Multi-microphone Speech Processing in a Smart-room Environment

Recent advances in computer technology and speech and§language processing have made possible that some new§ways of person-machine communication and computer§assistance to human activities start to appear feasible. §§In this book, the use of a multi-microphone approach§to solve the problems introduced§by far-field microphones in speech applications§deployed in smart-rooms is investigated. §§Microphone array processing is investigated as a§possible way to take advantage of the§multi-microphone availability for speech enhancement.§The use of microphone arrays for specific speech§recognition purposes in smart-room environments is§also discussed. §§One limitation of microphone array processing is that§a reliable§speaker position estimation is needed to steer the§beamformer towards the position§of interest. Thus, robust speaker tracking is also§addressed and some novel proposals are presented.§§Additionally, in the context of the development of§novel technologies that can provide additional§cues of information to the services deployed in§smart-room environments, novel acoustic§head orientation estimation based on multiple§microphones is investigated.