Speech recognition in cars by speaker localization using microphone array
Keisuke Kondo, Takayuki Nagai, Masahide Kaneko, Akira Kurematsu · Systems and Computers in Japan · 2003
Abstract This paper proposes a speech recognition system for noisy car environments based on speaker localization using a microphone array. In this system, multiple microphones are arranged in two‐dimensional (2D) space to surround the interior of a car, and the speaker location is first estimated by the proposed HE (Harmonic Enhanced) 2D MUSIC (MUltiple SIgnal Classification) technique. The proposed HE 2D MUSIC is a two‐dimensional extension of the DOA (Direction Of Arrival) estimation method called MUSIC [11]. HE 2D MUSIC also uses the harmonic structure of speech signals to separate target speech signals from additive noise. Then, 2D Delay and Sum (DS) is applied to enhance the target speech. Such preprocessing makes robust speech recognition in noisy car environments possible. Moreover, in the proposed system, not only a driver, but also a fellow passenger can control car electronics by their voices regardless of where they are. The results of simulations and experiments in a real car environment are presented to confirm the validity of our proposed system. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Syst Comp Jpn, 34(8): 1–12, 2003; Published online in Wiley InterScience ( www.interscience.wiley.com ). DOI 10.1002/scj.10415