An interactive optimization procedure for stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation systems

Acoustic echo cancellers are used in teleconferencing systems in order to reduce undesired echoes due to coupling between microphones and loudspeakers. Stereophonic systems provide more realistic experience than single-channel systems, since listeners have spatial information that helps to identify the speaker position. Assuming this scenario, a suitable choice of the system parameters becomes essential to improve the audio reproduction quality. Error-driven optimization strategies are usually used for obtaining the optimal system configuration but there is no relationship with the quality desired by the user. In this paper, an interactive evolutionary algorithm is adopted for a stereophonic acoustic echo cancellation system in order to meet subjective specifications in the optimization stage. In this way, the optimal system configuration is derived according to a user-driven approach in order to satisfy the quality requirements demanded by users availing such stereophonic systems. Experimental results prove the effectiveness of the proposed interactive architecture according to both objective and subjective measures.