Speech enhancement using an adaptive gain equalizer with frequency dependent parameter settings

This paper presents an enhanced noise reduction method for speech communication where the input signal is divided into a number of subbands that are individually weighted in the time domain according to the short time signal-to-noise ratio estimate (SNR) in each subband at every time instant. Instead of focusing on suppression of the noise, the method focuses on speech enhancement. The subband based method is extended with frequency dependent parameter settings, equipping the user with further tweaking possibilities. Hence, making the algorithm even more versatile and applicable in different noise situations. The method has proven to be advantageous since it offers low complexity, low delay and low distortion. Also, there is no need for a voice activity detector (VAD). The method is standalone and works regardless of speech coding schemes and other surrounding adaptive systems.

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