Speech and Audio Capture in Adverse Environments

Objective

The acquisition and localization of desired sounds is essential in a broad range of acoustical applications, such as surveillance, security monitoring, heath-care monitoring, video-conferencing systems. The desired sounds that are received by an acoustic sensor are degraded by room reverberation, background noise, and other interferences. This degradation may lead to total unintelligibility of the desired sounds (speech and audio) and decreases the performance of automatic speech recognition systems. Therefore, Acoustic Signal Processing (ASP) techniques that capture desired sounds or their source locations from low-quality signals are of major importance. While state-of-the-art ASP algorithms are able to reduce noise, the development of practical algorithms that can eliminate the degradations caused by reverberation in a noisy environment have not yet emerged. Furthermore, it should be noted that many, if not all, existing ASP techniques fail completely or experience a dramatically reduced performance when noise and reverberation are present. The main objective of this project is to develop advanced ASP algorithms that will allow the capture of desired sounds and their source locations in strongly adverse environments. We anticipate that this objective can be achieved by using distributed acoustic sensors and sensor arrays that measure the sound pressure, as well as the particle velocity. In addition, we propose to exploit statistical room acoustic theory in the development of advanced ASP algorithms.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

• engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering signal processing
• natural sciences physical sciences acoustics
• engineering and technology electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering electronic engineering sensors

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

• FP7-PEOPLE - Specific programme "People" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013)

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

• FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008 - Marie Curie Action: "Intra-European Fellowships for Career Development"

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

FP7-PEOPLE-IEF-2008
See other projects for this call

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MC-IEF - Intra-European Fellowships (IEF)

Coordinator