Acoustic and perceptual effects of WDRC amplification

WDRC 放大的声学和感知效果

• 批准号: 7099853
• 负责人: PAMELA E. SOUZA
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-03-01 至 2010-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7099853
• 关键词: Acoustic; perceptual; effects; WDRC; amplification

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall focus of this research program is to describe the effects of multichannel wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) amplification on speech intelligibility. Hearing aids (and by extension, hearing rehabilitation programs) are now based on this technology, which is expected to improve speech intelligibility over conventional amplification strategies. At present it is unclear whether the inconsistent benefit from multichannel WDRC seen in previous studies was due to a failure of the hearing aid to preserve and transmit acoustic information, or to the listener's inability to process transmitted information. We hypothesize that changes in signal audibility and/or temporal cues can be described by measuring speech characteristics at the output of the amplification system and will partially account for differences in intelligibility across subjects. Few attempts have been made to understand the effects of hearing aids by actually measuring the acoustic characteristics of speech as transmitted to the listener (i.e., at the output of the hearing aid). Using recorded natural speech tokens measured at the output of the amplification system, we propose to identify specific acoustic cues (e.g., rise time, spectral peak) that are enhanced or disrupted by multichannel WDRC. Additionally, we intend to measure the extent to which these cues are altered by variations in compression parameters (release time, number of channels). We will relate changes in the acoustic signal to intelligibility. Finally, we will determine if the consequences of WDRC for speech intelligibility differ as a function of age and whether age-related performance differences, if they exist, are linked to the alteration of the temporal characteristics of the signal.

描述（由申请人提供）：该研究计划的总体重点是描述多通道宽动态范围压缩（WDRC）放大对语音清晰度的影响。助听器（以及听力康复计划）现在基于这项技术，与传统的放大策略相比，该技术有望提高语音清晰度。目前尚不清楚先前研究中发现的多通道 WDRC 的不一致益处是否是由于助听器未能保存和传输声学信息，或者是由于听者无法处理传输的信息。我们假设信号可听度和/或时间线索的变化可以通过测量放大系统输出处的语音特征来描述，并且将部分解释受试者之间清晰度的差异。很少有尝试通过实际测量传输给听者的语音的声学特性（即在助听器的输出处）来了解助听器的效果。使用在放大系统输出处测量的记录的自然语音标记，我们建议识别多通道 WDRC 增强或破坏的特定声学线索（例如，上升时间、频谱峰值）。此外，我们打算测量这些提示因压缩参数（释放时间、通道数量）的变化而改变的程度。我们将声音信号的变化与清晰度联系起来。最后，我们将确定 WDRC 对语音清晰度的影响是否随年龄而变化，以及与年龄相关的性能差异（如果存在）是否与信号时间特性的改变有关。