This paper overviews a total solution for frequency-domain blind source separation (BSS) of convolutive mixtures of audio signals, especially speech. Frequency-domain BSS performs independent component analysis (ICA) in each frequency bin, and this is more efficient than time-domain BSS. We describe a sophisticated total solution for frequency-domain BSS, including permutation, scaling, circularity, and complex activation function solutions. Experimental results of 22, 33, 44, 68, and 22 (moving sources), (#sources#microphones) in a room are promising.

This paper discusses a nonlinear function for independent component analysis to process complex-valued signals in frequency-domain blind source separation. Conventionally, nonlinear functions based on the Cartesian coordinates are widely used. However, such functions have a convergence problem. In this paper, we propose a more appropriate nonlinear function that is based on the polar coordinates of a complex number. In addition, we show that the difference between the two types of functions arises from the assumed densities of independent components. Our discussion is supported by several experimental results for separating speech signals, which show that the polar type nonlinear functions behave better than the Cartesian type.

This paper describes a real-time blind source separation (BSS) method for moving speech signals in a room. Our method employs frequency domain independent component analysis (ICA) using a blockwise batch algorithm in the first stage, and the separated signals are refined by postprocessing using crosstalk component estimation and non-stationary spectral subtraction in the second stage. The blockwise batch algorithm achieves better performance than an online algorithm when sources are fixed, and the postprocessing compensates for performance degradation caused by source movement. Experimental results using speech signals recorded in a real room show that the proposed method realizes robust real-time separation for moving sources. Our method is implemented on a standard PC and works in realtime.

In this paper, single-input multiple-output (SIMO)-model-based blind source separation (BSS) is addressed, where unknown mixed source signals are detected at microphones, and can be separated, not into monaural source signals but into SIMO-model-based signals from independent sources as they are at the microphones. This technique is highly applicable to high-fidelity signal processing such as binaural signal processing. First, we provide an experimental comparison between two kinds of SIMO-model-based BSS methods, namely, conventional frequency-domain ICA with projection-back processing (FDICA-PB), and SIMO-ICA which was recently proposed by the authors. Secondly, we propose a new combination technique of the FDICA-PB and SIMO-ICA, which can achieve a higher separation performance than the two methods. The experimental results reveal that the accuracy of the separated SIMO signals in the simple SIMO-ICA is inferior to that of the signals obtained by FDICA-PB under low-quality initial value conditions, but the proposed combination technique can outperform both simple FDICA-PB and SIMO-ICA.