Philips IP&S

BeClear Speech Enhancement

Introduction
Mobile / Wearable
Smart Home
Automotive
Flexible building blocks
Hear the difference
Information and contact

Introduction

Whether you are in the car, in a conference room or in your living room, you want to be able to communicate clearly without having to shout. Philips’ BeClear Speech Enhancement algorithms deliver clear voice signal even in the noisiest environments enabling you to have a natural conversation or use voice commands to interact with your devices

Based on over 20 years of experience in speech enhancement, Philips BeClear is a flexible solution that can be easily tailored to your specific application or product. In addition to the software license and application libraries, customers also receive assistance on implementing the software for their customer platform and tuning the algorithms to deliver the best performance on each device.

BeClear Speech Enhancement

• One flexible suite of algorithms used for simultaneous voice communication and speech recognition for voice control usage
• Optimized for commercially available MCU and DSP platforms
• Manufacturer tuning to specific hardware form factor
• Tunable to any speech recognition (SR) engines without insight into SR pre-processing
• Optimized per use case (smart phone, smart watch, TV and voice control for IoT)
• Speeds up integration for new use cases
• All use case extensions based on proven technology

Mobile / Wearable

Our mobile devices let us stay connected wherever we are. Using our phones or wearables in noisy environments can still be a challenge. It can be difficult to understand the person calling and we either end up talking loudly over the background noise or having to find a quiet space to take the call.

We also increasingly use our mobile phones in speaker mode, held at arm’s length, for video calls or to let others join in on the call. And this will only increase with wearable devices such as smartwatches.

Due to their small form factor, wearable devices are also driving a growing demand for voice input and control. The devices need to be able to recognize commands reliably to be able to execute them without the user needed to repeat them several times.

Whether using voice control or making a call, the BeClear Speech Enhancement algorithm ensures clear, relaxed and effortless communication.

Smart Home

In the smart home, there is also a trend towards increased voice interaction and control of our devices. We will no longer need to search for the remote control, we can just tell the television to switch channels or play the latest episode of our favorite show.

Because of their centralized position in the Smart Home, this means that these devices need to be able to capture our voices at distances larger than 5m.

Using voice control, the BeClear Speech Enhancement algorithm ensures clear, relaxed and effortless interactions.

Automotive

We still spend a lot of time on the road. Hands-free calling enables us to stay in touch while in the car. There is also is a growing demand for using voice commands to operate the smart features in our car, from programming the GPS to making a call or changing the radio station. Voice control is much safer than fiddling with controls or trying to type in a phone number while driving.

Current voice recognition engines in in-car entertainment system work quite well when the car is not moving. But the noise in and around the car is severe and this makes it hard to recognize speech. With BeClear Speech Enhancement, voice recognition and calling in the noisy car environment are like a face to face conversation, relaxed and effortless.

Flexible building blocks

BeClear Speech Enhancement is a single algorithm that features flexible building blocks for improving the quality of captured speech.

BeClear super de-reverberation deploys a non-traditional method of removing reverberation from the signal, extending the range of Far Field communication up to 5 meters and beyond.

BeClear is the only solution currently on the market capable of full duplex, multi-channel echo cancellation.

Fast tracking beamforming continuously focuses the device’s microphones on the person speaking for superior Dynamic Noise Suppression

Dynamic Noise suppression accurately identifies and removes background noises to leave only the sound of the person speaking for clearer conversations

Smart far-end signal enhancements improve the clarity of incoming voice calls to improve the user’s experience of your product

Building blocks explained

Super de-reverberation

When the person speaking is far away from the microphone, sound reflected from the walls of the room can create an annoying echo effect called reverberation.

Ideally, only sound coming directly from the person speaking should be captured. Removing the reflected sounds can therefore improve the sound quality. However, our unique solution exploits certain reflections to boost the direct sound level enabling people far from the microphone to be heard clearly without having to raise their voice.

• Reverberation from reflections is minimized even beyond 5 m
• Patented method to effectively exploit reflective sound paths and thereby improve far-field voice path
• Speech clarity index greater than 7 dB (exceeds requirements of Skype)

Full-duplex Multi-Channel Echo Cancellation
Echo cancellation is a major challenge for small form factor devices where the speakers and microphones are closely spaced in the same housing. And today’s mobile devices often have multiple speakers and microphones making the challenge even greater.

• BeClear is the only solution on the market able to maintain full duplex multi-channel echo cancellation with high suppression
• Delivers 50-60 dB suppression for moderate non-linearities
• Scalable to devices with more than two loudspeakers

Fast tracking beamforming

Beamforming is widely used to focus the microphones on the speaker to perform noise suppression and other voice enhancements. However if the speaker moves, the beam can have a hard time tracking the speaker, in particular at larger distances, leading to loss of quality.

• Audio beam positioning between person(s) and device stays optimal

– Instant (<16 ms) adaptation of beam
– Allows for multiple beams in parallel
– Regardless of movement of device and/or person(s) speaking

• Enables consumer requirement for conferencing use case with mobile

Dynamic Noise Suppression

There are many different types of background noise that should be removed to clearly hear the person speaking.

BeClear provides simple parameters that allow the algorithm to be optimized for the best subjective performance.

• Highly accurate identification of desired and undesired sources
• 40 dB suppression for diffuse and stationary noise*
• Fast adaptation for stationary and non-stationary noise sources
• Robust even under cafeteria noise conditions; a highly challenging environment because of multiple, competing voice sources

* 12% better than competition on standardized 3QUEST test

Far-end signal enhancement

Many of the enhancements affect the quality of the captured voice signal. To ensure clear communication for the user as well as the call recipient, BeClear includes a range of Far-end signal enhancements to improve the local user experience.

• Improves voice quality of incoming signal

– Removes residual echo and noise
– Reduces reverberation components
– Optimized to prevent tandem effects

• Delivers immediate value to your customers