Convex combination of MIMO filters for multichannel acoustic echo cancellation

This paper introduces a new framework for multichannel adaptive filtering, aiming at improving performance of an overall filtering system. The proposed architecture relies on the properties of the adaptive combination of filters which exploits the capabilities of different constituents, thus adaptively providing at least the behaviour of the best performing filter. Applying this concept to multichannel filtering systems, we define a scheme for the combination of multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) filters. More precisely the proposed structure involves the combination of two different multiple-input singleoutput (MISO) systems for each MIMO output. We propose such framework with application to the multichannel acoustic echo cancellation (MAEC) with the goal of giving robustness to the system against impulsive background noise, and thus improving overall cancelling performance. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed combined MAEC in the presence of adverse environmental conditions. © 2013 University of Trieste and University of Zagreb.