Binaural noise PSD estimation for binaural speech enhancement

In this paper we propose a novel binaural algorithm to estimate the power spectral density (PSD) of the background noise at the left and right ear separately. Inspired by equalization-cancelation considered in binaural hearing, the target speech is canceled at both left and right ears by means of the FLMS (fast least-mean square) algorithm. Assuming the ideal equalization, the output error of the blocking filter is a biased estimation of noise PSD. The estimated noise PSD is further corrected by exploiting the estimated left and right interaural transfer functions and the coherence model of the noise field. In addition to noise power estimation assessment, the estimated noise PSD is integrated in a binaural speech enhancement framework in order to evaluate the overall noise reduction performance.