EUROSPEECH 2003 - INTERSPEECH 2003 8th European Conference on Speech Communication and Technology Geneva, Switzerland September 1-4, 2003

Wavelet-Based Perceptual Speech Enhancement Using Adaptive Threshold Estimation

Essa Jafer, Abdulhussain E. Mahdi

University of Limerick, Ireland

A new speech enhancement system, which is based on a time-frequency adaptive wavelet soft thresholding, is presented in this paper. The system utilises a Bark-scaled wavelet packet decomposition integrated into a modified Weiner filtering technique using a novel threshold estimation method based on a magnitude decision-directed approach. First, a Bark-Scaled wavelet packet transform is used to decompose the speech signal into critical bands. Threshold estimation is then performed for each wavelet band according to an adaptive noise level-tracking algorithm. Finally, the speech is estimated by incorporating the computed threshold into a Wiener filtering process, using the magnitude decision-directed approach. The proposed speech enhancement technique has been tested with various stationary and non-stationary noise cases. Reported results show that the system is capable of a high-level of noise suppression while preserving the intelligibility and naturalness of the speech.

Full Paper

Bibliographic reference.  Jafer, Essa / Mahdi, Abdulhussain E. (2003): "Wavelet-based perceptual speech enhancement using adaptive threshold estimation", In EUROSPEECH-2003, 569-572.