Acoustic Signal Processing in Noise: It`s Not Getting Any Quieter

Acoustic signal processing research has been addressing the issues associated with additive noise and other degradations in speech for many years and several significant technical advances are now embedded in the state-of-the-art. Nevertheless, the problems are not solved and may actually be worsening. The philosophy advocated in this paper is that further improvements in acoustic signal processing for noise reduction and robustness are, of course, important but are unlikely to be sufficient on their own. Alongside the signal processing, successful systems are likely going to need to include two further factors: an element of matching to the human perception system and also an element of sensing and adaptation to the local environment, giving systems acoustic awareness. Examples of current research on human perception and acoustic signal processing are discussed. These include some aspects of auditory cognition and signal processing methods for building acoustic awareness. A new initiative for benchmarking is also highlighted.