A Technique for Improving the Intelligibilty of Speech Transmitted by Amplitude Modulation over Noisy Channels

This paper describes a limited experimental study of a technique for enhancing the intelligibility of speech transmitted by amplitude modulation over noisy channels. The technique requires that the two sidebands of the received signal be demodulated separately by conventional single-sideband methods, and that the resulting audio signals be presented to the listener via headphones as binaural stimuli. The experimental results indicate that when white noise is the only form of interference, the technique yields better intelligibility scores than conventional AM detection for most values of SNR. Although practical applications appear to be limited, the technique is interesting because it exploits a perceptual faculty of human listeners.