M. Sc. Anton Namenas Room B-Audiolab Kaiserstraße 2, 24143 Kiel, Germany Phone: +49 431 880-6141 Telefax: +49 431 880-6128 E-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

Research: Real-time Simulation of acoustic Environments and automatic Evaluation of Speech Communication Systems

Speech Communication Systems, such as in-car communication (ICC) systems or communication units in fire-fighter masks, have become an integral part of modern life. Entire industrial sectors are devoted to the development and improvement of these systems. In addition to voice transmission, the main task of such systems is the improvement of speech intelligibility and speech quality. The voice communication systems use various signal processing techniques, e.g. noise reduction and echo cancelling techniques, to improve speech quality. They are able to deliver good results even in relatively disturbed environments. In order to evaluate the performance of the systems and make them comparable, standardized evaluation procedures must be developed. Both subjective and objective test methods are available for this purpose. Due to the reliability and reproducibility of the test results, the emphasis is placed on objective tests. Another important aspect of the evaluation is the reproducibility of suitable test scenarios. This requires a corresponding acoustic environment simulation, which is capable to simulate the acoustic properties of any location in a semi-anechoic chamber or even in an arbitrary, yet silent location. The main purpose of the acoustic environment simulation is the simulation of statistical properties of the acoustic signals. The acoustic simulation dispenses with the use of complex and expensive spatial acoustic reproduction methods, such the wave field synthesis. The goal is the reduction of the required channels and thus also the range in which a precise acoustic simulation can be ensured which does not lead to any drawbacks in most applications.

Related topics:

• Signal analysis
• Speech-quality
• Speech-intelligibility

Further interests:

• Real-time digital signal processing
• Environment simulation

Short CV

Publications

1. A. Namenas, G. Schmidt: Acoustic Ambiance Simulation Using Orthogonal Loudspeaker Signals, Proceedings of the 14th ITG Conference on Speech Communication, September 2021

2. M. Gimm, A. Namenas, G. Schmidt: Combination of Hands-Free and ICC Systems, in H.Abut, J. H. L. Hansen, G. Schmidt and K. Takeda (eds.), Intelligent Vehicles and Transportation, de Gruyter, 2020.

3. A. Theiß, A. Namenas, T. Hübschen G. Schmidt: Spectral Distance Analysis for Quality Estimation of In-Car Communication Systems,  in H.Abut, J. H. L. Hansen, G. Schmidt and K. Takeda (eds.), Intelligent Vehicles and Transportation, de Gruyter, 2020.

4. M. Gimm, A. Namenas G. Schmidt: Combination of Hands-Free and ICC-Systems, The 8th Biennial Workshop on DSP for In-Vehicle and Mobile Systems, 2018

5. A. Namenas, S. E. Paul, G. Schmidt, M. Brodersen: Entwicklung eines Echtzeit-Antischall-Systems für Feuerwehrhelme Proc. DAGA 2018, Munich

6. A. Namenas, T. Kaak, and G. Schmidt: Real-time Simulation of Underwarter Acoustic Channels, Proc. DAGA, Kiel, Germany, open access, 2017