US 12,763,091 B2 · Enhanced de-esser for in-car communications systems

Abstract

Methods and systems for deessing of speech signals are described. A deesser of a speech processing system includes an analyzer configured to receive a full spectral envelope for each time frame of a speech signal presented to the speech processing system, and to analyze the full spectral envelope to identify frequency content for deessing. The deesser also includes a compressor configured to receive results from the analyzer and to spectrally weight the speech signal as a function of results of the analyzer. The analyzer can be configured to calculate a psychoacoustic measure from the full spectral envelope, and may be further configured to detect sibilant sounds of the speech signal using the psychoacoustic measure. The psychoacoustic measure can include, for example, a measure of sharpness, and the analyzer may be further configured to calculate deesser weights based on the measure of sharpness. An example application includes in-car communications.

Claims18

Dependent claims

A method comprising, in an in-car communication system, de-essing a speech signal, wherein de-essing said speech signal comprises, for each time frame of a sequence of time frames:

receiving, at a speech-processing system, a full spectral envelope that comprises a combination of said speech signal and background noise, said full spectral envelope consisting of a first part and a second part;
analyzing said full spectral envelope to identify frequency content for de-essing;
and spectrally weighting said speech signal to carry out said de-essing, wherein spectrally weighting said speech signal is based on both said first part and said second part, wherein said second part is devoid of sibilant sounds, the method further comprising, after having spectrally weighted said speech signal to carry out said de-essing, determine a first measure of sharpness and a second measure of sharpness, said first measure being based on a result of having carried out said de-essing and said second measure being based on a result of not having carried out said de-essing, determining that said first measure fails to exceed a threshold, and stopping said de-essing of said speech signal.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Enhanced de-esser for in-car communications systems

Life of this patent

Enhanced de-esser for in-car communications systems

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims18