60 Hz hum causing problems with speech recognition (Tarun Pruthi )


Subject: 60 Hz hum causing problems with speech recognition
From:    Tarun Pruthi  <t.pruthi@xxxxxxxx>
Date:    Tue, 16 Jun 2009 10:43:49 -0400
List-Archive:<http://lists.mcgill.ca/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=AUDITORY>

--001636c5bab3ebafe2046c7833c5 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Hi all: I have been having a lot of problems lately with 60 Hz humming noise in my speech recordings (I will confess that most of my tests have been on windows/linux laptops - and my guess is that they probably have much worse recording quality than desktops on average - but we live in a mobile world now and I have to make it work on laptops). Whenever it is there, it causes a serious drop in speech recognition accuracy, especially since it comes in very randomly at times giving for example clean recordings during speaker enrollment and noisy recordings in live testing. The problem is even worse on linux which has given me all kinds of artifacts in the recordings besides the 60 Hz hum - my guess is that this is most likely because of driver problems. So, I have 3 questions: 1. What is the source of this 60 Hz noise? Powerline? RF interference? I have tried disconnecting the power cord - it works sometimes, but not always. 2. Is there a standard way to get rid of the 60 Hz hum and ensure clean recordings for the purposes of speech recognition? The only way I can think of is to use notch filters at 60 Hz, and some of the harmonics, say 120 Hz and 180 Hz, since most of the times it doesn't manifest as a single tone at 60 Hz, but has harmonics all over the frequency range. 3. If this is a well-known problem with sound cards, then why aren't we, speech recognition community, trying to come up with a mandatory compliance standard for sound card manufacterers which ensures that the microphone input is not corrupted by 60/50 Hz noise? That should provide a big boost to speech recognition accuracies, and a wider acceptance of speech recognition. Tarun Senior Research Engineer Think A Move, Ltd --001636c5bab3ebafe2046c7833c5 Content-Type: text/html; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Hi all:<div><br></div><div>I have been having a lot of problems lately with= 60 Hz humming noise in my speech recordings (I will confess that most of m= y tests have been on windows/linux laptops - and my guess is that they prob= ably have much worse recording quality than desktops on average - but we li= ve in a mobile world now and I have to make it work on laptops). Whenever i= t is there, it causes a serious drop in speech recognition accuracy, especi= ally since it comes in very randomly at times giving for example clean reco= rdings during speaker enrollment and noisy recordings in live testing. The = problem is even worse on linux which has given me all kinds of artifacts in= the recordings besides the 60 Hz hum - my guess is that this is most likel= y because of driver problems.</div> <div><br></div><div>So, I have 3 questions:</div><div>1. What is the source= of this 60 Hz noise? Powerline? RF interference? I have tried disconnectin= g the power cord - it works sometimes, but not always.</div><div>2. Is ther= e a standard way to get rid of the 60 Hz hum and ensure clean recordings fo= r the purposes of speech recognition? The only way I can think of is to use= notch filters at 60 Hz, and some of the harmonics, say 120 Hz and 180 Hz, = since most of the times it doesn&#39;t manifest as a single tone at 60 Hz, = but has harmonics all over the frequency range.</div> <div>3. If this is a well-known problem with sound cards, then why aren&#39= ;t we, speech recognition community, trying to come up with a mandatory com= pliance standard for sound card manufacterers which ensures that the microp= hone input is not corrupted by 60/50 Hz noise? That should provide a big bo= ost to speech recognition accuracies, and a wider acceptance of speech reco= gnition.</div> <div><br></div><div>Tarun</div><div>Senior Research Engineer</div><div>Thin= k A Move, Ltd</div> --001636c5bab3ebafe2046c7833c5--


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