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Culling JF, D'Olne EFC, Davies BD, Powell N, Naylor PA. Practical utility of a head-mounted gaze-directed beamforming system. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2023; 154:3760-3768. [PMID: 38099830 DOI: 10.1121/10.0023961] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/03/2023] [Accepted: 11/29/2023] [Indexed: 12/18/2023]
Abstract
Assistive auditory devices that enhance signal-to-noise ratio must follow the user's changing attention; errors could lead to the desired source being suppressed as noise. A method for measuring the practical benefit of attention-following speech enhancement is described and used to show a benefit for gaze-directed beamforming over natural binaural hearing. First, participants watched a recorded video conference call between two people with six additional interfering voices in different directions. The directions of the target voices corresponded to the spatial layout of their video streams. A simulated beamformer was yoked to the participant's gaze direction using an eye tracker. For the control condition, all eight voices were spatially distributed in a simulation of unaided binaural hearing. Participants completed questionnaires on the content of the conversation, scoring twice as high in the questionnaires for the beamforming condition. Sentence-by-sentence intelligibility was then measured using new participants who viewed the same audiovisual stimulus for each isolated sentence. Participants recognized twice as many words in the beamforming condition. The results demonstrate the potential practical benefit of gaze-directed beamforming for hearing aids and illustrate how detailed intelligibility data can be retrieved from an experiment that involves behavioral engagement in an ongoing listening task.
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Affiliation(s)
- John F Culling
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom
| | - Emilie F C D'Olne
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
| | - Bryn D Davies
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom
| | - Niamh Powell
- School of Psychology, Cardiff University, 70 Park Place, Cardiff CF10 3AT, United Kingdom
| | - Patrick A Naylor
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London, London SW7 2AZ, United Kingdom
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Best V, Boyd AD, Sen K. An Effect of Gaze Direction in Cocktail Party Listening. Trends Hear 2023; 27:23312165231152356. [PMID: 36691678 PMCID: PMC9896088 DOI: 10.1177/23312165231152356] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 08/05/2022] [Revised: 11/18/2022] [Accepted: 01/04/2023] [Indexed: 01/25/2023] Open
Abstract
It is well established that gaze direction can influence auditory spatial perception, but the implications of this interaction for performance in complex listening tasks is unclear. In the current study, we investigated whether there is a measurable effect of gaze direction on speech intelligibility in a "cocktail party" listening situation. We presented sequences of digits from five loudspeakers positioned at 0°, ± 15°, and ± 30° azimuth, and asked participants to repeat back the digits presented from a designated target loudspeaker. In different blocks of trials, the participant visually fixated on a cue presented at the target location or at a nontarget location. Eye position was tracked continuously to monitor compliance. Performance was best when fixation was on-target (vs. off-target) and the size of this effect depended on the specific configuration. This result demonstrates an influence of gaze direction in multitalker mixtures, even in the absence of visual speech information.
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Affiliation(s)
- Virginia Best
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences,
Boston
University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Alex D. Boyd
- Department of Biomedical Engineering,
Boston
University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Kamal Sen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering,
Boston
University, Boston, MA, USA
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Chou KF, Boyd AD, Best V, Colburn HS, Sen K. A biologically oriented algorithm for spatial sound segregation. Front Neurosci 2022; 16:1004071. [PMID: 36312015 PMCID: PMC9614053 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2022.1004071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 2] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/26/2022] [Accepted: 09/28/2022] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Abstract
Listening in an acoustically cluttered scene remains a difficult task for both machines and hearing-impaired listeners. Normal-hearing listeners accomplish this task with relative ease by segregating the scene into its constituent sound sources, then selecting and attending to a target source. An assistive listening device that mimics the biological mechanisms underlying this behavior may provide an effective solution for those with difficulty listening in acoustically cluttered environments (e.g., a cocktail party). Here, we present a binaural sound segregation algorithm based on a hierarchical network model of the auditory system. In the algorithm, binaural sound inputs first drive populations of neurons tuned to specific spatial locations and frequencies. The spiking response of neurons in the output layer are then reconstructed into audible waveforms via a novel reconstruction method. We evaluate the performance of the algorithm with a speech-on-speech intelligibility task in normal-hearing listeners. This two-microphone-input algorithm is shown to provide listeners with perceptual benefit similar to that of a 16-microphone acoustic beamformer. These results demonstrate the promise of this biologically inspired algorithm for enhancing selective listening in challenging multi-talker scenes.
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Affiliation(s)
- Kenny F. Chou
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Alexander D. Boyd
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Virginia Best
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - H. Steven Colburn
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
| | - Kamal Sen
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, United States
- *Correspondence: Kamal Sen,
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4
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Davidson A, Marrone N, Souza P. Hearing Aid Technology Settings and Speech-in-Noise Difficulties. Am J Audiol 2022; 31:21-31. [PMID: 35133851 DOI: 10.1044/2021_aja-21-00176] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/09/2022] Open
Abstract
PURPOSE Hearing aids are the primary method to manage hearing loss. However, there are limited recommendations for when and how to set advanced hearing aid features. The purpose of this study is to describe how hearing aid features are utilized in clinically fit devices and to evaluate the relationship between the fitted hearing aid feature and the Quick Speech-in-Noise Test (QuickSIN). METHOD Data from two laboratories were evaluated retrospectively, resulting in 107 bilateral hearing aid participants who obtained their hearing aids at clinics in their communities. Ages ranged from 60 to 93 years. Degree of speech-in-noise difficulty was evaluated using the QuickSIN (mild, moderate, or severe). Settings for directionality, digital noise reduction (DNR), and hearing assistive technology (HAT) use were documented. Directionality was categorized as omnidirectional, fixed (full-time directional), or adaptive (adjusts automatically based on noise source). DNR was recorded as either on or off. HAT use was recorded as either yes or no. RESULTS QuickSIN scores ranged from -1.5 to 25 dB SNR loss (M = 7). A moderate correlation was determined for QuickSIN scores and pure-tone averages. Adaptive directionality was used most often, most participants had DNR turned on, and HAT use was low. The biggest contributions to the Chi-square test for directionality and degrees of speech-in-noise difficulty together were fixed/severe, fixed/moderate, and adaptive/mild. CONCLUSIONS In this clinical sample, there was limited HAT use and advanced features are not set in a way that is consistent with speech-in-noise abilities. It is likely that patients fit with noise management that is not suited to their listening abilities are experiencing increased difficulties in challenging listening environments that could potentially be mitigated with alternative management. Evidence-based research on prefitting measures of speech in noise to help inform patient-centered clinical decisions is needed.
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Affiliation(s)
- Alyssa Davidson
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
| | - Nicole Marrone
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson
| | - Pamela Souza
- Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
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Lopez-Poveda EA, Eustaquio-Martín A, Victoriano FMS. Binaural pre-processing for contralateral sound field attenuation and improved speech-in-noise recognition. Hear Res 2022; 418:108469. [DOI: 10.1016/j.heares.2022.108469] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Submit a Manuscript] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/13/2021] [Revised: 02/11/2022] [Accepted: 02/16/2022] [Indexed: 11/04/2022]
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Green T, Hilkhuysen G, Huckvale M, Rosen S, Brookes M, Moore A, Naylor P, Lightburn L, Xue W. Speech recognition with a hearing-aid processing scheme combining beamforming with mask-informed speech enhancement. Trends Hear 2022; 26:23312165211068629. [PMID: 34985356 PMCID: PMC8744079 DOI: 10.1177/23312165211068629] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/15/2022] Open
Abstract
A signal processing approach combining beamforming with mask-informed speech enhancement was assessed by measuring sentence recognition in listeners with mild-to-moderate hearing impairment in adverse listening conditions that simulated the output of behind-the-ear hearing aids in a noisy classroom. Two types of beamforming were compared: binaural, with the two microphones of each aid treated as a single array, and bilateral, where independent left and right beamformers were derived. Binaural beamforming produces a narrower beam, maximising improvement in signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), but eliminates the spatial diversity that is preserved in bilateral beamforming. Each beamformer type was optimised for the true target position and implemented with and without additional speech enhancement in which spectral features extracted from the beamformer output were passed to a deep neural network trained to identify time-frequency regions dominated by target speech. Additional conditions comprising binaural beamforming combined with speech enhancement implemented using Wiener filtering or modulation-domain Kalman filtering were tested in normally-hearing (NH) listeners. Both beamformer types gave substantial improvements relative to no processing, with significantly greater benefit for binaural beamforming. Performance with additional mask-informed enhancement was poorer than with beamforming alone, for both beamformer types and both listener groups. In NH listeners the addition of mask-informed enhancement produced significantly poorer performance than both other forms of enhancement, neither of which differed from the beamformer alone. In summary, the additional improvement in SNR provided by binaural beamforming appeared to outweigh loss of spatial information, while speech understanding was not further improved by the mask-informed enhancement method implemented here.
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Affiliation(s)
- Tim Green
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, 4919UCL, London, UK
| | - Gaston Hilkhuysen
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, 4919UCL, London, UK
| | - Mark Huckvale
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, 4919UCL, London, UK
| | - Stuart Rosen
- Department of Speech, Hearing and Phonetic Sciences, 4919UCL, London, UK
| | - Mike Brookes
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 4615Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Alastair Moore
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 4615Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Patrick Naylor
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 4615Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Leo Lightburn
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 4615Imperial College, London, UK
| | - Wei Xue
- Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, 4615Imperial College, London, UK
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7
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Yun D, Jennings TR, Kidd G, Goupell MJ. Benefits of triple acoustic beamforming during speech-on-speech masking and sound localization for bilateral cochlear-implant users. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2021; 149:3052. [PMID: 34241104 PMCID: PMC8102069 DOI: 10.1121/10.0003933] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 04/22/2020] [Revised: 03/03/2021] [Accepted: 03/06/2021] [Indexed: 05/30/2023]
Abstract
Bilateral cochlear-implant (CI) users struggle to understand speech in noisy environments despite receiving some spatial-hearing benefits. One potential solution is to provide acoustic beamforming. A headphone-based experiment was conducted to compare speech understanding under natural CI listening conditions and for two non-adaptive beamformers, one single beam and one binaural, called "triple beam," which provides an improved signal-to-noise ratio (beamforming benefit) and usable spatial cues by reintroducing interaural level differences. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) for speech-on-speech masking were measured with target speech presented in front and two maskers in co-located or narrow/wide separations. Numerosity judgments and sound-localization performance also were measured. Natural spatial cues, single-beam, and triple-beam conditions were compared. For CI listeners, there was a negligible change in SRTs when comparing co-located to separated maskers for natural listening conditions. In contrast, there were 4.9- and 16.9-dB improvements in SRTs for the beamformer and 3.5- and 12.3-dB improvements for triple beam (narrow and wide separations). Similar results were found for normal-hearing listeners presented with vocoded stimuli. Single beam improved speech-on-speech masking performance but yielded poor sound localization. Triple beam improved speech-on-speech masking performance, albeit less than the single beam, and sound localization. Thus, triple beam was the most versatile across multiple spatial-hearing domains.
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Affiliation(s)
- David Yun
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
| | - Todd R Jennings
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Gerald Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Matthew J Goupell
- Department of Hearing and Speech Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland 20742, USA
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8
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Kidd G, Jennings TR, Byrne AJ. Enhancing the perceptual segregation and localization of sound sources with a triple beamformer. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2020; 148:3598. [PMID: 33379918 PMCID: PMC8097713 DOI: 10.1121/10.0002779] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/09/2020] [Revised: 11/04/2020] [Accepted: 11/09/2020] [Indexed: 06/01/2023]
Abstract
A triple beamformer was developed to exploit the capabilities of the binaural auditory system. The goal was to enhance the perceptual segregation of spatially separated sound sources while preserving source localization. The triple beamformer comprised a variant of a standard single-channel beamformer that routes the primary beam output focused on the target source location to both ears. The triple beam algorithm adds two supplementary beams with the left-focused beam routed only to the left ear and the right-focused beam routed only to the right ear. The rationale for the approach is that the triple beam processing exploits sound source segregation in high informational masking (IM) conditions. Furthermore, the exaggerated interaural level differences produced by the triple beam are well-suited for categories of listeners (e.g., bilateral cochlear implant users) who receive limited benefit from interaural time differences. The performance with the triple beamformer was compared to normal binaural hearing (simulated using a Knowles Electronic Manikin for Auditory Research, G.R.A.S. Sound and Vibration, Holte, DK) and to that obtained from a single-channel beamformer. Source localization in azimuth and masked speech identification for multiple masker locations were measured for all three algorithms. Taking both localization and speech intelligibility into account, the triple beam algorithm was considered to be advantageous under high IM listening conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerald Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Todd R Jennings
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Andrew J Byrne
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
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Wang L, Best V, Shinn-Cunningham BG. Benefits of Beamforming With Local Spatial-Cue Preservation for Speech Localization and Segregation. Trends Hear 2020; 24:2331216519896908. [PMID: 31931677 PMCID: PMC6961143 DOI: 10.1177/2331216519896908] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/30/2022] Open
Abstract
A study was conducted to examine the benefits afforded by a
signal-processing strategy that imposes the binaural cues present in a
natural signal, calculated locally in time and frequency, on the
output of a beamforming microphone array. Such a strategy has the
potential to combine the signal-to-noise ratio advantage of
beamforming with the perceptual benefit of spatialization to enhance
performance in multitalker mixtures. Participants with normal hearing
and with hearing loss were tested on both speech localization and
speech-on-speech masking tasks. Performance for the spatialized
beamformer was compared with that for three other conditions: a
reference condition with no processing, a beamformer with no
spatialization, and a hybrid beamformer that operates only in the high
frequencies to preserve natural binaural cues in the low frequencies.
Beamforming with full-bandwidth spatialization supported speech
localization and produced better speech reception thresholds than the
other conditions.
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Affiliation(s)
- Le Wang
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
| | - Virginia Best
- Department of Speech, Language and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, Boston, MA, USA
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10
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Gößling N, Marquardt D, Doclo S. Perceptual Evaluation of Binaural MVDR-Based Algorithms to Preserve the Interaural Coherence of Diffuse Noise Fields. Trends Hear 2020; 24:2331216520919573. [PMID: 32339061 PMCID: PMC7225838 DOI: 10.1177/2331216520919573] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/28/2022] Open
Abstract
Besides improving speech intelligibility in background noise, another important objective of noise reduction algorithms for binaural hearing devices is preserving the spatial impression for the listener. In this study, we evaluate the performance of several recently proposed noise reduction algorithms based on the binaural minimum-variance-distortionless-response (MVDR) beamformer, which trade-off between noise reduction performance and preservation of the interaural coherence (IC) for diffuse noise fields. Aiming at a perceptually optimized result, this trade-off is determined based on the IC discrimination ability of the human auditory system. The algorithms are evaluated with normal-hearing participants for an anechoic scenario and a reverberant cafeteria scenario, in terms of both speech intelligibility using a matrix sentence test and spatial quality using a MUlti Stimulus test with Hidden Reference and Anchor (MUSHRA). The results show that all the binaural noise reduction algorithms are able to improve speech intelligibility compared with the unprocessed microphone signals, where partially preserving the IC of the diffuse noise field leads to a significant improvement in perceived spatial quality compared with the binaural MVDR beamformer while hardly affecting speech intelligibility.
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Affiliation(s)
- Nico Gößling
- Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, University of Oldenburg
| | - Daniel Marquardt
- Starkey Hearing Technologies, Eden Prairie, Minnesota, United States
| | - Simon Doclo
- Department of Medical Physics and Acoustics and Cluster of Excellence Hearing4all, University of Oldenburg
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11
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Villard S, Kidd G. Assessing the benefit of acoustic beamforming for listeners with aphasia using modified psychoacoustic methods. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2020; 148:2894. [PMID: 33261373 PMCID: PMC8097716 DOI: 10.1121/10.0002454] [Citation(s) in RCA: 0] [Impact Index Per Article: 0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 06/02/2020] [Revised: 10/13/2020] [Accepted: 10/14/2020] [Indexed: 06/12/2023]
Abstract
Acoustic beamforming has been shown to improve identification of target speech in noisy listening environments for individuals with sensorineural hearing loss. This study examined whether beamforming would provide a similar benefit for individuals with aphasia (acquired neurological language impairment). The benefit of beamforming was examined for persons with aphasia (PWA) and age- and hearing-matched controls in both a speech masking condition and a speech-shaped, speech-modulated noise masking condition. Performance was measured when natural spatial cues were provided, as well as when the target speech level was enhanced via a single-channel beamformer. Because typical psychoacoustic methods may present substantial experimental confounds for PWA, clinically guided modifications of experimental procedures were determined individually for each PWA participant. Results indicated that the beamformer provided a significant overall benefit to listeners. On an individual level, both PWA and controls who exhibited poorer performance on the speech masking condition with spatial cues benefited from the beamformer, while those who achieved better performance with spatial cues did not. All participants benefited from the beamformer in the noise masking condition. The findings suggest that a spatially tuned hearing aid may be beneficial for older listeners with relatively mild hearing loss who have difficulty taking advantage of spatial cues.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sarah Villard
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
| | - Gerald Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences, Boston University, 635 Commonwealth Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts 02215, USA
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12
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Evaluating the Performance of a Visually Guided Hearing Aid Using a Dynamic Auditory-Visual Word Congruence Task. Ear Hear 2019; 39:756-769. [PMID: 29252977 DOI: 10.1097/aud.0000000000000532] [Citation(s) in RCA: 9] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Indexed: 11/26/2022]
Abstract
OBJECTIVES The "visually guided hearing aid" (VGHA), consisting of a beamforming microphone array steered by eye gaze, is an experimental device being tested for effectiveness in laboratory settings. Previous studies have found that beamforming without visual steering can provide significant benefits (relative to natural binaural listening) for speech identification in spatialized speech or noise maskers when sound sources are fixed in location. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the performance of the VGHA in listening conditions in which target speech could switch locations unpredictably, requiring visual steering of the beamforming. To address this aim, the present study tested an experimental simulation of the VGHA in a newly designed dynamic auditory-visual word congruence task. DESIGN Ten young normal-hearing (NH) and 11 young hearing-impaired (HI) adults participated. On each trial, three simultaneous spoken words were presented from three source positions (-30, 0, and 30 azimuth). An auditory-visual word congruence task was used in which participants indicated whether there was a match between the word printed on a screen at a location corresponding to the target source and the spoken target word presented acoustically from that location. Performance was compared for a natural binaural condition (stimuli presented using impulse responses measured on KEMAR), a simulated VGHA condition (BEAM), and a hybrid condition that combined lowpass-filtered KEMAR and highpass-filtered BEAM information (BEAMAR). In some blocks, the target remained fixed at one location across trials, and in other blocks, the target could transition in location between one trial and the next with a fixed but low probability. RESULTS Large individual variability in performance was observed. There were significant benefits for the hybrid BEAMAR condition relative to the KEMAR condition on average for both NH and HI groups when the targets were fixed. Although not apparent in the averaged data, some individuals showed BEAM benefits relative to KEMAR. Under dynamic conditions, BEAM and BEAMAR performance dropped significantly immediately following a target location transition. However, performance recovered by the second word in the sequence and was sustained until the next transition. CONCLUSIONS When performance was assessed using an auditory-visual word congruence task, the benefits of beamforming reported previously were generally preserved under dynamic conditions in which the target source could move unpredictably from one location to another (i.e., performance recovered rapidly following source transitions) while the observer steered the beamforming via eye gaze, for both young NH and young HI groups.
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13
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Sheffield SW, Romigh GD, Zurek PM, Bernstein JGW, Brungart DS. A method for degrading sound localization while preserving binaural advantages for speech reception in noise. THE JOURNAL OF THE ACOUSTICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA 2019; 145:1129. [PMID: 30823825 DOI: 10.1121/1.5090494] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.2] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/19/2018] [Accepted: 01/25/2019] [Indexed: 06/09/2023]
Abstract
This study developed and tested a real-time processing algorithm designed to degrade sound localization (LocDeg algorithm) without affecting binaural benefits for speech reception in noise. Input signals were divided into eight frequency channels. The odd-numbered channels were mixed between the ears to confuse the direction of interaural cues while preserving interaural cues in the even-numbered channels. The LocDeg algorithm was evaluated for normal-hearing listeners performing sound localization and speech-reception tasks. Results showed that the LocDeg algorithm successfully degraded sound-localization performance without affecting speech-reception performance or spatial release from masking for speech in noise. The LocDeg algorithm did, however, degrade speech-reception performance in a task involving spatially separated talkers in a multi-talker environment, which is thought to depend on differences in perceived spatial location of concurrent talkers. This LocDeg algorithm could be a valuable tool for isolating the importance of sound-localization ability from other binaural benefits in real-world environments.
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Affiliation(s)
- Sterling W Sheffield
- National Military Audiology and Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 4954 North Palmer Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20889, USA
| | - Griffin D Romigh
- United States Air Force Research Laboratory, 5135 Pearson Road, Building 10, Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio 45433, USA
| | - Patrick M Zurek
- Sensimetrics Corporation, 110 Winn Street, Suite 205A, Woburn, Massachusetts 01801, USA
| | - Joshua G W Bernstein
- National Military Audiology and Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 4954 North Palmer Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20889, USA
| | - Douglas S Brungart
- National Military Audiology and Speech Pathology Center, Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, 4954 North Palmer Road, Bethesda, Maryland 20889, USA
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14
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Courtois G, Lissek H, Estoppey P, Oesch Y, Gigandet X. Effects of Binaural Spatialization in Wireless Microphone Systems for Hearing Aids on Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners. Trends Hear 2018; 22:2331216517753548. [PMID: 29457537 PMCID: PMC5821302 DOI: 10.1177/2331216517753548] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 09/12/2017] [Revised: 12/07/2017] [Accepted: 12/12/2017] [Indexed: 11/17/2022] Open
Abstract
Little is known about the perception of artificial spatial hearing by hearing-impaired subjects. The purpose of this study was to investigate how listeners with hearing disorders perceived the effect of a spatialization feature designed for wireless microphone systems. Forty listeners took part in the experiments. They were arranged in four groups: normal-hearing, moderate, severe, and profound hearing loss. Their performance in terms of speech understanding and speaker localization was assessed with diotic and binaural stimuli. The results of the speech intelligibility experiment revealed that the subjects presenting a moderate or severe hearing impairment better understood speech with the spatialization feature. Thus, it was demonstrated that the conventional diotic binaural summation operated by current wireless systems can be transformed to reproduce the spatial cues required to localize the speaker, without any loss of intelligibility. The speaker localization experiment showed that a majority of the hearing-impaired listeners had similar performance with natural and artificial spatial hearing, contrary to the normal-hearing listeners. This suggests that certain subjects with hearing impairment preserve their localization abilities with approximated generic head-related transfer functions in the frontal horizontal plane.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gilles Courtois
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Signal Processing Laboratory, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | - Hervé Lissek
- Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Signal Processing Laboratory, Lausanne, Switzerland
| | | | - Yves Oesch
- Phonak Communications AG, Murten, Switzerland
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15
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Kidd G. Enhancing Auditory Selective Attention Using a Visually Guided Hearing Aid. JOURNAL OF SPEECH, LANGUAGE, AND HEARING RESEARCH : JSLHR 2017; 60:3027-3038. [PMID: 29049603 PMCID: PMC5945072 DOI: 10.1044/2017_jslhr-h-17-0071] [Citation(s) in RCA: 18] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.6] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/22/2017] [Revised: 07/28/2017] [Accepted: 07/31/2017] [Indexed: 05/27/2023]
Abstract
PURPOSE Listeners with hearing loss, as well as many listeners with clinically normal hearing, often experience great difficulty segregating talkers in a multiple-talker sound field and selectively attending to the desired "target" talker while ignoring the speech from unwanted "masker" talkers and other sources of sound. This listening situation forms the classic "cocktail party problem" described by Cherry (1953) that has received a great deal of study over the past few decades. In this article, a new approach to improving sound source segregation and enhancing auditory selective attention is described. The conceptual design, current implementation, and results obtained to date are reviewed and discussed in this article. METHOD This approach, embodied in a prototype "visually guided hearing aid" (VGHA) currently used for research, employs acoustic beamforming steered by eye gaze as a means for improving the ability of listeners to segregate and attend to one sound source in the presence of competing sound sources. RESULTS The results from several studies demonstrate that listeners with normal hearing are able to use an attention-based "spatial filter" operating primarily on binaural cues to selectively attend to one source among competing spatially distributed sources. Furthermore, listeners with sensorineural hearing loss generally are less able to use this spatial filter as effectively as are listeners with normal hearing especially in conditions high in "informational masking." The VGHA enhances auditory spatial attention for speech-on-speech masking and improves signal-to-noise ratio for conditions high in "energetic masking." Visual steering of the beamformer supports the coordinated actions of vision and audition in selective attention and facilitates following sound source transitions in complex listening situations. CONCLUSIONS Both listeners with normal hearing and with sensorineural hearing loss may benefit from the acoustic beamforming implemented by the VGHA, especially for nearby sources in less reverberant sound fields. Moreover, guiding the beam using eye gaze can be an effective means of sound source enhancement for listening conditions where the target source changes frequently over time as often occurs during turn-taking in a conversation. PRESENTATION VIDEO http://cred.pubs.asha.org/article.aspx?articleid=2601621.
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Affiliation(s)
- Gerald Kidd
- Department of Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences and Hearing Research Center, Boston University, MA
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