Co-channel speaker separation based on maximum-likelihood deconvolution

Described is a speaker separation system based on the maximum likelihood deconvolution (MLD). The maximum likelihood criteria is applied to the deconvolution of the combined signal to estimate the excitation signal of each speaker. Passing the estimated excitation signal through the corresponding vocal tract filter produces the restored speech of the particular speaker. The restored speech is the result of the convolution of the excitation signal with the vocal tract wavelet matrix. A simultaneous characterization of multiple speakers was accomplished with a new speech model