An evaluation of wavelet-based noise reduction for digital hearing aids

Author

Whitma, Nathaniel A. ; Rutledge, Janet C. ; Wilber, Laura A.

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng. & Comput. Sci., Northwestern Univ., Evanston, IL, USA

Volume

5

fYear

1997

fDate

1997

Firstpage

1982

Abstract

This paper presents an evaluation of a new wavelet-based speech enhancement algorithm for digital hearing aid applications. Recordings of speech in automobile road noise at signal-to-noise ratios of 5 dB and 10 dB were used to evaluate the new method in trials of the Revised SPIN test with 16 hearing-impaired listeners. Test results indicate that the new method can improve intelligibility for listeners with flat-spectrum hearing losses. These improvements may be attributed to increases in signal-to-noise ratio which serve to reduce upward spread-of-masking

Keywords

FIR filters; digital filters; hearing aids; interference suppression; speech enhancement; speech intelligibility; wavelet transforms; ANOVA analysis; FIR digital filters; Revised SPIN test; automobile road noise background; convolution; digital hearing aids; flat-spectrum hearing losses; minimum description length criterion; signal-to-noise ratio; speech enhancement algorithm; speech intelligibility; speech perception; upward spread-of-masking reduction; wavelet-based noise reduction; Acoustic noise; Auditory system; Deafness; Hearing aids; Noise reduction; Signal to noise ratio; Speech analysis; Speech coding; Speech enhancement; Testing;

fLanguage

English

Publisher

ieee

Conference_Titel

Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 1997. Proceedings of the 19th Annual International Conference of the IEEE

Conference_Location

Chicago, IL

ISSN

1094-687X

Print_ISBN

0-7803-4262-3

Type

conf

DOI

10.1109/IEMBS.1997.758730

Filename

758730