Time-frequency dependent voice activity detection based on a simple threshold test

Abstract

This paper proposes an efficient method to determine for each time-frequency point whether speech is present or absent in a noisy microphone signal. Based on a likelihood ratio test for the conditional speech presence probability a simple threshold test is derived. This test compares the current input power for each time-frequency point with an estimate of the noise power spectral density. The theoretical results as well as the simulation results indicate that voice activity is well approximated.