System and method for noise reduction having first and second adaptive filters

• US 7,162,420 B2
• Filed: 12/10/2002
• Issued: 01/09/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 12/10/2002
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: F Poszat Hu LLC (Intellectual Ventures LLC)
• Original Assignee: Liberato Technologies, LLC
• Inventors: Zangi, Kambiz C., Isabelle, Steven
• Primary Examiner(s): Storm; Donald L.
• Application Number:
  US10/315,615
• Publication Number:
  US 20040111258A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,491 Days
• Field of Search: None
• US Class Current: 704/226
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02082 the noise being echo, reverberation of the speech
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02165 Two microphones, one receiving mainly the noise signal and the other one mainly the speech signal
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 2021/02166 Microphone arrays; Beamforming
• 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 21/0208 Noise filtering

Abstract

An apparatus and method for noise reduction employ a first processor having one or more channels, each channel comprising a respective first processor filter, and each channel configured to receive a respective one of one or more input signals. The first processor is configured to provide an intermediate output signal. The apparatus and method further employ a second processor including a second processor filter configured to receive the intermediate output signal and to provide a noise-reduced output signal. The apparatus and method further employ a first adaptation processor coupled to the first processor and a second adaptation processor coupled to the second processor. In some embodiments, an echo canceling processor reduces an echo portion associated with the noise-reduced output signal. In some embodiments, a response of the first filter portion and of the second filter portion are dynamically adapted.

Claims

1. A system for processing one or more input signals, the system comprising:

a first processor having one or more channels, each channel comprising a respective first processor filter, each channel configured to receive a respective one of the one or more input signals, wherein the first processor is configured to provide an intermediate output signal;

a second processor comprising a second processor filter configured to receive the intermediate output signal and provide a noise-reduced output signal;

a first adaptation processor coupled to the first processor, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to a variation of a power spectral density (PSD) of a noise signal portion of respective ones of the one or more input signals, and wherein the first adaptation processor does not respond to variations of the power spectral density of a desired signal portion of respective ones of the one or more input signals; and

a second adaptation processor coupled to the second processor.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein a noise signal portion of each respective one of the one or more input signals comprises a representation of acoustic noise, and a desired signal portion of each respective one of the one or more input signals comprises a representation of a voice.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor includes a power spectral density inversion processor that directly provides the inverse of the power spectral density (PSD) of the noise signal portion of respective ones of the one or more input signals.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein the second adaptation processor adapts the second processor filter in response to variations of the power spectral density (PSD) of a desired signal portion of the intermediate output signal.

5. The system of claim 1, wherein the second adaptation processor adapts the second processor filter in response to variations of the power spectral density (PSD) of the intermediate output signal and to variations of the power spectral density (PSD) of a noise portion of the intermediate output signal.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor includes a voice activity detection (VAD) processor coupled to the intermediate output signal, the VAD processor having a VAD processor output for indicating when a desired signal portion of the intermediate output signal is absent.

7. The system of claim 6, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to the VAD processor output.

8. The system of claim 7, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to a noise portion of respective ones of the one or more input signals, in response to the VAD processor output.

9. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor includes a voice activity detection (VAD) processor coupled to at least one of the one or more input signals, the VAD processor having a VAD processor output for indicating when a desired signal portion of the at least one of the one or more input signals is absent.

10. The system of claim 9, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to the VAD processor output.

11. The system of claim 10, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to a noise portion of a respective one of the one or more input signals, in response to the VAD processor output.

12. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor includes a subtraction processor for subtracting a filtered version of an estimate of a desired signal portion from each of the one or more input signals to provide one or more respective subtracted signals.

13. The system of claim 12, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to a variation of a power spectral density (PSD) of the one or more subtracted signals.

14. The system of claim 12, wherein the first adaptation processor includes a subtraction processor for subtracting a filtered version of the intermediate output signal or a filtered version of the noise-reduced output signal from each of the one or more input signals to provide one or more respective subtracted signals.

15. The system of claim 14, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels in response to a variation of a power spectral density (PSD) of the one or more subtracted signals.

16. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the respective first processor filter in each of the one or more channels so that the intermediate output signal is a maximum-likelihood estimate of a desired signal portion of the one or more input signals.

17. The system of claim 1, wherein the second processor filter comprises a single-input single-output Weiner filter.

18. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor adapts the first processor filter in each of the one or more channels so that the intermediate output signal is a maximum-likelihood estimate of a desired signal portion of the one or more input signals, and the second processor filter comprises a single-input single-output Weiner filter.

19. The system of claim 1, wherein the first processor includes an un-windowed discrete Fourier transform (DFT) processor.

20. The system of claim 1, wherein the first adaptation processor includes a windowed discrete Fourier transform (DFT) processor.

21. The system of claim 1, further including a remote voice canceling processor for subtracting a remote-voice-producing signal from each of the one or more input signals.

22. The system of claim 1, further including a remote voice canceling processor for subtracting a remote-voice-producing signal from the intermediate output signal.

23. The system of claim 1, further including a remote voice canceling processor for subtracting a remote-voice-producing signal from the noise-reduced output signal.

24. A system, comprising:

a first filter portion configured to receive one or more input signals and to provide a single intermediate output signal;

a second filter portion configured to receive the single intermediate output signal and to provide a single output signal;

a control circuit configured to receive at least a portion of each of the one or more input signals and at least a portion of the single intermediate output signal and to provide information to adapt filter characteristics of the first and second filter portions; and

an echo canceling processor coupled to receive the single output signal, for reducing an echo signal portion of the single output signal by subtracting a remote-voice-producing signal from at least one of;

the one or more input signals, the single intermediate output signal, or the single output signal.

25. The system of claim 24, wherein the control circuit comprises a first adaptation processor for providing first information to adapt the filter characteristics of the first filter portion and a second adaptation processor for providing second information to adapt the filter characteristics of the second filter portion.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the first information corresponds to a noise power spectral density of the one or more input signals and the second information corresponds to one or more of:

a power spectral density of a noise portion of the intermediate output signal, a power spectral density of a desired signal portion of the intermediate output signal, or a power spectral density of the intermediate output signal.

27. A method for processing one or more input signals, comprising:

receiving the one or more input signals with a first filter portion, the first filter portion providing an intermediate output signal;

receiving the intermediate output signal with a second filter portion, the second filter portion providing an output signal;

dynamically adapting a response of the first filter portion and a response of the second filter portion; and

reducing a remote voice signal portion of the output signal by subtracting a remote-voice-producing signal from at least one of;

the one or more input signals, the intermediate output signal, or the output signal.

28. The method of claim 27, wherein the dynamically adapting comprises adapting a response of the first filter portion in response to a noise portion of the one or more input signals and adapting a response of the second filter portion in response to a power spectral density of at least one of:

a noise portion of the intermediate output signal, a desired signal portion of the intermediate output signal, and characteristics of the intermediate output signal.

29. The method of claim 28, wherein the receiving with a first filter portion comprises receiving with a maximum-likelihood filter having multiple inputs and a single output, and the receiving with a second filter portion comprises receiving with a single-input single-output Weiner filter.

30. The method of claim 27, further including:

estimating a transfer function between respective ones of the one or more input signals in a training period during which a person determines that the one or more input signals have a high signal to noise ratio.

31. The method of claim 27, further including:

estimating a transfer function between respective ones of the one or more input signals in a training period during which a signal processor determines that the one or more input signals have a high signal to noise ratio.

32. The method of claim 31, wherein the estimating the transfer function in the training period comprises estimating the transfer function in the training period corresponding to the training period associated with a voice recognition system.