 207, 211) is arranged to modify a processing of the first signal in response to the speech activity detection.

4. The speech signal processing system of claim 3 wherein the speech activity detection is a pre-speech activity detection.

5. The speech signal processing system of claim 3 wherein the processing comprises an adaptive processing of the first signal, and the processing means (105, 207, 209, 211, 213) is arranged to adapt the adaptive processing only when the speech activity detection meets a criterion.

6. The speech signal processing system of claim 5 wherein the adaptive processing comprises an adaptive audio beam forming processing.

7. The speech signal processing system of claim 5 wherein the adaptive processing comprises an adaptive noise compensation processing.

8. The speech signal processing system of claim 1 wherein the processing means (105, 311) is arranged to determine a speech characteristic in response to the second signal, and to modify a processing of the first signal in response to the speech characteristic.

9. The speech signal processing system of claim 8 wherein the speech characteristic is a voicing characteristic and the processing of the first signal is varied dependent on a current degree of voicing indicated by the voicing characteristic.

10. The speech signal processing system of claim 8 wherein the modified speech signal is an encoded speech signal and the processing means (105, 311) is arranged to select a set of encoding parameters for encoding the first signal in response to the speech characteristic.

11. The speech signal processing system of claim 1 wherein the modified speech signal is an encoded speech signal, and the processing of the first signal comprises a speech encoding of the first signal.

12. The speech signal processing system of claim 1 wherein the system comprises a first device (401) comprising the first and second means (103, 109) and a second device remote from the first device and comprising the processing device (105), and wherein the first device (401) further comprise means (405, 407) for communicating the first signal and the second signal to the second device.

13. The speech signal processing system of claim 12 wherein the second device further comprises means for transmitting the speech signal to a third device (411) over a speech only communication connection.

14. A method of operation for a speech signal processing system, the method comprising:

providing a first signal representing an acoustic speech signal of a speaker;

providing a second signal representing an electromyographic signal for the speaker captured simultaneously with the acoustic speech signal, and

processing the first signal in response to the second signal to generate a modified speech signal.

15. A computer program product enabling the carrying out of a method according to claim 14.