An improved MMSE amplitude estimator under generalized gamma distribution based on auditory perception

Abstract

This paper describes a new speech enhancement approach which employs the minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimator based on the generalized gamma distribution of the short-time spectral amplitude (STSA) of a speech signal. In the proposed approach, the human perceptual auditory masking effect is incorporated into the speech enhancement system. The algorithm is based on a criterion by which the audible noise may be masked rather than being attenuated, thereby reducing the chance of speech distortion. Performance assessment is given to show that our proposal can achieve a more significant noise reduction as compared to the perceptual modification of Wiener filtering and the gamma based MMSE estimator. © 2013 Chabane Boubakir and Daoud Berkani.