An Efficient Speech Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Hearing Aids Based on Modified Spectral Subtraction and Companding

Young Woo LEE; Sang Min LEE; Yoon Sang JI; Jong Shill LEE; Young Joon CHEE; Sung Hwa HONG; Sun I. KIM; In Young KIM

doi:10.1093/ietfec/e90-a.8.1628

An Efficient Speech Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Hearing Aids Based on Modified Spectral Subtraction and Companding

Young Woo LEE, Sang Min LEE, Yoon Sang JI, Jong Shill LEE, Young Joon CHEE, Sung Hwa HONG, Sun I. KIM, In Young KIM

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Digital hearing aid users often complain of difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background noise. To improve speech perception in a noisy environment, various speech enhancement algorithms have been applied in digital hearing aids. In this study, a speech enhancement algorithm using modified spectral subtraction and companding is proposed for digital hearing aids. We adjusted the biases of the estimated noise spectrum, based on a subtraction factor, to decrease the residual noise. Companding was applied to the channel of the formant frequency based on the speech presence indicator to enhance the formant. Noise suppression was achieved while retaining weak speech components and avoiding the residual noise phenomena. Objective and subjective evaluation under various environmental conditions confirmed the improvement due to the proposed algorithm. We tested segmental SNR and Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR), which have higher correlation with subjective measures. Segmental SNR has the highest and LLR the lowest correlation of the methods tested. In addition, we confirmed by spectrogram that the proposed method significantly reduced the residual noise and enhanced the formants. A mean opinion score that represented the global perception score was tested; this produced the highest quality speech using the proposed method. The results show that the proposed speech enhancement algorithm is beneficial for hearing aid users in noisy environments.

Publication: IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals Vol.E90-A No.8 pp.1628-1635

Publication Date: 2007/08/01

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Online ISSN: 1745-1337

DOI: 10.1093/ietfec/e90-a.8.1628

Type of Manuscript: PAPER

Category: Speech and Hearing

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Young Woo LEE, Sang Min LEE, Yoon Sang JI, Jong Shill LEE, Young Joon CHEE, Sung Hwa HONG, Sun I. KIM, In Young KIM, "An Efficient Speech Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Hearing Aids Based on Modified Spectral Subtraction and Companding" in IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals, vol. E90-A, no. 8, pp. 1628-1635, August 2007, doi: 10.1093/ietfec/e90-a.8.1628.
Abstract: Digital hearing aid users often complain of difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background noise. To improve speech perception in a noisy environment, various speech enhancement algorithms have been applied in digital hearing aids. In this study, a speech enhancement algorithm using modified spectral subtraction and companding is proposed for digital hearing aids. We adjusted the biases of the estimated noise spectrum, based on a subtraction factor, to decrease the residual noise. Companding was applied to the channel of the formant frequency based on the speech presence indicator to enhance the formant. Noise suppression was achieved while retaining weak speech components and avoiding the residual noise phenomena. Objective and subjective evaluation under various environmental conditions confirmed the improvement due to the proposed algorithm. We tested segmental SNR and Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR), which have higher correlation with subjective measures. Segmental SNR has the highest and LLR the lowest correlation of the methods tested. In addition, we confirmed by spectrogram that the proposed method significantly reduced the residual noise and enhanced the formants. A mean opinion score that represented the global perception score was tested; this produced the highest quality speech using the proposed method. The results show that the proposed speech enhancement algorithm is beneficial for hearing aid users in noisy environments.
URL: https://globals.ieice.org/en_transactions/fundamentals/10.1093/ietfec/e90-a.8.1628/_p

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@ARTICLE{e90-a_8_1628,
author={Young Woo LEE, Sang Min LEE, Yoon Sang JI, Jong Shill LEE, Young Joon CHEE, Sung Hwa HONG, Sun I. KIM, In Young KIM, },
journal={IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals},
title={An Efficient Speech Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Hearing Aids Based on Modified Spectral Subtraction and Companding},
year={2007},
volume={E90-A},
number={8},
pages={1628-1635},
abstract={Digital hearing aid users often complain of difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background noise. To improve speech perception in a noisy environment, various speech enhancement algorithms have been applied in digital hearing aids. In this study, a speech enhancement algorithm using modified spectral subtraction and companding is proposed for digital hearing aids. We adjusted the biases of the estimated noise spectrum, based on a subtraction factor, to decrease the residual noise. Companding was applied to the channel of the formant frequency based on the speech presence indicator to enhance the formant. Noise suppression was achieved while retaining weak speech components and avoiding the residual noise phenomena. Objective and subjective evaluation under various environmental conditions confirmed the improvement due to the proposed algorithm. We tested segmental SNR and Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR), which have higher correlation with subjective measures. Segmental SNR has the highest and LLR the lowest correlation of the methods tested. In addition, we confirmed by spectrogram that the proposed method significantly reduced the residual noise and enhanced the formants. A mean opinion score that represented the global perception score was tested; this produced the highest quality speech using the proposed method. The results show that the proposed speech enhancement algorithm is beneficial for hearing aid users in noisy environments.},
keywords={},
doi={10.1093/ietfec/e90-a.8.1628},
ISSN={1745-1337},
month={August},}

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TY - JOUR
TI - An Efficient Speech Enhancement Algorithm for Digital Hearing Aids Based on Modified Spectral Subtraction and Companding
T2 - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals
SP - 1628
EP - 1635
AU - Young Woo LEE
AU - Sang Min LEE
AU - Yoon Sang JI
AU - Jong Shill LEE
AU - Young Joon CHEE
AU - Sung Hwa HONG
AU - Sun I. KIM
AU - In Young KIM
PY - 2007
DO - 10.1093/ietfec/e90-a.8.1628
JO - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals
SN - 1745-1337
VL - E90-A
IS - 8
JA - IEICE TRANSACTIONS on Fundamentals
Y1 - August 2007
AB - Digital hearing aid users often complain of difficulty in understanding speech in the presence of background noise. To improve speech perception in a noisy environment, various speech enhancement algorithms have been applied in digital hearing aids. In this study, a speech enhancement algorithm using modified spectral subtraction and companding is proposed for digital hearing aids. We adjusted the biases of the estimated noise spectrum, based on a subtraction factor, to decrease the residual noise. Companding was applied to the channel of the formant frequency based on the speech presence indicator to enhance the formant. Noise suppression was achieved while retaining weak speech components and avoiding the residual noise phenomena. Objective and subjective evaluation under various environmental conditions confirmed the improvement due to the proposed algorithm. We tested segmental SNR and Log Likelihood Ratio (LLR), which have higher correlation with subjective measures. Segmental SNR has the highest and LLR the lowest correlation of the methods tested. In addition, we confirmed by spectrogram that the proposed method significantly reduced the residual noise and enhanced the formants. A mean opinion score that represented the global perception score was tested; this produced the highest quality speech using the proposed method. The results show that the proposed speech enhancement algorithm is beneficial for hearing aid users in noisy environments.
ER -