G.711 is the most popular speech codec for Voice over IP (VoIP). This chapter proposes a method for embedding data into G.711-coded speech for conveying side information for enhancing speech quality such as bandwidth extension or packet loss concealment. The proposed method refers to a low-bit rate encoder to determine how many bits are embedded into each sample. First, a variable-bit rate data hiding method is proposed as a basic framework of the proposed method. Then, the proposed method is extended to achieve fixed bit rate data hiding. According to comparison experiments, the proposed method is proved to achieve higher speech quality compared with the conventional method. Moreover, the authors developed a low-complexity speech bandwidth extension method that uses the proposed data hiding method.
Speech quality improvement with bit-rate extension using spectral gain enhancement
