Research

Design of real-time speech masking system

Speech masking is a technique being used to hide confidential information in a target speech where a jammer sound (i.e. masker) is played to hinder understanding by the human auditory system. Since the maskers could cause annoyance for listeners, the proposed research will identify a novel design of maskers that will NOT cause any psychological disruptions to the listeners while maintaining its masking performance. Signal processing algorithm for creating a masker, which is grounded on the expertise in acoustics, linguistics, and audiology are developed and tested through subjective listening tests.

Publications relevant to this research

Journal articles/Book chapters

  • H. Masuda, Y. Hioka, C.T.J. Hui, James J., and C.I. Watson. Performance evaluation of speech masking design among listeners with varying language backgrounds. Applied Acoustics, 201:109122, 2022. Publisher’s link
  • C.T.J. Hui, M. Ikuta, M. Obata, Y. Hioka, and T. Arai. Spatiallytarget adaptive speech masking – a pilot study on masking effect andannoyance -. Applied Acoustics, 182:108214, November 2021. Publisher’s link
  • Y. Hioka, J. James, and C.I. Watson. Masker design for real-time informational masking with mitigated annoyance. Applied Acoustics, 159:107073, February 2020. Publisher’s link
  • Y. Hioka, J. Tang, and J. Wan. Effect of adding artificial reverberation to speech-like masking sound. Applied Acoustics, 114:171–178, December 2016. Publisher’s link

Conference proceedings

  • C. Lo, C.T.J. Hui, Y. Hioka. Speech privacy through dynamic fundamental frequency matching. In Internoise2022, August 2022. Presentation video.
  • H. Masuda, Y. Hioka, J. James, and C. Watson. Protecting speech privacy from native/non-nativelisteners – effect of masker type. In International Congress on Phonetic Sciences (ICPhS), 3070–3074, August 2019. Conference proceedings link
  • Y. Hioka, J. James, and C. Watson. A design of comfortable masking sound for real-time informational masking. In Internoise2017, 1283–1291, August 2017.
  • N. Clark, D.E. Rose, and Y. Hioka. Effect of using artificial echoes for keeping speech privacy. In 12th Western Pacific Acoustics Conference (WESPAC), December 2015.