Multi-Channel $l_{1}$ Regularized Convex Speech Enhancement Model and Fast Computation by the Split Bregman Method

A convex speech enhancement (CSE) method is presented based on convex optimization and pause detection of the speech sources. Channel spatial difference is identified for enhancing each speech source individually while suppressing other interfering sources. Sparse unmixing filters indicating channel spatial differences are sought by l₁ norm regularization and the split Bregman method. A subdivided split Bregman method is developed for efficiently solving the problem in severely reverberant environments. The speech pause detection is based on a binary mask source separation method. The CSE method is evaluated objectively and subjectively, and found to outperform a list of existing blind speech separation approaches on both synthetic and room recorded speech mixtures in terms of the overall computational speed and separation quality.