Parametric speech codec for representing synthetic speech in the presence of background noise

• US 7,257,535 B2
• Filed: 10/28/2005
• Issued: 08/14/2007
• Est. Priority Date: 07/26/1999
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Lucent Technologies, Inc. (Nokia Corporation)
• Inventors: Wang, Wei, Chen, Juin-Hwey, Zopf, Robert W., Aguilar, Joseph Gerard
• Primary Examiner(s): Opsasnick; Michael N.
• Application Number:
  US11/261,969
• Publication Number:
  US 20060064301A1
• Time in Patent Office: 655 Days
• Field of Search: 704/263, 704/264, 704/226
• US Class Current: 704/263
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/093 using sinusoidal excitation models
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 19/265 Pre-filtering, e.g. high frequency emphasis prior to encoding
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0272 Voice signal separating
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/30 using neural networks
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/90 Pitch determination of speech signals
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/93 Discriminating between voiced and unvoiced parts of speech signals G10L25/90 takes precedence

Abstract

A system and method are provided for processing audio and speech signals using a pitch and voicing dependent spectral estimation algorithm (voicing algorithm) to accurately represent voiced speech, unvoiced speech, and mixed speech in the presence of background noise, and background noise with a single model. The present invention also modifies the synthesis model based on an estimate of the current input signal to improve the perceptual quality of the speech and background noise under a variety of input conditions. The present invention also improves the voicing dependent spectral estimation algorithm robustness by introducing the use of a Multi-Layer Neural Network in the estimation process. The voicing dependent spectral estimation algorithm provides an accurate and robust estimate of the voicing probability under a variety of background noise conditions. This is essential to providing high quality intelligible speech in the presence of background noise.

Claims

1. A system for processing an encoded audio signal having a number of frames, the system comprising:

a decoder comprising;

means for unquantizing at least three of a pitch period, a voicing probability, a mid-frame pitch period, and a mid-frame voicing probability of the audio signal;

means for producing a spectral magnitude envelope and a minimum phase envelope;

means for generating at least one control parameter using a signal-to-noise ratio computed using a gain and the voicing probability of the audio signal;

means for analyzing the spectral magnitude envelope and the minimum phase envelope, wherein the spectral magnitude envelope and the minimum phase envelope are analyzed using the at least one control parameter and at least one of the unquantized pitch period, the unquantized voicing probability, the unquantized mid-frame pitch period, and the unquantized mid-frame voicing probability; and

means for producing a synthetic speech signal corresponding to the input audio signal using the analysis of the spectral magnitude envelope and the minimum phase envelope.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein the decoder further comprises:

means for interpolating and outputting the spectral magnitude envelope and the minimum phase envelope to the means for analyzing.

3. The system of claim 1, wherein the means for analyzing comprises:

first means for processing the spectral magnitude envelope and the minimum phase envelope to produce a time-domain signal; and

second means for processing the time-domain signal to produce the synthetic speech signal corresponding to the input audio signal.

4. The system of claim 3, wherein the first means for processing the spectral magnitude envelope and the minimum phase envelope to produce the time-domain signal comprises:

means for filtering the spectral magnitude envelope;

means for calculating frequencies and amplitudes using at least the filtered spectral magnitude envelope;

means for calculating sine-wave phases using at least the minimum phase envelope and the calculated frequencies; and

means for calculating a sum of sinusoids using at least the calculated frequencies and amplitudes and the sine-wave phases to produce the time-domain signal.