Audio quality assessment techniques - A review, and recent developments

Assessing the perceptual quality of wideband audio signals is an important consideration in many audio and multimedia networks and devices. Examples of such multimedia technologies are: streaming audio over the Internet, Digital Radio Mondiale (DRM), Digital Audio Broadcasting (DAB), VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol), mobile phones, as well as compression algorithms for digital audio. The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) standard for audio quality (BS.1387) is commonly referred to as perceptual evaluation of audio quality (PEAQ). PEAQ is currently the only available standardised method for the purpose of audio quality assessment. This paper includes a brief technical summary of the standardised PEAQ algorithm. Furthermore, this paper outlines recent advancements in the general area of audio quality assessment since the publication of the ITU standard, and discusses possible techniques, including some recent findings, that could be used to extend the applicability of PEAQ and improve the accuracy of the algorithm in assessing the quality of multimedia devices and systems. & 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.