WhisperMask: A Noise Suppressive Mask-Type Microphone for Whisper Speech
Hirotaka Hiraki, Shusuke Kanazawa, Takahiro Miura, Manabu Yoshida,, Masaaki Mochimaru, and Jun Rekimoto

TL;DR
WhisperMask is a novel mask-type microphone with a large diaphragm and low sensitivity that significantly improves whisper speech recognition accuracy in noisy environments without relying on signal processing.
Contribution
This paper introduces WhisperMask, a microphone design that passively enhances whispered speech and suppresses background noise, outperforming traditional noise reduction methods.
Findings
30% higher recognition accuracy in 80 dB noise
Maintains high performance without denoising
Outperforms traditional microphones in noisy settings
Abstract
Whispering is a common privacy-preserving technique in voice-based interactions, but its effectiveness is limited in noisy environments. In conventional hardware- and software-based noise reduction approaches, isolating whispered speech from ambient noise and other speech sounds remains a challenge. We thus propose WhisperMask, a mask-type microphone featuring a large diaphragm with low sensitivity, making the wearer's voice significantly louder than the background noise. We evaluated WhisperMask using three key metrics: signal-to-noise ratio, quality of recorded voices, and speech recognition rate. Across all metrics, WhisperMask consistently outperformed traditional noise-suppressing microphones and software-based solutions. Notably, WhisperMask showed a 30% higher recognition accuracy for whispered speech recorded in an environment with 80 dB background noise compared with the pin…
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