• ETRI Journal
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• v.36 no.5
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• pp.721-729
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• 2014

We propose a novel phase-based method for single-channel speech enhancement to extract and enhance the desired signals in noisy environments by utilizing the phase information. In the method, a phase-dependent a priori signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) is estimated in the log-mel spectral domain to utilize both the magnitude and phase information of input speech signals. The phase-dependent estimator is incorporated into the conventional magnitude-based decision-directed approach that recursively computes the a priori SNR from noisy speech. Additionally, we reduce the performance degradation owing to the one-frame delay of the estimated phase-dependent a priori SNR by using a minimum mean square error (MMSE)-based and maximum a posteriori (MAP)-based estimator. In our speech enhancement experiments, the proposed phase-dependent a priori SNR estimator is shown to improve the output SNR by 2.6 dB for both the MMSE-based and MAP-based estimator cases as compared to a conventional magnitude-based estimator.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Electromagnetic Engineering and Science
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• v.20 no.12
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• pp.1287-1296
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• 2009

It is very important to estimate the Signal to Noise Ratio(SNR) of received signal in time varying channel state. Most SNR estimation techniques derive the SNR estimates solely from the samples of the received signal after the matched filter. In the severe distorted wireless channel, the performance of these estimators become unstable and degraded. LP-based SNR estimator which can operate on data samples collected at the front-end of a receiver shows more stable performance than other SNR estimator. In this paper, we study an efficient SNR estimation algorithm based on LP and propose a new estimation method to decrease the computation complexity. Proposed algorithm accomplishes the SNR estimation process efficiently because it uses the forward prediction error and its conjugate value during the linear prediction error update. Via the computer simulation, the performance of this proposed estimation method is compared and discussed with other conventional SNR estimators in digital communication channels.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.87-94
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• 2011

The decision directed (DD) approach is widely used to determine a priori SNR from noisy speech signals. In conventional speech enhancement systems with a DD approach, a priori SNR is estimated by using only the magnitude components and consequently follows a posteriori SNR with one frame delay. We propose a phase-dependent two-step a priori SNR estimator based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) in the log-mel spectral domain so that we can consider both magnitude and phase information, and it can overcome the performance degradation caused by one frame delay. From the experimental results, the proposed estimator is shown to improve the output SNR of enhanced speech signals by 2.3 dB compared to the conventional DD approach-based system.

• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.927-934
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• 2013

This paper aims to realize a Signal to Noise Ratio Estimator which constitutes a critical index of the broadcasting system in OFDM system with a synchronized type based on ISDB-T system. Of the elements which are comprising OFDM segments of ISDB-T system using the MSE algorithm suitable for ASIC design owing to its low complexity among a diverse SNR estimation methods, SNR estimation method using the broadcasting information data and the SNR estimation method using scattered pilot signal were realized by RTL. These two methods were compared in terms of their performance through simulation test not only in the AWGN channel which is an ideal channel, but also in SFN channel and frequency selective fading channel, which are distorted channels. Complexity of two methods were also compared through RTL realization. As a result of this comparison analysis, it was concluded that the SNR estimation method using scattered pilot signal shows more excellent performance and easiness in realization.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.29 no.5
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• pp.607-613
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• 2007

Most signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) estimation techniques in digital communication channels derive the SNR estimates solely from samples of the received signal after the matched filter. They are based on symbol SNR and assume perfect synchronization and intersymbol interference (ISI)-free symbols. In severe channel distortion where ISI is significant, the performance of these estimators badly deteriorates. We propose an SNR estimator which can operate on data samples collected at the front-end of a receiver or at the input to the decision device. This will relax the restrictions over channel distortions and help extend the application of SNR estimators beyond system monitoring. The proposed estimator uses the characteristics of the second order moments of the additive white Gaussian noise digital communication channel and a linear predictor based on the modified-covariance algorithm in estimating the SNR value. The performance of the proposed technique is investigated and compared with other in-service SNR estimators in digital communication channels. The simulated performance is also compared to the Cram$\acute{e}$r-Rao bound as derived at the input of the decision circuit.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea TC
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• v.46 no.2
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• pp.46-52
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• 2009

In this paper, the timing estimator based on the principle of the best linear unbiased estimator (BLUE) is proposed in OFDMA uplink systems. The proposed timing estimator exploits the phase information of the differential correlation between adjacent subcarriers. The differential correlation can extract the information about timing offset and mitigate the distortion of the signal caused by the frequency selectivity of channel. Compared with conventional methods, the proposed estimator shows more accurate capability in estimation. In addition, the estimator is hardly affected by the distortion caused by the frequency selectivity of channel. Simulation results confirm that the proposed estimator shows a small error mean and a relatively small error variance. In addition, the performance of the estimator is evaluated by means of SNR loss. It is shown by simulations that the SNR loss of the proposed estimator by estimation errors is less than 0.4 dB for the SNR values between 0 and 20 dB. This might indicate that the proposed estimator is suitable for the timing synchronization of multiple users in OFDMA uplink systems.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.64 no.12
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• pp.1756-1760
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• 2015

This paper focuses on a priori signal to noise ratio (SNR) estimation method for the speech enhancement. There are many researches for speech enhancement with several ambient noise cancellation methods. The method based on spectral subtraction (SS) which is widely used in noise reduction has a trade-off between the performance and the distortion of the signals. So the need of adaptive method like an estimated a priori SNR being able to making a high performance and low distortion is increasing. The decision directed (DD) approach is used to determine a priori SNR in noisy speech signals. A priori SNR is estimated by using only the magnitude components and consequently follows a posteriori SNR with one frame delay. We propose a modified a priori SNR estimator and the weighted rational transfer function for speech enhancement with wind noises. The experimental result shows the performance of our proposed estimator is better Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality scores (PESQ, ITU-T P.862) compare to the conventional DD approach-based systems and different noise reduction methods.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.66 no.5
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• pp.843-850
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• 2017

The EMG amplitude estimator, which has been investigated as an indicator of muscle force, is utilized as the control input to artificial prosthetic limbs. This paper describes an application of the optimal EMG amplitude estimator to the surface EMG signals recorded during constant isometric %MVC (maximum voluntary contraction) for 30 seconds and reports on assessing performance of the amplitude estimator from the application. Surface EMG signals, a total of 198 signals, were recorded from biceps brachii muscle over the range of 20-80%MVC isometric contraction. To examine the estimator performance, a SNR(signal-to-noise ratio) was computed from each amplitude estimate. The results of the study indicate that ARV(average rectified value) and RMS(root mean square) amplitude estimation with forth order whitening filter and 250[ms] moving average window length are optimal and showed the mean SNR improvement of about 50%, 40% and 20% for each 20%MVC, 50%MVC and 80%MVC surface EMG signals, respectively.

• ETRI Journal
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• v.33 no.1
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• pp.27-31
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• 2011

This paper addresses estimating the frequency of a cisoid in the presence of white Gaussian noise, which has numerous applications in communications, radar, sonar, and instrumentation and measurement. Due to the nonlinear nature of the frequency estimation problem, there is threshold effect, that is, large error estimates or outliers will occur at sufficiently low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) conditions. Utilizing the ideas of averaging to increase SNR and weighted linear prediction, an optimal frequency estimator with smaller threshold SNR is developed. Computer simulations are included to compare its mean square error performance with that of the maximum likelihood (ML) estimator, improved weighted phase averager, generalized weighted linear predictor, and single weighted sample correlator as well as Cramer-Rao lower bound. In particular, with smaller computational requirement, the proposed estimator can achieve the same threshold and estimation performance of the ML method.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2007.07a
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• pp.47-48
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• 2007

This paper presents an efficient and simple hardware design of signal to noise ratio (SNR) estimator for DVB-S2 system. The estimator investigates the distribution of the received symbols by simply using two comparators and a counter, and calculates the address of an LUT where the corresponding SNR value is located. In this paper, we demonstrate the functional and timing simulation results of the FPGA implementation of proposed structure.