Patent ID: 8131542

Claim:
A sound source separation system which includes a plurality of microphones and separates a plurality of sound sources on a basis of input signals of the sound sources from the plurality of microphones, the system comprising: a first processing element which recognizes a cost function for evaluating separation degrees of the sound source signals, the cost function being defined by a separation matrix representing independency between the input signals and the sound source signals; and a second processing element which recognizes the separation matrix when the cost function becomes a minimum value as an optimal separation matrix by iteratively performing a process of updating a current separation matrix such that a next value of the cost function recognized by the first processing element becomes closer to the minimum value than a current value so as to decide a next separation matrix, and adjusts an update amount from the current value of the separation matrix to the next value to be increased as the current value of the cost function is increased and to be decreased as a current gradient of the cost function is rapid.