An audio enhancement system to improve intelligibility for social-awareness in HRI
An audio enhancement system to improve intelligibility for social-awareness in HRI
Improving the ability to interact through voice with a robot is still a challenge especially in real environments where multiple speakers coexist. This work has evaluated a proposal based on improving the intelligibility of the voice information that feeds an existing ASR service in the network and in conditions similar to those that could occur in a care centre for the elderly. The results indicate the feasibility and improvement of a proposal based on the use of an embedded microphone array and the use of a simple beamforming and masking technique. The system has been evaluated with 12 people and results obtained for time responsiveness indicate that the system would allow natural interaction with voice. It is shown to be necessary to incorporate a system to properly employ the masking algorithm, through the intelligent and stable estimation of the interfering signals. In addition, this approach allows to fix as sources of interest other speakers not located in the vicinity of the robot.
Array, ASR, Beamforming, Intelligibility, Masking
3327-3350
Martínez-Colón, Antonio
90345d15-d871-4101-b01c-76c6081afc96
Viciana-Abad, Raquel
74ffc4e5-8e3e-4629-ba63-63128bf9fb43
Perez-Lorenzo, Jose Manuel
cc7f2fd6-1771-4526-9ab6-c601dd3eec13
Evers, Christine
93090c84-e984-4cc3-9363-fbf3f3639c4b
Naylor, Patrick A.
13079486-664a-414c-a1a2-01a30bf0997b
1 January 2022
Martínez-Colón, Antonio
90345d15-d871-4101-b01c-76c6081afc96
Viciana-Abad, Raquel
74ffc4e5-8e3e-4629-ba63-63128bf9fb43
Perez-Lorenzo, Jose Manuel
cc7f2fd6-1771-4526-9ab6-c601dd3eec13
Evers, Christine
93090c84-e984-4cc3-9363-fbf3f3639c4b
Naylor, Patrick A.
13079486-664a-414c-a1a2-01a30bf0997b
Martínez-Colón, Antonio, Viciana-Abad, Raquel, Perez-Lorenzo, Jose Manuel, Evers, Christine and Naylor, Patrick A.
(2022)
An audio enhancement system to improve intelligibility for social-awareness in HRI.
Multimedia Tools and Applications, 81 (3), .
(doi:10.1007/s11042-021-11291-3).
Abstract
Improving the ability to interact through voice with a robot is still a challenge especially in real environments where multiple speakers coexist. This work has evaluated a proposal based on improving the intelligibility of the voice information that feeds an existing ASR service in the network and in conditions similar to those that could occur in a care centre for the elderly. The results indicate the feasibility and improvement of a proposal based on the use of an embedded microphone array and the use of a simple beamforming and masking technique. The system has been evaluated with 12 people and results obtained for time responsiveness indicate that the system would allow natural interaction with voice. It is shown to be necessary to incorporate a system to properly employ the masking algorithm, through the intelligent and stable estimation of the interfering signals. In addition, this approach allows to fix as sources of interest other speakers not located in the vicinity of the robot.
Text
Martínez-Colón2021_Article_AnAudioEnhancementSystemToImpr
- Version of Record
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 9 July 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 August 2021
Published date: 1 January 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
This work has been funded by the National Research Project TEST-RTI2018-099522-A-C44’: “Test-beds for the Evaluation of Social Awareness in Assistance Robotics” and thanks to the collaboration with CSP group at Imperial College London, funded by the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and University through the lectures mobility program (Jose Castillejo’s 2018 grant). Most of the information about the typical life in a retirement house and Felipe’s robot name have been gathered from the experiences during the work developed in Vitalia Teatinos and supported by the Regional Project AT17-5509-UMA ’ROSI’.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2021, The Author(s).
Keywords:
Array, ASR, Beamforming, Intelligibility, Masking
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 452137
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/452137
ISSN: 1380-7501
PURE UUID: 4cc29b41-7995-4797-bd34-37aad97ccc34
Catalogue record
Date deposited: 25 Nov 2021 17:57
Last modified: 18 Mar 2024 03:56
Export record
Altmetrics
Contributors
Author:
Antonio Martínez-Colón
Author:
Raquel Viciana-Abad
Author:
Jose Manuel Perez-Lorenzo
Author:
Christine Evers
Author:
Patrick A. Naylor
Download statistics
Downloads from ePrints over the past year. Other digital versions may also be available to download e.g. from the publisher's website.
View more statistics