An improved spectral subtraction method for speech enhancement using a perceptual weighting filter

Abstract

We propose an improved spectral subtraction method for reducing acoustic noise added to speech in noisy environments like helicopter cockpit or car engine. This implementation uses oversubtraction method for spectral subtraction. Residual noise can be masked by exploiting the masking properties of the human auditory system. A psychoacoustically motivated weighting filter was included to eliminate residual musical noise. Simulations showed a better quality with no distortion for the enhanced speech and the musical noise was effectively masked.