Blind dereverberation based on estimates of signal transmission channels without precise information on channel order [speech processing applications]

This paper addresses the blind dereverberation problem of single-input multiple-output acoustic systems. Most approaches require an exact knowledge of the order of the room transfer functions. In this paper, we propose an equalization algorithm that is less sensitive to the order of the estimated transfer functions. First, the transfer functions are estimated using an overestimated order, and the inverse filter set for this estimated transfer functions is calculated. Since the estimated transfer functions have a common part, the signal processed by the inverse filter set contains distortion. Then, we compensate for this distortion using a common polynomial extraction technique. This algorithm enables a reverberated speech signal to be dereverberated as long as the channel is overestimated. Simulation results show that the proposed method is robust even when the order is highly overestimated.