Speech Intelligibility and Quality Evaluation of Automotive Microphones Using Different Test Metrics and Their Correlation

Du Y. Speech Intelligibility and Quality Evaluation of Automotive Microphones Using Different Test Metrics and Their Correlation. J Audio Eng Soc. 2023;71(12):88-7899. doi:10.17743/jaes.2022.0095

@article{Du2023_22350,
  author = {Du, Yu},
  title = {{Speech Intelligibility and Quality Evaluation of Automotive Microphones Using Different Test Metrics and Their Correlation}},
  journal = {Journal of the Audio Engineering Society},
  volume = {71},
  number = {12},
  pages = {88--7899},
  year = {2023},
  month = dec,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  doi = {10.17743/jaes.2022.0095},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0095}
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - Speech Intelligibility and Quality Evaluation of Automotive Microphones Using Different Test Metrics and Their Correlation
AU  - Du, Yu
T2  - Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
J2  - J. Audio Eng. Soc.
VL  - 71
IS  - 12
SP  - 88
EP  - 7899
PY  - 2023
DA  - 2023/12/06
DO  - 10.17743/jaes.2022.0095
UR  - https://doi.org/10.17743/jaes.2022.0095
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - Speech intelligibility and speech quality (SI&SQ) of voice microphones used in automotive hands-free communication systems are affected not only by microphone acoustic characteristics but also by interactions between the microphone and the background acoustic field. Due to the complex acoustic environment inside a vehicle cabin which constantly changes with driving modes, it is not a trivial task to choose proper acoustic characteristics of voice microphones for different vehicle and cabin designs. To establish a relationship between microphone characteristics and SI&SQ performance in automotive applications, a study is conducted using three common types of automotive voice microphones. Their performance is evaluated using both subjective and objective metrics described in ANSI standards S3.2-2009, S3.5-1997 and ITU-T Recommendation P.862.2. It is found that the objective SI index (SII) and the subjective SI results correlate nearly linearly. Furthermore, when the original SII scores are weighted by the speech-to-noise ratio, the weighted SII (wSII) data also exhibit linear correlation relationship with the objectively calculated subjective mean opinion score. Because the SII/wSII calculation is significantly less complex than the SI or mean opinion score evaluation process, results from this study demonstrate that the SI/wSII may be conveniently used as a tool to guide automotive voice microphone designs and evaluations.
ER  -