An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction

The extraction of a target speaker from mixtures of different speakers has attracted extensive amounts of attention and research. Previous studies have proposed several methods, such as SpeakerBeam, to tackle this speech extraction problem using clean speech from the target speaker to provide inform...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Lijiang Chen, Zhendong Mo, Jie Ren, Chunfeng Cui, Qi Zhao
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2022-12-01
Series:Applied Sciences
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/1/469
_version_ 1797626256122970112
author Lijiang Chen
Zhendong Mo
Jie Ren
Chunfeng Cui
Qi Zhao
author_facet Lijiang Chen
Zhendong Mo
Jie Ren
Chunfeng Cui
Qi Zhao
author_sort Lijiang Chen
collection DOAJ
description The extraction of a target speaker from mixtures of different speakers has attracted extensive amounts of attention and research. Previous studies have proposed several methods, such as SpeakerBeam, to tackle this speech extraction problem using clean speech from the target speaker to provide information. However, clean speech cannot be obtained immediately in most cases. In this study, we addressed this problem by extracting features from the electroglottographs (EGGs) of target speakers. An EGG is a laryngeal function detection technology that can detect the impedance and condition of vocal cords. Since EGGs have excellent anti-noise performance due to the collection method, they can be obtained in rather noisy environments. In order to obtain clean speech from target speakers out of the mixtures of different speakers, we utilized deep learning methods and used EGG signals as additional information to extract target speaker. In this way, we could extract target speaker from mixtures of different speakers without needing clean speech from the target speakers. According to the characteristics of the EGG signals, we developed an EGG_auxiliary network to train a speaker extraction model under the assumption that EGG signals carry information about speech signals. Additionally, we took the correlations between EGGs and speech signals in silent and unvoiced segments into consideration to develop a new network involving EGG preprocessing. We achieved improvements in the scale invariant signal-to-distortion ratio improvement (SISDRi) of 0.89 dB on the Chinese Dual-Mode Emotional Speech Database (CDESD) and 1.41 dB on the EMO-DB dataset. In addition, our methods solved the problem of poor performance with target speakers of the same gender and the different between the same gender situation and the problem of greatly reduced precision under the low SNR circumstances.
first_indexed 2024-03-11T10:07:47Z
format Article
id doaj.art-583e15cd40814dc18e6b5f868fe659cd
institution Directory Open Access Journal
issn 2076-3417
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-11T10:07:47Z
publishDate 2022-12-01
publisher MDPI AG
record_format Article
series Applied Sciences
spelling doaj.art-583e15cd40814dc18e6b5f868fe659cd2023-11-16T14:57:27ZengMDPI AGApplied Sciences2076-34172022-12-0113146910.3390/app13010469An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker ExtractionLijiang Chen0Zhendong Mo1Jie Ren2Chunfeng Cui3Qi Zhao4School of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, ChinaSchool of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, ChinaSchool of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, ChinaSchool of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, ChinaSchool of Electronic and Information Engineering, Beihang University, No. 37 Xueyuan Road, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, ChinaThe extraction of a target speaker from mixtures of different speakers has attracted extensive amounts of attention and research. Previous studies have proposed several methods, such as SpeakerBeam, to tackle this speech extraction problem using clean speech from the target speaker to provide information. However, clean speech cannot be obtained immediately in most cases. In this study, we addressed this problem by extracting features from the electroglottographs (EGGs) of target speakers. An EGG is a laryngeal function detection technology that can detect the impedance and condition of vocal cords. Since EGGs have excellent anti-noise performance due to the collection method, they can be obtained in rather noisy environments. In order to obtain clean speech from target speakers out of the mixtures of different speakers, we utilized deep learning methods and used EGG signals as additional information to extract target speaker. In this way, we could extract target speaker from mixtures of different speakers without needing clean speech from the target speakers. According to the characteristics of the EGG signals, we developed an EGG_auxiliary network to train a speaker extraction model under the assumption that EGG signals carry information about speech signals. Additionally, we took the correlations between EGGs and speech signals in silent and unvoiced segments into consideration to develop a new network involving EGG preprocessing. We achieved improvements in the scale invariant signal-to-distortion ratio improvement (SISDRi) of 0.89 dB on the Chinese Dual-Mode Emotional Speech Database (CDESD) and 1.41 dB on the EMO-DB dataset. In addition, our methods solved the problem of poor performance with target speakers of the same gender and the different between the same gender situation and the problem of greatly reduced precision under the low SNR circumstances.https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/1/469speech extractionSpeakerBeamelectroglottographpre-processing
spellingShingle Lijiang Chen
Zhendong Mo
Jie Ren
Chunfeng Cui
Qi Zhao
An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction
Applied Sciences
speech extraction
SpeakerBeam
electroglottograph
pre-processing
title An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction
title_full An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction
title_fullStr An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction
title_full_unstemmed An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction
title_short An Electroglottograph Auxiliary Neural Network for Target Speaker Extraction
title_sort electroglottograph auxiliary neural network for target speaker extraction
topic speech extraction
SpeakerBeam
electroglottograph
pre-processing
url https://www.mdpi.com/2076-3417/13/1/469
work_keys_str_mv AT lijiangchen anelectroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT zhendongmo anelectroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT jieren anelectroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT chunfengcui anelectroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT qizhao anelectroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT lijiangchen electroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT zhendongmo electroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT jieren electroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT chunfengcui electroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction
AT qizhao electroglottographauxiliaryneuralnetworkfortargetspeakerextraction