title: A 94-GHz millimeter-wave sensor for speech signal acquisition.
abstract: High frequency millimeter-wave (MMW) radar-like sensors enable the detection of speech signals. This novel non-acoustic speech detection method has some special advantages not offered by traditional microphones, such as preventing strong-acoustic interference, high directional sensitivity with penetration, and long detection distance. A 94-GHz MMW radar sensor was employed in this study to test its speech acquisition ability. A 34-GHz zero intermediate frequency radar, a 34-GHz superheterodyne radar, and a microphone were also used for comparison purposes. A short-time phase-spectrum-compensation algorithm was used to enhance the detected speech. The results reveal that the 94-GHz radar sensor showed the highest sensitivity and obtained the highest speech quality subjective measurement score. This result suggests that the MMW radar sensor has better performance than a traditional microphone in terms of speech detection for detection distances longer than 1 m. As a substitute for the traditional speech acquisition method, this novel speech acquisition method demonstrates a large potential for many speech related applications.
authors.affiliation: College of Biomedical Engineering, Fourth Military Medical University, Xi'an 710032, China. sheng@mail.xjtu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Sheng
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Ying
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Guohua
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Lu
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Hao
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lv
authors.forename: Xiao
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.forename: Huijun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xue
authors.forename: Hua
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Jianqi
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Xijing
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Jing
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D000818:Animals; D015374:Biosensing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D004867:Equipment Design; D006801:Humans; D011846:Radio Waves; D013060:Speech / Q000502:physiology*