The clatter of cutlery, loud music, and the hum of other people’s conversations dominate my dining companion’s voice. It’s our anniversary, but dinner doesn’t seem romantic at all. If only my headphones helped me focus on the voice I wanted to hear, blocking out the rest of the noise from my auditory space. A chimera? Perhaps with current devices, but if researchers at the University of Washington can refine their “Target speech hearing“Artificial intelligence tool, one day I could fulfill my wish.
New AI technology isolates specific voices
Researchers at the University of Washington have developed an artificial intelligence system that clearly isolates the voice of a single speaker, even in a noisy environment with many people talking. For now, the process involves using specially programmed headphones, but over time, the technology could reach hearing devices of all kinds.
The process is simple. The headset user simply looks at the person for three to five seconds to “register” them, and then the AI does the rest: canceling out other sounds in the environment and playing only the registered speaker’s voice in real time. Even if the listener moves away from the speaker or no longer looks at him, the effect remains.
The system is not yet commercially available, but code for proof of concept device It is available online for others to use. Hopefully, this transparency will inspire others to test and develop additional technologies of this type.
How does it work
The key to sound isolation is to look at the person you want to hear. When it does, sound waves from that speaker’s voice reach the microphones on both sides of the headphones simultaneously telling the AI to focus on that speaker’s vocal patterns. As the speaker continues speaking and provides the system with more training data, the system’s ability to focus on the voice improves.
More research is needed, but initial results are promising. The team tested their system on 21 subjects, who rated the clarity of the recorded speaker’s voice almost twice as high as the unfiltered audio on average. Currently, the system only works with one voice at a time. There are also problems if there is more than one strong voice coming from the same direction. But work continues and improvements are expected over time.
Read more about this new technology here.
Hearing aids of the future
Many years ago I asked, “What if you could build your ideal hearing aid?” One of the functions I envisioned was exactly this: focusing on the specific voices you wanted to hear. At the time it seemed far out of reach, but as technology improves, so do our opportunities for better communication.
Readers, would you use a device to isolate specific voices in noisy spaces?
Related Posts
Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter!
Never miss a post! Sign up to receive email alerts.
