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Google's WaveNetEQ Fills in Speech Gaps During Duo Calls

posted by Fnord666 on Friday April 03 2020, @08:24AM   
from the fill-in-the-blanks dept.

upstart writes in with an IRC submission for chromas:

Google's WaveNetEQ fills in speech gaps during Duo calls:

Google today detailed an AI system — WaveNetEQ — it recently deployed to Duo, its cross-platform voice and video chat app, that can realistically synthesize short snippets of speech to replace garbled audio caused by an unstable internet connection. It's fast enough to run on a smartphone while delivering state-of-the-art, natural-sounding audio quality, laying the groundwork for future chat apps optimized for bandwidth-constrained environments.

Here's how it sounds compared with Duo's old solution (the first is WaveNetEQ):

https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/waveneteq_120_ms_2_63b829581a3291c144a030639139c199.wav
https://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/neteq_120_ms_2_8e86d7b2061dfb964b845ebefc1aebd9.wav

As Google explains, to ensure reliable real-time communication, it's necessary to deal with packets (i.e., formatted units of data) that are missing when the receiver needs them. (The company says that 99% of Duo calls need to deal with network issues, and that 10% of calls lose more than 8% of the total audio duration due to network issues.) If new audio isn't delivered continuously, audible glitches and gaps will occur, but repeating the same audio isn't ideal because it produces artifacts and reduces overall call quality.

Google's solution — WaveNetEQ — is what's called a packet loss containment module, which is responsible for creating data to fill in the gaps created by packet losses, excessive jitter, and other mishaps.

"I can['t] hear you now."

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Original Submission

• Re:I'm on a roll... Re:I'm on a roll... (Score: 3, Funny) by DannyB on Friday April 03 2020, @04:05PM (1 child)

  by DannyB (5839) on Friday April 03 2020, @04:05PM (#978763) Journal

  Voice is too unreliable for our nuclear command and control system to depend upon a voice command.

  Upgrade the nuclear launch control system to be based on a presidential tweet.

  That way the orders are unambiguously clear about not failing to not succeed in not suspending launching the nuclear missiles.

  Call it The Covfefe Act.

  --
  To transfer files: right-click on file, pick Copy. Unplug mouse, plug mouse into other computer. Right-click, paste.

  Parent

  Starting Score:	1		point
  Moderation		+1
  Funny=1, Total=1
  Extra 'Funny' Modifier		0
  Karma-Bonus Modifier		+1
  Total Score:		3

• Re:I'm on a roll... (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @04:43PM

  by Anonymous Coward on Friday April 03 2020, @04:43PM (#978789)

  Hey, you're scrambling my brain with multiple negatives...again! Stop that!!

  Parent