Blind Source Separation of Audio Signals Using Independent Component Analysis and Wavelets

Abstract
1. Introduction
In the field of digital signal processing there is a problem known as Cocktail Party, which try to separate signals (voice or music) mixed simultaneously based only on their mixtures. Solving this problem would allow many applications, for example in mobile telephony, multiuser communication systems, eliminating redundancy and sparse coding in noise cancellation, voice reinforcement in noisy environments, as well as in other important environments such as urban ecology, specifically on pollution caused by high sound levels. Blind Source Separation (BSS) is a powerful technique capable of solving this problem. This technique is based on the following principle: assuming that the original signals are mixed linearly and it is possible to collect these mixtures with appropriate sensors, the BSS is able to estimate the coefficients that characterize this linear combination, and therefore can be estimated the original signals.

2. Blind Source Separation

The problem of separating mixed signals using multiple sensors, commonly known as blind source separation (BSS), has received much attention in recent years. The earliest and most basic form of BSS problems started with a model of linear and instantaneous mixing of the sources. In attempting to solve the cocktail party problem, there are at least two difficulties: first the effect of reverberation makes the mixtures obtained by the microphones are convolutional and nonlinear, and on the other hand, these mixtures are not fully independent because the signal propagation is through nonlinear environment and there are parasitic effects. We have developed a lot of studies to solve the first problem, all of them in the development of adaptive algorithms. However, studies about the second problem in a formal manner are rare. In this paper, we present a method that improves the quality of the separation of a BSS when mixtures observed are not fully independent. In this work we proposed a new method that allows the blind source separation by the analysis of independent components known as FASTICA in the domain of Wavelet to observe his behavior on signs captured in a real environment.

3. Independent Component Analysis (ICA)

Independent component analysis, or simply ICA, was introduced in 1986 by Jeanny Herault and Christian Jutte as a neural network based on Hebb learning law capable of performing blind signal separation. Specifically, this algorithm tries to separate a number of statistically independent signals from the same number of input signals are the linear sum of the first. The method of independent component analysis (ICA) has specific characteristics that should be considered : ICA allows the separation of the signals whenever these are statistically independent.

 Due to ICA separates the sources by maximizing non-Gaussianity, Gaussian sources cannot be separated. In addition, there are two uncertainties in the method of ICA, 1) ICA cannot get the original amplitude of the mixed sources and 2) the outputs can be exchanged. FastICA is a fixed point iterative algorithm uses a nonlinear function g (y) = tanh (a * y), which is applied to the separation vector W, that is recalculated at each iteration of the algorithm. The fixed point algorithm is to iterate to obtain a global minimum. Once you determine the vector W, is pointing to one of the independent components. This algorithm is a version more efficient than the gradient, reaching faster convergence and more stable. The input to the FastICA algorithm must first be whitened by three steps: 1) centered over the average, 2) normalize the variance and 3) orthogonalize the data. The steps to implement the FastICA algorithm, considering that the data must first be whitened, are the following: FASTICA Algorithm 1. Center the data to make its mean zero. 2. Whiten the data to give z. 3. Choose an initial (e.g., random) vector w of unit norm. 4. Let w=E{zg(wTz)}- E{g(wTz)}w. 5. Let w=w/w. 6. If not converged, go back to step 4.

4. Pre-processing of the mixtures using wavelets

The wavelet transform belongs to a series of signal analysis techniques commonly called multiresolution analysis. This means that is able to vary the order of the parameters analyzed (scale, concept related to the frequency and time) throughout the analysis. The main feature of this method is that it identifies what frequencies make up a sign at every moment with the following resolutions: For high frequencies get a good resolution in time that allows its exact location in time, even in exchange for losing frequency resolution For low-frequency components is most important to know the frequency even at the expense of losing temporal resolution.

Procedure
Wavelet transform divides the signals in time domain and frequency domain. It is appropriate in audio signal analysis by allowing us to increase spectral resolution in frequencies is concentrated where most of the sounds produced by human activities. The pre-processing involves dividing each input signal into several sub-signals by the wavelet transform and applies the separation algorithm to the same frequency bands for each signal; therefore, the algorithm will be applied as often as bands obtained from the signal. Subsequently, the two signals are composed of just output from the sum of the bands estimated; taking into account the estimated signals can be changed.

Mix (1) . . . . . . Mix (k)

t

1Band Wavele N-

FastICA

1Band Wavelet NBand

FastICA

Figure: Pre-processing by Wavelet bands

Requirements

Software MATLAB 7.4 Hardware Laptop or Desktop computer with Intel Core or Intel Pentium 4 (or above) processor, 2GB (or above) RAM.

Project Members
Soumyajit Ray. MCA 3rd year. Roll- MCA2009056 RCC Institute of Information Technology, Kolkata Email: ray.mesoumya@gmail.com Ankan Chakraborty. MCA 3rd year. Roll- MCA2009012 RCC Institute of Information Technology, Kolkata Email: ankan.npr@gmail.com

Project Guides
Dr. Sarbani Palit. Professor, Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition Unit Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. Dr. Chhanda Ray. Head of The Department, Department of MCA RCC Institute of Information Technology, Kolkata.