Real-Time and Low-Power Streaming Source Separation Using Markov Random Field

Abstract

Machine learning (ML) has revolutionized a wide range of recognition tasks, ranging from text analysis to speech to vision, most notably in cloud deployments. However, mobile deployment of these ideas involves a very different category of design problems. In this article, we develop a hardware architecture for a sound source separation task, intended for deployment on a mobile phone. We focus on a novel Markov random field (MRF) sound source separation algorithm that uses expectation-maximization and Gibbs sampling to learn MRF parameters on the fly and infer the best separation of sources. The intrinsically iterative algorithm suggests challenges for both speed and power. A real-time streaming FPGA implementation runs at 150MHz with 207KB RAM, achieves a speed-up of 22× over a software reference, performs with an SDR of up to 7.021dB with 1.601ms latency, and exhibits excellent perceived audio quality. A 45nm CMOS ASIC virtual prototype simulated at 20MHz shows that this architecture is small (<10 million gates) and consumes only 70mW, which is less than 2% of the power of an ARM Cortex-A9 software version. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first Gibbs sampling inference accelerator designed in conventional FPGA/ASIC technology that targets a realistic mobile perceptual application.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 30, 2018
Source ID
10.1145/3183351

Entities

People

  • Glenn G. Ko
  • Rob A. Rutenbar

Organizations

  • Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of Illinois Urbana–Champaign

Tags

Fields of Study

  • Computer science

Readers

  • Agent-Based Social Robotics and Mobile-Assisted Learning in Virtual Environments.
  • Distributed Systems and Data Platform Development
  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.

Technology Areas

  • AI & ML