Cochlear signal processing

Summary form only given. Models of the cochlea are becoming useful in answering important engineering questions about the perception of auditory signals. In the past, psychophysics has played the role of providing answers to these questions, but today, for many problems, the best summary of our understanding of the hearing process is in terms of physical models. These questions arise when designing speech coders and `front ends´ for speech recognition systems. The cochlea may be viewed as a nonlinear bank of filters that dynamically compress the input signal in frequency bands. Understanding the dynamics of this compression system is key to the understanding of temporal masking effects, and loudness, which are important problems at the forefront of present day hearing research. This talk reviews the physical operation of the cochlea, describes how masking comes abut, and discusses how the cochlea fails when one becomes hearing impaired