Target Speech Signal Extraction Using Variance of Phase Difference It has been attracted attention to a hearable device which is one of wearable devices on human ears for communications, entertainment, health coaching, and so on. For humantohuman speech communication, an important issue of the hearable device is to enhance a target speech signal in an environment where multiple speech signals exist. In this paper, we propose a method to extract the target speech signal under the assumption that the target speaker be the nearest and the front to the hearable device user. The proposed method separates an observed speech mixture to each speech signals and estimates the target speech signal based on a variance of a phase difference between both ears. The proposed method can be implemented as a batch algorithm or an online algorithm. We evaluate the capability of the proposed method on both algorithms, and show that the online algorithm is more effective to a hearable device.

Robust Minimum Variance Distortionless Response Beamformer based on Target Activity Detection in Binaural Hearing Aid Applications In this work, a new beamforming algorithm for binaural hearing aids is introduced, with a good robustness to errors in the estimated target direction of arrival. The proposed design is based on a selection between a monaural MVDR beamformer and a binaural MVDR beamformer at each timefrequency bin. The decision of using either the monaural MVDR or the binaural MVDR at each timefrequency bin depends on a proposed target activity detection system, over an a priori determined target zone. The proposed target activity detection system uses a binaural beamforming method in targetcancelling mode, in order to get an estimate of the dominant speaker direction at each timefrequency bin. Simulations are performed using signals and propagation models obtained from reallife multichannel binaural hearing aids, to evaluate the resulting noise reduction and target distortion. Simulation results show the robustness of the proposed design to errors in the estimated target direction of arrival, in comparison with both the monaural MVDR and binaural MVDR algorithms.