Binaural artificial bandwidth extension (B-ABE) for speech

Efficient teleconference system can be created by extending the speech bandwidth and using spatial audio. If wideband speech transmission was not supported as such, an alternative way to extend the bandwidth is by exploiting an artificial bandwidth extension (ABE) algorithm. In such methods the audio bandwidth is extended in the receiving end, without any transmitted extra information. When considering spatial audio it should be noted that ABE methods have been developed for monaural signals and they cannot be applied as such to binaural signals due to a possible mismatch of binaural cues in the created frequency range. In this paper binaural ABE, B-ABE, is proposed. Subjective listening tests were used to evaluate the proposed method. The results showed that the localization information is preserved well in B-ABE processing.