Blind separation of independent sources for virtually any source probability density function
The blind source separation (BSS) problem consists of the recovery of a set of statistically independent source signals from a set of measurements that are mixtures of the sources when nothing is known about the sources and the mixture structure. In the BSS scenario, of two noiseless real-valued instantaneous linear mixtures of two sources, an approximate maximum-likelihood (ML) approach has been suggested in the literature, which is only valid under certain constraints on the probability density function (pdf) of the sources. In the present paper, the expression for this ML estimator is reviewed and generalized to include virtually any source distribution. An intuitive geometrical interpretation of the new estimator is also given in terms of the scatter plots of the signals involved. An asymptotic performance analysis is then carried out, yielding a closed-form expression for the estimator asymptotic pdf. Simulations illustrate the behavior of the suggested estimator and show the accuracy of the asymptotic analysis. In addition, an extension of the method to the general BSS scenario of more than two sources and two sensors is successfully implemented.