Reduction of background noise from affected speech using a spectral subtraction algorithm based on masking properties of the human ear

In this paper we propose an improved method for reducing background noise added to speech in noisy environments like helicopter cockpit or car engine. This implementation uses over-subtraction method for spectral subtraction. Masking properties of the human ear are exploited to reduce the residual noise after spectral subtraction. A psychoacoustically motivated weighting filter was included to mask the residual musical noise. Simulations showed a better quality with no distortion for the enhanced speech and the musical noise was effectively masked.