Periodic signal enhancement system

• US 7,680,652 B2
• Filed: 10/26/2004
• Issued: 03/16/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 10/26/2004
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Blackberry Limited
• Original Assignee: QNX Software Systems Wavemakers Inc (Blackberry Limited)
• Inventors: Hetherington, Phillip, Giesbrecht, David
• Primary Examiner(s): Hudspeth; David R
• Assistant Examiner(s): Serrou; Abdelali
• Application Number:
  US10/973,575
• Publication Number:
  US 20060089958A1
• Time in Patent Office: 1,967 Days
• Field of Search: 704/226, 704/267, 704/26, 704/231, 704/233, 704/206, 704/E19.045, 704/268
• US Class Current: 704/226
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 21/0364 for improving intelligibility
• CPC Class Codes: G10L 25/90 Pitch determination of speech signals
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 21/0012 Digital adaptive filters
• CPC Class Codes: H03H 2220/08 Variable filter length

Abstract

A signal enhancement system improves the understandability of speech or other audio signals. The system reinforces selected parts of the signal, may attenuate selected parts of the signal, and may increase SNR. The system includes delay logic, an adaptive filter, and signal reinforcement logic. The adaptive filter may track one or more fundamental frequencies in the input signal and outputs a filtered signal. The filtered signal may approximately reproduce the input signal approximately delayed by an integer multiple of the signal'"'"'s fundamental frequencies. The reinforcement logic combines the input signal and the filtered signal output to produce an enhanced signal output.

Claims

1. A signal enhancement system comprising:

a signal input;

delay logic coupled to the signal input;

an adaptive filter coupled to the delay logic; and

reinforcement logic implemented in hardware or executed by a processor, where the reinforcement logic is coupled to the adaptive filter and the signal input to add an output of the adaptive filter to an input signal received on the signal input to increase a first periodic signal component in the input signal that is at least partially in-phase with a second periodic signal component in the output of the adaptive filter.

2. The system of claim 1, where the delay logic and adaptive filter implement a glottal pulse delay for voiced sounds.

3. The system of claim 1, where the adaptive filter is a sample-by-sample adaptive filter.

4. The system of claim 1, further comprising gain control logic coupled to the filter.

5. The system of claim 4, where the gain control logic is coupled to the filter and the signal reinforcement logic.

6. The system of claim 1, further comprising an error estimator coupled to the filter and the signal input;

where the adaptive filter is responsive to reduce an error signal that comprises a difference between the input signal and the output of the adaptive filter.

7. The system of claim 1, further comprising:

an error estimator coupled to the filter and the signal input;

gain control logic coupled to the output of the filter and being responsive to the error estimator.

8. The system of claim 1, where the delay logic implements a delay corresponding to a period of a maximum pitch to be enhanced.

9. The system of claim 8, where the maximum pitch comprises a selected maximum voice pitch.

10. The system of claim 8, where the maximum pitch is between approximately 70 Hz and about 400 Hz.

11. The system of claim 8, where the maximum pitch is a female voice maximum pitch.

12. The system of claim 8, where the maximum pitch is a male voice maximum pitch.

13. The system of claim 8, where the filter comprises a length L filter, where L extends the filter over a selected enhancement frequency range.

14. The system of claim 13, where the enhancement frequency range comprises an audible voice frequency band.

15. The system of claim 1, where the signal input is coupled to a slowly adapting signal filter output.

16. The system of claim 1, where the signal input is coupled to a first stage signal filter comprising quasi-stationary frequency tracking and attenuation logic.

17. The system of claim 1, where the reinforcement logic is configured to add the output of the adaptive filter to the input signal to decrease a first non-periodic signal component in the input signal that is at least partially out of phase with a second non-periodic signal component in the output of the adaptive filter.

18. The system of claim 1, where the reinforcement logic is configured to add the output of the adaptive filter to the input signal to constructively combine one or more periodic signal components of the input signal with one or more periodic signal components of the output of the adaptive filter;

and

where the reinforcement logic is configured to add the output of the adaptive filter to the input signal to destructively combine one or more noise components of the input signal with one or more noise components of the output of the adaptive filter.

19. A signal enhancement system comprising:

a signal input;

means for delaying an input signal received through the signal input;

means for adaptively filtering the delayed signal to obtain a filtered output signal; and

means for reinforcing the input signal with the filtered output signal by adding the filtered output signal to the input signal to increase a first periodic signal component in the input signal that is at least partially in-phase with a second periodic signal component in the filtered output signal, where the means for reinforcing is implemented in hardware or executed by a processor.

20. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for estimating an error between the filtered output signal and the input signal;

where the means for adaptively filtering is responsive to reduce the error.

21. The system of claim 19, further comprising:

means for controlling gain of the filtered output signal.

22. The system of claim 20, further comprising:

means for controlling gain of the filtered output signal that is responsive to the means for estimating error.

23. The system of claim 19, further comprising means for filtering a quasi-stationary signal coupled to the signal input.

24. The system of claim 19, where the means for reinforcing is configured to add the filtered output signal to the input signal to constructively combine one or more periodic signal components of the input signal with one or more periodic signal components of the filtered output signal;

and

where the means for reinforcing adds the filtered output signal to the input signal to destructively combine one or more noise components of the input signal with one or more noise components of the filtered output signal.

25. A method for enhancing a signal, comprising:

receiving an input signal;

delaying the input signal to obtain a delayed signal;

applying an adaptive filter to the delayed signal to obtain a filtered output signal, where the adaptive filter is implemented in hardware or executed by a processor; and

reinforcing the input signal with the filtered output signal by adding the filtered output signal to the input signal to increase a first periodic signal component in the input signal that is at least partially in-phase with a second periodic signal component in the filtered output signal.

26. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

adapting the filter using a Normalized Least Means Squares technique.

27. The method of claim 25, further comprising:

determining an error between the output of the adaptive filter and the input signal.

28. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

adapting filter coefficients of the adaptive filter based on the error.

29. The method of claim 27, further comprising:

adjusting gain applied to the output of the adaptive filter based on the error.

30. The method of claim 25 further comprising:

estimating a fundamental frequency of the input signal.

31. The method of claim 30, where the fundamental frequency occurs in a voice frequency band.

32. The method of claim 30, where the fundamental frequency is less than approximately 400 Hz.

33. The method of claim 30, where the fundamental frequency is less than approximately 200 Hz.

34. A product comprising:

a machine readable medium; and

machine readable instructions embodied on the machine readable medium that;

delay an input signal to obtain a delayed signal;

apply an adaptive filter to the delayed signal to obtain a filtered output signal; and

reinforce the input signal with the filtered output signal by adding the filtered output signal to the input signal to increase a first periodic signal component in the input signal that is at least partially in-phase with a second periodic signal component in the filtered output signal.

35. The product of claim 34, further comprising:

adaptive filtering instructions that estimate a fundamental frequency component of the input signal.

36. The product of claim 34, further comprising:

Normalized Least Means Squares adaptive filtering instructions.

37. The product of claim 35, where the fundamental frequency occurs in a voice frequency band.

38. The product of claim 34, further comprising instructions that:

dynamically change a filter length.

39. The product of claim 34, further comprising instructions that:

dynamically change an input signal delay.

40. The product of claim 34, further comprising instructions that:

prevent adaptation of the adaptive filter based on an expected input signal characteristic.

41. The product of claim 34, further comprising instructions that:

determine an error between the output of the adaptive filter and the input signal.

42. The product of claim 41, further comprising instructions that:

adjust gain applied to the output of the adaptive filter based on the error.

43. The product of claim 34, further comprising instructions that:

track and attenuate a quasi-stationary signal component in the input signal.