Browse > Article
http://dx.doi.org/10.9718/JBER.2007.28.6.732

The Effect of the Speech Enhancement Algorithm for Sensorineural Hearing Impaired Listeners  

Kim, Dong-Wook (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University)
Lee, Young-Woo (Digital Media R&D Center, SAMSUNG ELECTRONICS, CO., LTD.)
Lee, Jong-Shill (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University)
Chee, Young-Joon (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University)
Lee, Sang-Min (School of Electrical Engineering, Inha University)
Kim, In-Young (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University)
Kim, Sun-I. (Department of Biomedical Engineering, Hanyang University)
Publication Information
Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research / v.28, no.6, 2007 , pp. 732-743 More about this Journal
Abstract
Background noise is one of the major complaints of not only hearing impaired persons but also normal listeners. This paper describes the results of two experiments in which speech recognition performance was determined for listeners with normal hearing and sensorineural hearing loss in noise environment. First, we compared speech enhancement algorithms by evaluation speech recognition ability in various speech-to-noise ratios and types of noise. Next, speech enhancement algorithms by reducing background noise were presented and evaluated to improve speech intelligibility for sensorineural hearing impairment listeners. We tested three noise reduction methods using single-microphone, such as spectrum subtraction and companding, Wiener filter method, and maximum likelihood envelop estimation. Their responses in background noise were investigated and compared with those by the speech enhancement algorithm that presented in this paper. The methods improved speech recognition test score for the sensorineural hearing impaired listeners, but not for normal listeners. The results suggest the speech enhancement algorithm with the loudness compression can improve speech intelligibility for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss.
Keywords
speech enhancement; noise reduction; digital hearing aid; spectral subtraction; companding;
Citations & Related Records
Times Cited By KSCI : 1  (Citation Analysis)
연도 인용수 순위
1 Hohmann, V., andKollmeier, B., 'The effect of multichannel dynamic compression on speech intelligibility,' J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol. 97, pp. 1191-1195, 1995   DOI   ScienceOn
2 Dillon, Harvey, 'Tutorial; Compression? Yes, But for low or high frequencies, for low or high intensities, and with what response times?,' Ear & Hearing, vol. 17, no. 4, pp. 287-307, 1996   DOI
3 Stahl, V., Fischer, A., Bippus, R., 'Quantile based noise estimation for spectral subtraction and Wiener filtering,' in Proc. 25th IEEE Internat. Conf. Acoust. Speech Signal Process., ICASSP2000, Istanbul, Turkey, 2000, pp. 18751878
4 Turricchia, L., Sarpeshkar, R., 'A Bio-Inspired Companding Strategy for Spectral Enhancement,' IEEE Transactions on Speech and Audio Processing, vol. 13, no. 2, pp. 243253, 2005   DOI   ScienceOn
5 Martin, R., 'Spectral subtraction based on minimum statistics,' in Proc. 7th European Signal Processing Conf., EUSIPCO94, Edinburgh, Scotland, 1994, pp. 11821185
6 Cohen, I., Berdugo, B., 'Speech enhancement for non-stationary noise environment,' Signal Processing: the official publication of the European Association for Signal Processing (EURASIP), vol. 81, no. 11, pp. 24032418, 2001
7 Zwicker, E. and Fastl, H., Psychoacoustics, Berlin, Springer-Verlag, 1990, pp. 133-147
8 Heinz, M. G., Young, E. D., 'Response growth with sound level in auditory-nerve fibers after noise-induced hearing loss,' J. Neurophysiol., vol. 91, pp.784-795, 2004   DOI
9 Moore, B. C. J., Glasberg, B. R., Hess, R. F., Birchall, J. P., 'Effects of flanking noise bands on the rate of growth of loudness of tones in normal and recruiting ears,' J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol.77, pp.1505-1513, 1985   DOI
10 Dirks, D., Morgan, D., Dubno, J., 'A procedure for quantifying for effects of noise on speech recognition,' J. Speech Hearing Disorder, vol.47, pp.114-123, 1982   DOI
11 Moore, B. C. J., 'Testing the concept of softness imperception: loudness near threshold for hearing-impaired ears,' J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol.115, pp.3103-3111, 2004   DOI   ScienceOn
12 Killion, M. C. and Fikret-Pasa, S., 'The three types of sensorineural hearing loss: Loudness and intelligibility considerations,' Hear. J., vol. 46, no. 11, pp. 31-36, 1993
13 Doblinger, G., 'Computationally efficient speech enhancement by spectral minima tracking in subbands,' in Proc. 4th European Conf. Speech, Communication and Technology, EUROSPEECH' 95, Madrid, Spain, 1995, pp. 15131516
14 Cohen, I., Berdugo, B., 'Noise estimation by Minima Controlled Recursive Averaging for Robust Speech Enhancement,' IEEE Signal Processing Letter, vol. 9, no. 1, pp. 1215, 2002
15 S.M. Lee, S.W. Kim, S.Y. Kwon, Y.C. Park, I.Y. Kim, S.I. Kim, 'Development of adaptive feedback cancellation algorithm for multi-channel digital hearing aids,' J. Biomedical Engineering Research, vol. 25, no. 4, pp. 315-321, 2004
16 Hume, L. E., 'Understanding the speech-understanding problems of the hearing Impaired,' Am. Acad. Audiol., vol.2, pp.59-69, 1991
17 Zwicker, E., Flottorp, G., Stevens, S. S., 'Critical bandwidth in loudness summation,' J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol. 29, pp.548-557, 1957   DOI
18 Heinz, M. G., Kim, D. W., Sachs, M. B., Young, E. D., 'A baseline Characterization of Activity Growth in Auditory-Nerve Fibers of Normal-Hearing Cats,' the 25th Annual Midwinter Research Meeting, Association For Research in Otolaryngology, Florida, USA, vol. 25, January 27-31, 2002
19 Brronkhost, A. Q., Plomp, R., 'A clinical test for the assessment of binaural speech perception in noise,' J. Audiology, vol.29, pp275-285, 1990   DOI
20 Klein, A. J., Mills, J. H., Adkins, W. Y., 'Upward spread of masking, hearing, and speech recognition in young and elderly listeners,' J. Acoustic. Soc. Am., vol.87, pp.1266-1271, 1990   DOI