Robust acoustic echo cancellation in the short-time fourier transform domain using adaptive crossband filters

This paper presents a robust acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) system in the short-time Fourier transform (STFT) domain using adaptive crossband filters. The STFT-domain AEC allows for a simpler system structure compared to the traditional frequency-domain AEC, which normally requires several applications of the discrete Fourier transform (DFT) and the inverse DFT, while the robust AEC (RAEC) allows for continuous and stable filter updates during double talk without freezing the adaptive filter. The RAEC and the STFT-domain AEC have been investigated in the past in separate studies. In this work we propose a novel algorithm that combines the advantages of both approaches for robust update of the adaptive crossband filters even during double talk. Experimental results confirm the benefit of incorporating the robustness constraint for the adaptive crossband filters and show improved performance in terms of the echo reduction and the predicted sound quality.