HEARING LOSS, SPECTRAL DEFICITS AND FORMANT ENHANCEMENT

听力损失、频谱缺陷和共振峰增强

• 批准号: 6176735
• 负责人: Peggy B Nelson
• 金额: $ 4.87万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 1999
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 1999-08-01 至 2002-07-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/6176735
• 关键词: auditory stimulus; clinical research; computer program /software; hearing aids; hearing disorders; human subject; sensory discrimination; sound frequency; sound perception; speech recognition

The overall goal of this project is to evaluate promising signal processing techniques to enhance speech spectral characteristics for improved speech understanding by hard-of-hearing (HoH) listeners. These spectral enhancements include: 1) deepening of between-formant spectral valleys, 2) frequency scaling of speech, and 3) combinations of both deepening and scaling. Many hard-of- hearing (HoH) listeners can resolve low-frequency spectral cues normally but they are often less able to resolve frequency information in higher-frequency signals. In speech, higher- frequency second formants (F2), which provide important information for phoneme distinctions, are not easily resolved by these HoH listeners. Sinusoidal modeling techniques will be used to detect spectral peaks in rapidly changing syllables, and to deepen spectral valleys between peaks. Sound design software will be used to accomplish modest frequency scaling (up to 30 percent reduction) while retaining good sound quality. It is anticipated that these combined schemes will produce good-quality speech signals with formants that are more easily resolved by HoH listeners. Two groups of listeners with moderate to severe hearing loss will be identified as having better or poorer spectral resolution abilities based on frequency discrimination and spectral peak detection tasks. These listeners will then identify unmodified stimuli and stimuli that have been enhanced by the proposed processing chemes. Results will demonstrate the benefits of each scheme individually, and of the combined schemes. Early results using pilot processed stimulil show promise toward the goal of improving speech perception abilities of listeners with moderate to severe hearing loss. Results from the proposed investigation will provide important additional pilot data that will serve as a basis for future investigations of speech enhancements. A long-term goal of this research is the development of real-time enhancement algorithms that can be implemented into wearable amplification devices.

该项目的总体目标是评估有前途的信号处理技术，以增强语音频谱特性，从而改善听力困难 (HoH) 听众的语音理解。 这些频谱增强包括：1）共振峰间频谱谷的加深，2）语音的频率缩放，以及3）加深和缩放的组合。 许多听力困难 (HoH) 的听众可以正常分辨低频频谱线索，但他们往往无法分辨高频信号中的频率信息。 在语音中，为音素区分提供重要信息的高频第二共振峰 (F2) 很难被这些 HoH 听众轻易分辨。 正弦建模技术将用于检测快速变化的音节中的频谱峰值，并加深峰值之间的频谱谷。 声音设计软件将用于实现适度的频率缩放（最多降低 30%），同时保持良好的音质。 预计这些组合方案将产生高质量的语音信号，其共振峰更容易被 HoH 听众分辨。 根据频率辨别和频谱峰值检测任务，将确定两组具有中度至重度听力损失的听众具有更好或更差的频谱分辨率能力。 然后，这些听众将识别未修改的刺激和已通过提议的处理方案增强的刺激。 结果将证明每个方案单独以及组合方案的好处。 使用试验处理刺激的早期结果表明，有望实现改善中度至重度听力损失的听众的言语感知能力的目标。 拟议的调查结果将提供重要的额外试验数据，这些数据将作为未来语音增强研究的基础。 这项研究的长期目标是开发可应用于可穿戴放大设备的实时增强算法。