An audio enhancement system to improve intelligibility for social-awareness in HRI

Improving the ability to interact through voice with a robot is still a challenge especially in real environments where multiple speakers coexist. This work has evaluated a proposal based on improving the intelligibility of the voice information that feeds an existing ASR service in the network and in conditions similar to those that could occur in a care centre for the elderly. The results indicate the feasibility and improvement of a proposal based on the use of an embedded microphone array and the use of a simple beamforming and masking technique. The system has been evaluated with 12 people and results obtained for time responsiveness indicate that the system would allow natural interaction with voice. It is shown to be necessary to incorporate a system to properly employ the masking algorithm, through the intelligent and stable estimation of the interfering signals. In addition, this approach allows to fix as sources of interest other speakers not located in the vicinity of the robot.