Refining Speech Clarity with Wavelet Denoising under Different Face Mask Conditions: A Subjective Analysis

Abstract

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, people have adopted various face masks and face shields as protective measures against infection. Despite the challenges these protective measures pose to interpersonal communication, they have been instrumental in saving countless lives. This study utilizes a microphone to capture speech signals in different scenarios involving face masks, with and without face shields. The obtained speech signals undergo enhancement through the wavelet denoising approach. The quality of the enhanced signal was compared to the original acquired signal using a subjective comparison test. Multiple research findings indicate that the signal improvement achieved through wavelet denoising exceeds the quality of the initial signal.