Business Opportunities

Improved Audio Tape Enhancement

The Technical Support Working Group has sponsored the development of an Audio Enhancement Toolkit for forensic analysis that is an adaptive wideband noise reduction system based on a spectral change measure. The system includes development of:

Stationary and nonstationary tone removal algorithms using sine-wave models in the frequency domain.
Pulse removal based on matched-filtering principles.
Development of a two-speaker pitch estimator and interfering suppression system.
Software toolkit amenable as a plug-in to Matlab(tm) encompassing suppression of wideband noise, steady and changing tones, repeated interfering pulses, and interfering talkers.

The toolkit is potentially compatible with Signalscape(tm) as well, but achieving this compatibility will require working with Signalscape(tm) as part of a technology transition. It is important to note that the project is also attempting to produce a stand-alone Toolkit, free from the need to be callable from Matlab(tm) or Signalscape(tm). This goal came about because many government groups would find this far less costly and easier to use on a PC.

The primary users of Lincoln's enhancement technology are U.S. Federal Intelligence Agencies and Federal and State Law Enforcement Bureaus and Services. Commercial enterprises needing signal enhancement for improved communications, pre-processing for recognition, and/or enhanced listening are also potential users.

Additional information on licensing this system is available at the MIT Technology Licensing Office website.