MFCC Frequency Shifting for Clearer Speech Perception
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Solution Overview
Problem
Hearing-impaired individuals struggle to clearly receive high-frequency sound signals, and amplifying these signals with an equalizer leads to unpleasant sounds like roaring and ear pressure.
Innovation Solution
A method and apparatus that utilize mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients to shift the power of lower mel frequencies to higher frequencies, generating a synthesized sound signal that retains sound features and improves clarity for hearing-impaired individuals.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If an equalizer is used to amplify high-frequency speech signals, then the ability to receive high-frequency sound is improved, but unpleasant sounds occur (roaring, noise amplification, excessive ear pressure)
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the frequency parameter by down-converting high-frequency breath sounds (around 6 kHz) to lower frequencies (3 kHz or 1.5 kHz), transforming the harmful high-frequency amplification into a beneficial low-frequency representation that hearing-impaired individuals can perceive without the unpleasant effects of high-frequency amplification
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces an intermediary processing step that extracts breath sound components from the original speech signal and re-synthesizes them at lower frequencies, acting as a mediator between the original high-frequency signal and the final output that is suitable for hearing-impaired individuals
2Loss of information
If high-frequency breath sounds are down-converted to low-frequency signals, then semantic understanding is improved for hearing-impaired individuals, but the original frequency structure is altered
Solution Approach 1:
The patent segments the speech signal into different frequency components, specifically separating breath sound components from other speech elements, and processes only the relevant breath sound portions for down-conversion while preserving the overall speech structure
Solution Approach 2:
The patent applies controlled parameter changes by down-converting only the breath sound frequency components while maintaining the temporal and spectral relationships that carry semantic meaning, thus preserving information while altering frequency structure
Data Source
AI summary
A processing method and a processing apparatus of sound signal are provided. Extracting a plurality of mel-frequency cepstrum coefficients (MFCCs) from a sound signal to be processed includes: obtaining a power corresponding to a plurality of mel-frequencies of the sound signal to be processed through a plurality of band-pass filters, in which each band-pass filter corresponds to a mel frequency, and the mel-frequencies corresponding to the band-pass filters are different; mapping a first frequency among the mel-frequencies to a second frequency among the mel-frequencies, and replacing the power corresponding to the second frequency with the power corresponding to the first frequency, in which the second frequency is lower than the first frequency; and generating the MFCCs using the power corresponding to the mel-frequencies. A synthetic sound signal is generated using the MFCCs of the sound signal to be processed. Therefore, a complete sound feature is retained.