An Introduction to the Speech Enhancement for Augmented Reality (Spear) Challenge

Pierre Guiraud, Sina Hafezi, Patrick A. Naylor, Alastair H. Moore, Jacob Donley, Vladimir Tourbabin, Thomas Lunner

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contributionpeer-review

11 Scopus citations

Abstract

It is well known that microphone arrays can be used to enhance a target speaker in a noisy, reverberant environment, with both spatial (e.g. beamforming) and statistical (e.g. source separation) methods proving effective. Head-worn microphone arrays inherently sample a sound field from an egocentric perspective - when the head moves the apparent direction of even static sound sources change with respect to the array. Traditionally, enhancement algorithms have aimed at being robust to head motion but hearable devices and augmented reality (AR) headsets/glasses contain additional sensors which offer the potential to adapt to, or even exploit, head motion. The recently released EasyCom database contains microphone array recordings of group conversations made in a realistic restaurant-like acoustic scene. In addition to egocentric recordings made with AR glasses, extensive metadata, including the position and orientation of speakers, is provided. This paper describes the use and adaptation of EasyCom for a new IEEE SPS Data Challenge.

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationInternational Workshop on Acoustic Signal Enhancement, IWAENC 2022 - Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
ISBN (Electronic)9781665468671
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Jan 2022
Externally publishedYes
Event17th International Workshop on Acoustic Signal Enhancement, IWAENC 2022 - Bamberg, Germany
Duration: 5 Sep 20228 Sep 2022

Publication series

NameInternational Workshop on Acoustic Signal Enhancement, IWAENC 2022 - Proceedings

Conference

Conference17th International Workshop on Acoustic Signal Enhancement, IWAENC 2022
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityBamberg
Period5/09/228/09/22

Keywords

  • augmented reality
  • data challenge
  • head movement
  • head-worn array
  • microphone array

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Signal Processing
  • Acoustics and Ultrasonics

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