A two-stage frequency-domain blind source separation method for underdetermined instantaneous mixtures

In order to decrease the probability of missing some data points or noises being added in the inverse truncated mixing matrix (ITMM) algorithm, a two-stage frequency-domain method is proposed for blind source separation of underdetermined instantaneous mixtures. The separation process is decomposed into two steps of ITMM and matrix completion in the view that there are many soft-sparse (not very sparse) sources. First, the mixing matrix is estimated and the sources are recovered by the traditional ITMM algorithm in the frequency domain. Then, in order to retrieve the missing data and remove noises, the matrix completion technique is applied to each preliminary estimated source by the traditional ITMM algorithm in the frequency domain. Simulations show that, compared with the traditional ITMM algorithms, the proposed two-stage algorithm has better separation performances. In addition, the time consumption problem is considered. The proposed algorithm outperforms the traditional ITMM algorithm at a cost of no more than one-fourth extra time consumption. © 2016, Editorial Department of Journal of Southeast University. All right reserved.