Extension and evaluation of a near-end listening enhancement algorithm for listeners with normal and impaired hearing

J Acoust Soc Am. 2017 Apr;141(4):2526. doi: 10.1121/1.4979591.

Abstract

In many applications in which speech is played back via a sound reinforcement system such as public address systems and mobile phones, speech intelligibility is degraded by additive environmental noise. A possible solution to maintain high intelligibility in noise is to pre-process the speech signal based on the estimated noise power at the position of the listener. The previously proposed AdaptDRC algorithm [Schepker, Rennies, and Doclo (2015). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 138, 2692-2706] applies both frequency shaping and dynamic range compression under an equal-power constraint, where the processing is adaptively controlled by short-term estimates of the speech intelligibility index. Previous evaluations of the algorithm have focused on normal-hearing listeners. In this study, the algorithm was extended with an adaptive gain stage under an equal-peak-power constraint, and evaluated with eleven normal-hearing and ten mildly to moderately hearing-impaired listeners. For normal-hearing listeners, average improvements in speech reception thresholds of about 4 and 8 dB compared to the unprocessed reference condition were measured for the original algorithm and its extension, respectively. For hearing-impaired listeners, the average improvements were about 2 and 6 dB, indicating that the relative improvement due to the proposed adaptive gain stage was larger for these listeners than the benefit of the original processing stages.

Publication types

  • Evaluation Study
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Acoustic Stimulation
  • Acoustics*
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Algorithms*
  • Audiometry, Pure-Tone
  • Auditory Threshold
  • Case-Control Studies
  • Female
  • Hearing
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Noise / adverse effects*
  • Perceptual Masking*
  • Persons With Hearing Impairments / psychology*
  • Presbycusis / diagnosis
  • Presbycusis / physiopathology
  • Presbycusis / psychology*
  • Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted*
  • Speech Intelligibility*
  • Speech Perception*
  • Speech Reception Threshold Test
  • Young Adult