A Novel and High Performance Noise Cancellation Device for Battlefield Applications Navy SBIR FY2009.1 Sol No.: Navy SBIR FY2009.1 Topic No.: N091-024 Topic Title: A Novel and High Performance Noise Cancellation Device for Battlefield Applications Proposal No.: N091-024-0476 Firm: SIGNAL PROCESSING, INC. 13619 Valley Oak Circle ROCKVILLE, Maryland 20850-3563 Contact: Chiman Kwan Phone: (240) 505-2641 Web Site: http://www.signalpro.net Abstract: We propose a novel, high performance, and standalone system for improving close air support (CAS) effectiveness. First, we propose a standalone noise cancellation device (NCD) that can be inserted between the handset and the transceiver. As a result, there is no change to the existing communication system. The NCD is self-powered from its own battery and equipped with a microphone and a digital signal processing (DSP) chip to process the signals from the handset mic and the mic in the NCD. Second, in the NCD, we propose to apply blind source separation (BSS) algorithms to untangle speech from background noises. One BSS method is the Independent Component Analysis (ICA) and another method is known as Adaptive Decorrelation Filter (ADF). Our team has applied both ICA and ADF to various applications. Third, since there may still be residual noise after the BSS stage, we propose to apply a fast convergence adaptive filter to further eliminate the residual background noise. The particular adaptive filter was developed by this team some time ago and can at least double the speed of convergence as compared to a conventional adaptive scheme. The proposed algorithms will be implemented in DSP in Phase 2. Benefits: Conventional speech enhancement systems do not perform well in the presence of strong and intermittent background noises such as explosions. Our NCD system will enhance the communication quality between soldiers and commanders. We will eliminate background noise from the battlefield. Our device is standalone. We expect the market size will be at $20 million over the next decade. The speech separation/enhancement algorithm can be useful for policemen, FBI agents, and ATF agents during operations where gun fires may occur. The market for this is quite large. Return