The Diverse Environments Multi-channel Acoustic Noise Database (DEMAND): A database of multichannel environmental noise recordings

Joachim Thiemann (1, 2) , Nobutaka Ito (2, 3) , Emmanuel Vincent (2, 4)

1 PANAMA - Parcimonie et Nouveaux Algorithmes pour le Signal et la Modélisation Audio
2 METISS - Speech and sound data modeling and processing
3 UTokyo - The University of Tokyo
4 PAROLE - Analysis, perception and recognition of speech

Multi-microphone arrays allow for the use of spatial filtering techniques that can greatly improve noise reduction and source separation. However, for speech and audio data, work on noise reduction or separation has focused primarily on one- or two-channel systems. Because of this, databases of multichannel environmental noise are not widely available. DEMAND (Diverse Environments Multi-channel Acoustic Noise Database) addresses this problem by providing a set of 16-channel noise files recorded in a variety of indoor and outdoor settings. The data was recorded using a planar microphone array consisting of four staggered rows, with the smallest distance between microphones being 5 cm and the largest being 21.8 cm. DEMAND is freely available under a Creative Commons license to encourage research into algorithms beyond the stereo setup.

Mots clés: Transducer arrays; Sound recording and reproducing systems; Outdoor sound sources; beam-forming; analysis; measurement; acoustic interaction effects in arrays; Environmental noise; Acoustic array systems and processing; statistical characteristics

Domaines: Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]; Traitement du signal et de l'image [eess.SP]

Joachim Thiemann, Nobutaka Ito, Emmanuel Vincent. The Diverse Environments Multi-channel Acoustic Noise Database (DEMAND): A database of multichannel environmental noise recordings. 21st International Congress on Acoustics, Acoustical Society of America, Jun 2013, Montreal, Canada. ⟨10.5281/zenodo.1227120⟩. ⟨hal-00796707⟩