Method and system of correcting spectral deformations in the voice, introduced by a communication network

• US 7,359,857 B2
• Filed: 11/25/2003
• Issued: 04/15/2008
• Est. Priority Date: 12/11/2002
• Status: Expired due to Fees

• Current Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Original Assignee: Orange S.A.
• Inventors: Mahe, Gael, Gilloire, Andre
• Primary Examiner(s): Edouard; Patrick N.
• Assistant Examiner(s): Wozniak; James S.
• Application Number:
  US10/723,851
• Publication Number:
  US 20040172241A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,603 Days
• Field of Search: 704224-225, 704/228, 704/246
• US Class Current: 704/228
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0364 for improving intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/18 the extracted parameters being spectral information of each sub-band

Abstract

A technique for correcting the voice spectral deformations introduced by a communication network. Prior to the operation of equalization of the voice signal of a speaker, the constitution of classes of speakers is communicated, with one voice reference per class. Then, for a given speaker, the classification of this speaker is communicated, that is to say his allocation to a class from predefined classification criteria in order to make a voice reference which is closest to his own correspond to him. Then, for that given speaker, communicating the equalization of the digitized signal of the voice of the speaker carried out with, as a reference spectrum, the voice reference of the class to which the speaker has been allocated. This technique applies to the correction of the timbre of the voice in switched telephone networks, in ISDN networks and in mobile networks.

Claims

1. A method of correcting spectral deformations in a voice, introduced by a communication network, comprising an equalization operation on a frequency band, adapted to an actual distortion of a transmission chain, said operation being performed by a digital filter having a frequency response which is a function of a ratio between a reference spectrum and a spectrum corresponding to a long-term spectrum of voice signals of speakers, comprising:

communicating a constitution of classes of speakers with one voice reference per class prior to the equalization of a voice signal of a speaker;

communicating a classification of the speaker, such that the speaker is allocated to the class from predefined classification criteria which causes a voice reference which is closest to the voice of the speaker to correspond to the speaker;

performing equalization of a digitized signal of the voice of the speaker with, as a reference spectrum, the voice reference of the class to which the speaker has been allocated;

wherein communicating the constitution of classes of speakers comprises selecting a corpus of N speakers recorded under non-deteriorated conditions, determining a long-term frequency spectrum of the selected corpus of N speakers, classifying the speakers of the corpus according to their partial cepstrum, and calculating the reference spectrum associated with each class to obtain the voice reference corresponding to each of the classes;

wherein said ceptrum is calculated from the long-term spectrum restricted to the equalization band and by applying a predefined classification criterion to these cepstra to obtain K classes.

2. The method of correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 1, wherein the reference spectrum on the equalization frequency band, associated with each class, is calculated by Fourier transform of a center of a class defined by its partial cepstra.

3. The method of correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 1, wherein the classification of a speaker comprises:

use of a mean pitch of the voice signal and partial cepstrum of the voice signal as classification parameters; and

applying a discriminating function to the classification parameters to classify the speaker.

4. The method of correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 1, further comprising:

pre-equalizing the digitized signal by a fixed filter having a frequency response in the frequency band, corresponding to an inverse of a reference spectral deformation introduced by a telephone connection.

5. The method of correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 1, wherein the equalization of the digitized signal of the voice of the speaker comprises:

detection of voice activity on a reception line to trigger a concatenation of processes comprising calculation of the long-term spectrum, the classification of the speaker, calculation of a modulus of the frequency response of the equalizer filter restricted to the equalization band and calculation of coefficients of the digital filter differentiated according to the class of the speaker, from this modulus,

control of the filter with the coefficients obtained, and

filtering of a signal emerging from a pre-equalizer by the filter.

6. The method of correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 5, wherein the calculation of the modulus of the frequency response of the equalizer filter restricted to the equalization band is achieved in accordance with the following relationship:

$<br><br>\mathrm{EQ}<br><br>\left(f\right)<br><br>=\frac{1}{<br><br>\mathrm{S\_RX}<br><br>\left(f\right)·<br><br>\mathrm{L\_RX}<br><br>\left(f\right)<br><br>}<br><br>\sqrt{\frac{{\mathrm{\gamma <br><br>}}_{\mathrm{ref}}<br><br>\left(f\right)}{{\mathrm{\gamma <br><br>}}_x<br><br>\left(f\right)}},$

wherein γ

_ref(f) is the reference spectrum of the class to which the speaker belongs, L_RX is a frequency response of the reception line, S_RX is the frequency response of a reception signal and γ

_x(f) is the long-term spectrum of an input signal of the filter.

7. The method of correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 5, wherein the calculation of the modulus of the frequency response of the equalizer filter restricted to the equalization band is achieved in accordance with the following relationship:

C_eq^p=C_ref^p−

C_x^p−

C<sub>S—

RX</sub>C−

<sub>L—

RX</sub>,

wherein C_eq^p, C_x^p, C<sub>S—

RX</sub>^p and C<sub>L—

RX</sub> are respective partial cepstra of the adapted equalizer, the input signal x of the equalizer filter, a reception system and the reception line, C_ref^p being the reference partial cepstrum, a center of the class of the speaker; and

wherein the modulus restricted to the band being calculated by discrete Fourier transform of C_eq^p.

8. A system for correcting voice spectral deformations introduced by a communication network, comprising adapted equalization means in a frequency band, said adapted equalization means comprising:

a digital filter having a frequency response which is a function of a ratio between a reference spectrum and a spectrum corresponding to a long-term spectrum of a voice signal; and

signal processing means for calculating coefficients of the digital filter;

said signal processing means including;

a first signal processing unit for calculating a modulus of a frequency response of an equalizer filter restricted to an equalization band according to the following relationship;

$<br><br>\mathrm{EQ}<br><br>\left(f\right)<br><br>=\frac{1}{<br><br>\mathrm{S\_RX}<br><br>\left(f\right)·<br><br>\mathrm{L\_RX}<br><br>\left(f\right)<br><br>}<br><br>\sqrt{\frac{{\mathrm{\gamma <br><br>}}_{\mathrm{ref}}<br><br>\left(f\right)}{{\mathrm{\gamma <br><br>}}_x<br><br>\left(f\right)}},$

wherein γ

_ref(f) is the reference spectrum, which may be different from one speaker to another and which corresponds to a reference for a predetermined class to which a speaker belongs, L_RX is a frequency response of a reception line, S_RX is the frequency response of a reception signal and γ

_x(f) is the long-term spectrum of an input signal of the filter; and

a second signal processing unit for calculating a pulsed response from the calculated frequency response modulus to determine coefficients of the equalizer filter differentiated according to the constitution of different speaker classes;

wherein the classes of speakers are determined by selecting a corpus of N speakers recorded under non-deteriorated conditions, determining a long-term frequency spectrum of the N speakers of the selected corpus, classifying the speakers of the corpus according to their partial cepstrum by applying a predefined classification criterion to these cepstra to obtain K classes, and calculating the reference spectrum associated with each class to obtain the voice reference corresponding to each of the classes; and

wherein a partial cepstrum of a speaker is calculated from the speaker'"'"'s long-term spectrum restricted to the equalization band.

9. The system for correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 8, wherein the first processing unit comprises means for calculating a partial cepstrum of the equalizer filter according to the following relationship:

C_eq^p=C_ref^p−

C_x^p−

C<sub>S—

RX</sub>−

C<sub>L—

RX</sub>^p,

wherein C_eq^p, C_x^p, C<sub>S—

RX</sub>^P and C<sub>L—

RX</sub>^p are respective partial cepstra of an adapted equalizer, an input signal of the equalizer filter, a reception signal and a reception line, C_ref^p being a reference partial cepstrum, a center of a class of the speaker; and

wherein the modulus of the equalizer filter restricted to the frequency band is calculated by discrete Fourier transform of C_eq^p.

10. The system for correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 9, wherein the first processing unit comprises a sub-assembly for calculating partial cepstrum coefficients of a speaker who is communicating and a second sub-assembly for effecting a classification of the communicating speaker, said second sub-assembly comprising a block for calculating a pitch, a block for estimating a mean pitch from the calculated pitch, and a classification block for applying a discriminating function to a vector having the mean pitch and the coefficients of the partial cepstrum for classifying the speaker as its components.

11. The system for correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 8, wherein the first processing unit comprises a sub-assembly for calculating partial cepstrum coefficients of a speaker who is communicating and a second sub-assembly for effecting a classification of the communicating speaker, said second sub-assembly comprising a block for calculating a pitch, a block for estimating a mean pitch from the calculated pitch, and a classification block for applying a discriminating function to the vector having the mean pitch and the coefficients of the partial cepstrum for classifying the speaker as its components.

12. The system for correcting spectral voice deformations according to claim 8, further comprising:

a pre-equalizer;

wherein a signal equalized from reference spectra differentiated according to the class of the speaker is an output signal of the pre-equalizer.