Blind estimation of the direct-to-reverberant ratio using a beta distribution fit to binaural coherence

Abstract

Knowledge of the direct-to-reverberant ratio (DRR) can be useful in various acoustic and audio applications. While the DRR can be computed easily from a room impulse response (RIR), blind estimation using sources of opportunity is necessary when such RIRs are not available. This paper describes a method for blind estimation of the DRR which involves fitting a beta distribution to the magnitude-squared coherence between two binaural audio signals, aggregated over time and frequency. Validation experiments utilizing speech convolved with binaural RIRs yield DRR estimates that are within the just-noticeable difference for DRRs in the range −15 to +18 dB.