Master Thesis - Wind Noise Metric for Speech Communication

Signal Processing and Acoustics

2 students completing 30/60 credits (20/40 weeks) each

Background

Wind noise can severely degrade speech captured by microphones, making conversations difficult to understand and unpleasant to listen to. Products designed for two-way communication often use digital signal processing (DSP) to reduce wind noise. However, evaluating how well these solutions work is challenging: reducing wind can also damage speech, make voices sound unnatural, or introduce artifacts such as pumping or choppiness.

This thesis will investigate how to assess wind-noise reduction in speech recordings. Rather than relying on a single measure, the aim is to develop a framework with several complementary scores—for example, residual wind noise, speech intelligibility or preservation, and processing artifacts—along with a combined score for comparing solutions. The scores should reflect what matters to listeners in a two-way conversation.

Goal

The thesis aims at the following goals:

• Investigate existing methods for objectively evaluating speech quality and noise reduction.
• Identify relevant dimensions for assessing wind-noise reduction in two-way speech communication.
• Develop a multi-score evaluation framework, including an overall score for comparing wind-noise reduction methods.
• Record or collect suitable speech samples with different wind conditions and evaluate processed recordings.
• Compare the metric scores with subjective listener assessments.
• Investigate how well the framework distinguishes effective wind suppression from speech damage and processing artifacts.

Who are you?

For this thesis proposal, we are looking for students with a strong interest in audio, acoustics, and signal processing. Most likely, you are studying a Master’s Program in Electrical Engineering, Engineering Physics, or a related field.

OK, I am interested! What do I do now?

• Applications are accepted in both Swedish and English, and you apply via the proposal advert.
• The announced thesis is open only to students affiliated with a Swedish University/College, either directly or via an exchange program.
• Please apply in pairs. Send one application each, and clearly state who your co-applicant is. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.
• Please attach your CV and University/College grade summary.

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