Comparison of Speech Enhancement Algorithms in order to improve speech quality

Speech is one of the simplest sources of communication, yet it is a challenging phenomenon. Spoken communication includes two distinct aspects, which are the verbal component and the prosodic component. The former component combines two systems in which the first forms words from phonemes and the second constructs sentences from words. In other words, it helps to express emotions, to stress a particular word or the end of a sentence [۱]. Both components share the same speech signal; however, they play peculiar roles in formulating natural language. Since we live in a natural environment where noise is inevitable and ubiquitous, speech signals can seldom be recorded in pure form and are generally contaminated by acoustic background noise. As a result, the speech signals have to be cleaned up with digital signal processing tools before they are stored, transmitted, or played out [۱]. Noise reduction algorithms and systems for speech enhancement have received considerable interest in the past, primarily because the reduced speech intelligibility under noisy conditions is one of the major complaints in hearing impaired subjects. Recent years, noise reduction has been in great demand for an increasing number of audio applications, such as automatic speech recognition systems and cellular telephone.

کلیدواژه ها:

speech improvement ، speech quality ، noise removal