7 Explicit Speech Modeling for Microphone Array Applications

In this chapter we address the limitations of current approaches to using microphone arrays for speech acquisition and advocate the development of multi-channel techniques which employ an explicit model of the speech signal. The goal is to combine the advantages of spatial filtering achieved through beamforming with knowledge of the desired time-series attributes. We offer two examples of algorithms which incorporate this principle. The first is a frequency domain approach illustrating the utility of model-based microphone array processing for improved speech spectral analysis. The second is a time domain procedure which highlights the benefits of speech modeling/spatial filtering fusion for the purpose of improving speech quality.