Variational Bayesian learning of speech GMMs for feature enhancement based on Algonquin

Many feature enhancement methods make use of probabilistic models of speech and noise in order to improve performance of speech recognizers in the presence of background noise. The traditional approach for training such models is maximum likelihood estimation. This paper investigates the novel application of variational Bayesian learning for front-end models under the Algonquin denoising framework. Compared to maximum likelihood training, it is shown that variational Bayesian learning has advantages both in terms of increased robustness with respect to choice of model complexity, as well as increased performance.