Sleep evaluation using multi-channel audio signals: coping with sleeping partner, sound and noisy environmen
Millions of people worldwide experience sleep disorders, and unrecognized or ignored sleep problems can lead to poor health, accidents, and even death. Currently, the field of sleep disorders evaluation is going towards home-based testing in order to increase the accessibility of the diagnosis. Recently, sleep evaluation using non-contact sensors, such as microphones, has been researched. In this study, we aim to separate the subject’s sleep sounds (the desired source) from a sleeping partner, using a non-contact simple microphone array.
Since the relevant subject is sleeping at some distance from the sleeping partner (~1m), the hypothesis is that the subject's sleep sounds (such as breathing and snoring) can be separated from those of the other using multi-channel audio signals. To do that, we developed a PC simulation of two sleeping partners, recorded separately. We mixed the two signals with respect to their propagation delays and distances from the microphones, and separated the mixed signals by three different algorithms: fast independent component analysis (FICA), kurtosis independent component analysis (KICA), and principal component analysis (PCA). Two options were examined:
Since the relevant subject is sleeping at some distance from the sleeping partner (~1m), the hypothesis is that the subject's sleep sounds (such as breathing and snoring) can be separated from those of the other using multi-channel audio signals. To do that, we developed a PC simulation of two sleeping partners, recorded separately. We mixed the two signals with respect to their propagation delays and distances from the microphones, and separated the mixed signals by three different algorithms: fast independent component analysis (FICA), kurtosis independent component analysis (KICA), and principal component analysis (PCA). Two options were examined:
- Delay fix – the time delay of the sleeping partner in one mix is fixed with respect to the other mix.
- Without delay fix.