A novel dual-microphone speech enhancement technique is proposed in the present paper. The technique utilizes the coherence between the target and noise signals as a criterion for noise reduction and can be generally applied to arrays with closely-spaced microphones, where noise captured by the sensors is highly correlated. The proposed algorithm is simple to implement and requires no estimation of noise statistics. In addition, it offers the capability of coping with multiple interfering sources that might be located at different azimuths. The proposed algorithm was evaluated with normal hearing listeners using intelligibility listening tests and compared against a well-established beamforming algorithm. Results indicated large gains in speech intelligibility relative to the baseline (front microphone) algorithm in both single and multiple-noise source scenarios. The proposed algorithm was found to yield substantially higher intelligibility than that obtained by the beamforming algorithm, particularly when multiple noise sources or competing talker(s) were present. Objective quality evaluation of the proposed algorithm also indicated significant quality improvement over that obtained by the beamforming algorithm. The intelligibility and quality benefits observed with the proposed coherence-based algorithm make it a viable candidate for hearing aid and cochlear implant devices.

中文翻译：

---

基于相干函数的双麦克风语音增强算法。

本文提出了一种新的双麦克风语音增强技术。该技术利用目标信号和噪声信号之间的相干性作为降噪标准，通常可应用于具有紧密间隔麦克风的阵列，其中传感器捕获的噪声高度相关。所提出的算法易于实现并且不需要噪声统计的估计。此外，它还提供了应对可能位于不同方位角的多个干扰源的能力。所提出的算法使用可懂度听力测试对正常听力的听众进行了评估，并与完善的波束成形算法进行了比较。结果表明，在单噪声源和多噪声源情况下，相对于基线（前置麦克风）算法，语音清晰度有很大提高。发现所提出的算法产生比波束成形算法获得的明显更高的可懂度，特别是当存在多个噪声源或竞争的谈话者时。所提出算法的客观质量评估也表明比波束成形算法获得的质量显着提高。所提出的基于相干算法所观察到的可懂度和质量优势使其成为助听器和人工耳蜗植入设备的可行候选者。特别是当存在多个噪声源或相互竞争的谈话者时。所提出算法的客观质量评估也表明比波束成形算法获得的质量显着提高。所提出的基于相干算法所观察到的可懂度和质量优势使其成为助听器和人工耳蜗植入设备的可行候选者。特别是当存在多个噪声源或相互竞争的谈话者时。所提出算法的客观质量评估也表明比波束成形算法获得的质量显着提高。所提出的基于相干算法所观察到的可懂度和质量优势使其成为助听器和人工耳蜗植入设备的可行候选者。