There’s more to modern communications than meets the eye, and techniques such as speech dereverberation are ample evidence. Speech dereverberation is one of those vital technologies that you don’t think about until it’s missing.
You may not know it, but effective speech dereverberation is absent any time you’ve been in a conference call or near a microphone that produced speech reverberation, which is a type of mild echo, or the continuance of sound where there should be none.
While clear speech can be cleanly understood and allows listeners to focus solely on the message and not the method in which it’s delivered, reverb makes listening a mildly to extremely unpleasant experience.
The age of information has paved the way for all types of new communications methods while creating demand for methods that deliver clean, clear messages across miles and through hands-free communications systems.
While all of us enjoy the simple ease of use and convenience of modern hands-free communications technologies — be they via cellular phone, computer, or some other type of mobile device — we tend to enjoy the magic without sparing a thought for the behind-the-scenes work involved in generally flawless execution.
Speech dereverberation is a behind-the-scenes hands-free signal-processing technology that plays a vital role in applications that target speech acquisition and recognition.
Speech dereverberation is an increasingly popular technological research topic, as its ongoing development is inspired by insistent and unceasing consumer demand for more of the same or better hands-free services.
Why Speech Dereverberation is Important
Speech Dereverberation is vital for the operation of systems in which environmental noise, speech reverberation and echo can undermine the communications process.
In other words, it’s a critical component for communicating clearly.
A little reverb may not be a big deal when you’re Skyping your mom, but a boss or a client will have a harder time focusing on you if they can’t concentrate or clearly hear what you’re saying. When you’re in the midst of conducting what you’d hoped would be a stunning and professional business presentation, it can be hard to get through to the person on the other end when they simply can’t get over the echo.
Speech dereverberation software serves the purpose of allowing users to get down to the purpose of communication — which is not to struggle to get the equipment to work properly.
Likewise, when it comes to the use of microphones, a CEO who’s presenting before a group of 300 people doesn’t want to have to struggle to be understood. More importantly, the audience doesn’t want to sit through a presentation wishing that they could be elsewhere not because the CEP was a bad presenter, but because the reverb was a real headache.
