Adaptive Crosstalk Cancellation and Spatialization for Dynamic Group Conversation Enhancement Using Mobile and Wearable Devices

We propose a system to improve the intelligibility of group conversations in noisy environments, such as restaurants, by aggregating signals from the mobile and wearable devices of the participants. The proposed system uses a mobile device placed near each talker to capture a low-noise speech signal. Instead of muting inactive microphones, which can be distracting, adaptive crosstalk cancellation filters remove the speech of other users, including delayed auditory feedback of the listener's own speech. Next, adaptive spatialization filters process the low-noise signals to generate binaural outputs that match the spatial and spectral cues at the ears of each listener. The proposed system is demonstrated using recordings of three human subjects conversing with realistic movement.