Intelligibility prediction for speech mixed with white Gaussian noise at low signal-to-noise ratios

Graetzer, Simone and Hopkins, Carl ORCID: 0000-0002-9716-0793 (2021) Intelligibility prediction for speech mixed with white Gaussian noise at low signal-to-noise ratios. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 149 (2). pp. 1346-1362.

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Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0003557

Abstract

The effect of additive white Gaussian noise and high-pass filtering on speech intelligibility at signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) from -26 to 0 dB was evaluated using British English talkers and normal hearing listeners. SNRs below -10 dB were considered as they are relevant to speech security applications. Eight objective metrics were assessed: short-time objective intelligibility (STOI), a proposed variant termed STOI+, extended short-time objective intelligibility (ESTOI), normalised covariance metric (NCM), normalised subband envelope correlation metric (NSEC), two metrics derived from the coherence speech intelligibility index (CSII), and an envelope-based regression method speech transmission index (STI). For speech and noise mixtures associated with intelligibility scores ranging from 0% to 98%, STOI+ performed at least as well as other metrics and, under some conditions, better than STOI, ESTOI, STI, NSEC, CSII<sub>Mid</sub>, and CSII<sub>High</sub>. Both STOI+ and NCM were associated with relatively low prediction error and bias for intelligibility prediction at SNRs from -26 to 0 dB. STI performed least well in terms of correlation with intelligibility scores, prediction error, bias, and reliability. Logistic regression modeling demonstrated that high-pass filtering, which increases the proportion of high to low frequency energy, was detrimental to intelligibility for SNRs between -5 and -17 dB inclusive.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Reproducibility of Results, Speech Intelligibility, Perceptual Masking, Speech Perception, Signal-To-Noise Ratio
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	02 Mar 2021 10:38
Last Modified:	25 Jul 2023 02:28
DOI:	10.1121/10.0003557
Open Access URL:	https://asa.scitation.org/doi/full/10.1121/10.0003...
Related URLs:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3116379