A target guided subband filter for acoustic event detection in noisy environments using wavelet packets

Feng, Zu-Ren; Zhou, Qing; Zhang, Jun; Jiang, Ping; Yang, Xue-Wen

Abstract

This paper deals with acoustic event detection (AED), such as screams, gunshots, and explosions, in noisy environments. The main aim is to improve the detection performance under adverse conditions with a very low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). A novel filtering method combined with an energy detector is presented. The wavelet packet transform (WPT) is first used for time-frequency representation of the acoustic signals. The proposed filter in the wavelet packet domain then uses a priori knowledge of the target event and an estimate of noise features to selectively suppress the background noise. It is in fact a content-aware band-pass filter which can automatically pass the frequency bands that are more significant in the target than in the noise. Theoretical analysis shows that the proposed filtering method is capable of enhancing the target content while suppressing the background noise for signals with a low SNR. A condition to increase the probability of correct detection is also obtained. Experiments have been carried out on a large dataset of acoustic events that are contaminated by different types of environmental noise and white noise with varying SNRs. Results show that the proposed method is more robust and better adapted to noise than ordinary energy detectors, and it can work even with an SNR as low as -15 dB. A practical system for real time processing and multi-target detection is also proposed in this work.

Citation

Feng, Z.-R., Zhou, Q., Zhang, J., Jiang, P., & Yang, X.-W. (2015). A target guided subband filter for acoustic event detection in noisy environments using wavelet packets. IEEE/ACM transactions on audio, speech, and language processing, 23(2), 361-372. https://doi.org/10.1109/taslp.2014.2381871

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Feb 1, 2014
• Online Publication Date: Dec 18, 2014
• Publication Date: Feb 1, 2015
• Deposit Date: May 26, 2015
• Publicly Available Date: May 26, 2015
• Journal: IEEE/ACM transactions on audio, speech, and language processing
• Print ISSN: 2329-9290
• Electronic ISSN: 2329-9304
• Publisher: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 23
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 361-372
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1109/taslp.2014.2381871
• Keywords: AED; Acoustic event detection; Wavelet packets; Background noise; Filter
• Public URL: https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/374128
• Publisher URL: http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/xpl/articleDetails.jsp?arnumber=6987345
• Additional Information: Author's accepted manuscript of article published in: IEEE/ACM transactions on audio, speech, and language processing, 2015, v.23, issue 2. © 2015 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
• Contract Date: May 26, 2015