A generalization of blind source separation algorithms for convolutive mixtures based on second-order statistics

In this paper, we present a general broadband approach to blind source separation (BSS) for convolutive mixtures based on second-order statistics. This avoids several known limitations of the conventional narrowband approximation, such as the internal permutation problem. In contrast to traditional narrowband approaches, the new framework simultaneously exploits the nonwhiteness property and nonstationarity property of the source signals. Using a novel matrix formulation, we rigorously derive the corresponding time-domain and frequency-domain broadband algorithms by generalizing a known cost-function which inherently allows joint optimization for several time-lags of the correlations. Based on the broadband approach time-domain, constraints are obtained which provide a deeper understanding of the internal permutation problem in traditional narrowband frequency-domain BSS. For both the time-domain and the frequency-domain versions, we discuss links to well-known, and also, to novel algorithms that constitute special cases. Moreover, using the so-called generalized coherence, links between the time-domain and the frequency-domain algorithms can be established, showing that our cost function leads to an update equation with an inherent normalization ensuring a robust adaptation behaviour. The concept is applicable to offline, online, and block-online algorithms by introducing a general weighting function allowing for tracking of time-varying real acoustic environments.