Speech Enhancement Theory and Practice, Second Edition

"... indispensable for anyone trying to further his or her understanding in the field of digital speech processing. This book is critical in helping the professional address the growing demand to design algorithms that can improve speech intelligibility, in the presence of noise, without sacrificing quality for hearing aids and cochlear implants and address the equally important growing need to design rooms in which we can hear better naturally. Loizou's clarity of presentation of the mathematical foundation of different algorithms for speech enhancement has a comprehensibility that can only come with the level of expertise possessed by Loizou and serves well for all professionals from acoustical engineers to audiologists. This book provides an exceptional foundation and insight into past, present and future innovative processing techniques. This book is valuable for students and professionals of all experience levels."
-Bonnie Schnitta, SoundSense, LLC, Wainscott, New York, USA, from Noise Control Engineering Journal, January-February 2015

"... by far the most comprehensive treatment of speech enhancement available. All the most important techniques in the broad field of speech enhancement are covered, yet the author at the same time manages to treat each topic in great detail. ... The algorithms are complex, but Loizou's exposition is outstanding. The second edition brings the material right up to date, covering recent significant breakthroughs in binary masking algorithms ... . One of the great strengths of this text is the availability of code, allowing readers to better understand, deploy, and extend existing algorithms for speech enhancement. ... This volume is in reality far more than a textbook on speech enhancement. It is also one of the most important works on the effect of noise on speech perception, and as such will make a huge contribution to the education of the next generation of auditory scientists, and feed technological developments in all aspects of speech communication, particularly for individuals with hearing impairment."
-Prof. Martin Cooke, Ikerbasque and University of the Basque Country, Vitoria, Spain

"This textbook offers outstanding reference material for teaching the clinical application of spectral enhancement to the audiology community. Dr. Loizou offers the reader tremendous insight into the fundamentals of digital signal processing, speech production and perception, and the characteristics of various noise sources. ... The textbook is essential for engineers, audiologists, and other professionals who seek to improve the listener's ability to hear a target signal against a background filled with competing noise using the spectral enhancement technique."
-Amyn M. Amlani, Ph.D., University of North Texas, Denton, USA

"... a highly informative presentation of the fundamentals, seminal and current algorithms, evaluation metrics, and future work that is desirable for any new or experienced students and researchers in the exciting area of speech enhancement. ... I greatly appreciate the excellent organization of dividing the book into Fundamentals, Algorithms, Evaluation, and Future Steps, which can allow instructors and researchers to quickly decide on the material they want to teach their students, or learn or review themselves ... Dr. Loizou takes students and researchers with a range of experiences on an amazing journey through the exciting field of speech enhancement."
-Marek Trawicki, Marquette University, Wauwatosa, Wisconsin, USA

"The first edition of this book established itself as the best reference for single-channel speech enhancement. Amazingly, this new edition is even better, and could be the most authoritative work in the area of modern single-channel techniques for speech enhancement to date. ... This is a unique book, combining both thorough theoretical developments and practical implementations. I highly recommend it to those interested in speech enhancement, as well as applied signal processing."
-Association of Computing Machinery (ACM) Computing Reviews, July 2013
Reviewer: Vladimir Botchev, Analog Devices, Wilmington, Massachusetts, USA