ReBiHear: Restoring Binaural Hearing through Individualized Wireless Sound Coding Strategies for Cochlear Implant Users

ReBiHear：通过个性化无线声音编码策略为人工耳蜗用户恢复双耳听力

• 批准号: 381895691
• 负责人: Professor Dr.-Ing. Waldo Nogueira
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Informationsverarbeitung
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 资助国家: 德国
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/381895691?language=en
• 关键词: ReBiHear; Restoring; Binaural; Hearing; through

A cochlear implant (CI) is a small electronic device that is surgically implanted in the inner ear and can restore the sense of hearing of a profoundly deaf person by electrical stimulation of the auditory nerve. Although nowadays speech intelligibility in quiet environments and even speech over the telephone represents no major problem formost CI users, speech intelligibility in noisy environments is still a major challenge. CI users need significantly higher Signal-to-Noise Ratios (SNRs) to achieve the same speech intelligibility as normal hearing listeners. For this reason, binaural speech enhancementtechniques have emerged to improve the SNR in noisy acoustic conditions by making use of the information captured by the microphones on both the left and the right ear in a combined signal processing. However, the transmission of the audio signals from oneear to the other needs to be done with low latency, low bit rate and very high quality such that the binaural algorithms can improve speech performance in noise. This project builds on the results of previous research on coding of electrical stimulation patterns for binaural signal processing. It will investigate the fundamental mechanisms of binaural fusion to explain the variability in binaural performance of bilateral CI (BiCI) users and proposes a new binaural sound coding strategy (i-BiNoM) with a new source coding algorithm. i-BiNoM will be designed considering individual binaural integration capabilities and will include binaural speech enhancement methods including ideal band selection for low frequencies to improve speech intelligibility in BiCIs. Moreover, this binaural sound coding strategy will interchange information between the two CIs wirelessly which will be coded by means of a hybrid Audio-Electrocodec that will compress both magnitude and phase information captured by the microphones of the CIs. The planned project is a continuation of the collaboration between the Auditory Prosthetic Group of the Department of Otolaryngology that is part of Medical University Hannover (MHH) and the Institut für Informationsverarbeitung (TNT) of Leibniz Universität Hannover. In the course of the project both project partners will make significant progress in their field of research in particular data reduction for audioapplications (TNT) and binaural signal enhancement for CIs (MHH). In addition, this cooperation is a great opportunity to exchange knowledge between an engineering department and a medical school. Doing so, engineering methods and medical expertise can be combined to ensure the success of the project.

人工耳蜗（CI）是一种通过手术植入内耳的小型电子设备，可以通过电刺激听觉神经来恢复深度耳聋患者的听觉。虽然现在的语音清晰度在安静的环境中，甚至在电话中的语音代表大多数CI用户没有大的问题，在嘈杂的环境中的语音清晰度仍然是一个重大的挑战。CI用户需要显著更高的信噪比（SNR）来实现与正常听力收听者相同的语音清晰度。由于这个原因，双耳语音增强技术已经出现，以提高信噪比在嘈杂的声学条件下，通过使用的信息，在一个组合的信号处理的麦克风在左，右耳。然而，音频信号从一只耳朵到另一只耳朵的传输需要以低延迟、低比特率和非常高的质量来完成，使得双耳算法可以改善噪声中的语音性能。该项目建立在以前的研究成果的编码电刺激模式的双耳信号处理。它将研究双耳融合的基本机制，以解释双边CI（BiCI）用户的双耳性能的变化，并提出了一种新的双耳声音编码策略（i-BiNoM）与一种新的信源编码算法。i-BiNoM的设计将考虑到个人的双耳集成能力，并将包括双耳语音增强方法，包括低频的理想频带选择，以提高BiCI中的语音清晰度。此外，该双耳声音编码策略将在两个CI之间无线地交换信息，该信息将借助于混合音频-电子编解码器来编码，该混合音频-电子编解码器将压缩由CI的麦克风捕获的幅度和相位信息。计划中的项目是汉诺威医科大学（MHH）耳鼻喉科听觉假体组与汉诺威莱布尼茨大学信息研究所（TNT）之间合作的延续。在该项目的过程中，两个项目合作伙伴将在各自的研究领域取得重大进展，特别是音频应用的数据减少（TNT）和CI的双耳信号增强（MHH）。此外，这种合作是一个很好的机会，一个工程部门和医学院之间的知识交流。这样，工程方法和医学专业知识可以结合起来，以确保项目的成功。