US 8,577,677 B2Granted

Sound source separation method and system using beamforming technique

AssigneesSamsung Electronics Co., Ltd., Korea University Research and Business Foundation

InventorsHyun-Soo Kim, Hanseok Ko, Jounghoon Beh, Taekjin Lee

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Abstract

A system and method for sound source separation. The system and method use a beamforming technique. The sound source separation system includes a windowing processor; a DFT transformer; a transfer function estimator; and a noise estimator. The system also includes a voice signal extractor that cancels individual voice signals, except an individual voice signal that is desired to be extracted among individual voice signals, from the integrated voice signals. The system further includes a voice signal detector that cancels a noise part provided through the noise estimator from a transfer function of an individual voice signal which is desired to be detected and extracts a noise-canceled individual voice signal. Even when two or more sound sources are simultaneously input, the sound sources can be separated from each other and separately stored and managed, or an initial sound source can be stored and managed.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A sound source separation system using a beamforming technique configured to separate two or more different sound sources, the system comprising:

a windowing processor configured to apply a plurality of windows to an integrated voice signal input through a microphone array in which beamforming is performed;
a DFT transformer configured to transform the integrated voice signal to which the windows are applied through the windowing processor into a plurality of frequency-domain signals;
a transfer function (TF) estimator configured to estimate transfer functions having feature values of two or more different individual voice signals from the integrated voice signal to which the windows are applied;
a noise estimator configured to:
determine whether stationary noise or burst noise is detected in the integrated voice signal by comparing a measured energy in one window with a measured energy in a previous window;
and
cancel the stationary noise or the burst noise from the one window of the integrated voice signal;
and
a voice signal detector configured to extract the two or more different individual voice signals from the noise-canceled integrated voice signal,
wherein the noise estimator comprises:
a temporary storage unit configured to temporarily store an FFT value of each window transformed through the DFT transformer;
a correlation measuring unit configured to measure a correlation value between the one window with the previous window and compute the energy of the one window and the previous window;
a correlation determining unit configured to determine whether the correlation value measured by the correlation measuring unit exceeds a previously set threshold value;
and
a burst noise detector configured to detect the stationary noise or the burst noise using the correlation value and the energy.

12 more elements

A method of separating two or more different sound sources using a beamforming technique, the method comprising:

applying a plurality of windows to an integrated voice signal input through a microphone array in which beamforming is performed;
DFT-transforming the integrated voice signal to which the windows are applied in the applying of the window into a plurality of frequency-domain signals;
estimating transfer functions (TFs) having feature values of two or more different individual voice signals from the integrated voice signal to which the windows are applied;
determining whether stationary noise or burst noise is detected in the integrated voice signal by comparing a measured energy in one window with a measured energy in a previous window;
canceling the stationary noise or the burst noise from the one window of the integrated voice signal;
and
extracting the two or more different individual voice signals from the noise-canceled integrated voice signal,
wherein canceling the stationary noise or the burst noise from the one window of the integrated voice signal comprises:
temporarily storing an FFT value of each transformed window;
computing energy of the previous window and the one window and measuring a correlation value between the previous window that is currently input and the one window that is input after a previously set time elapses using the FFT value of each frame stored;
determining whether the measured correlation value exceeds a previously set threshold value;
and
when it is determined that the correlation value exceeds a previously set threshold value, detecting and canceling the stationary noise or the burst noise.

10 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.