Colloquium: Signal Processing for Speech Enhancement

22 May 2017

Speech is arguably the most natural and important means for human communication. In recent years, speech has become more and more feasible and important also for human-computer interaction. As many speech communications devices like smartphones and hearing aids are portable or even wearable, they are frequently used in very noisy environments such as crowded restaurants, busy streets, or in a cafeteria. However, the noise and reverberation in such environments may make speech communication difficult or even impossible. In the Signal Processing (SP) group, we focus on audio signal processing and in particular aim at making speech communication work more robustly in noisy and reverberant environments. To achieve this, we combine prior knowledge about the signal (e.g. speech), the environment (e.g. the room) and the sink (e.g. the human ear) with rigorous mathematical optimization procedures. In this talk, we will introduce the general concepts used for signal enhancement and highlight our recent contributions.

Monday, 22 May 2017, Informatikum, Room B-201

Prof. Dr. Timo Gerkmann, University of Hamburg