Acoustic and perceptual effects of WDRC amplification

WDRC 放大的声学和感知效果

• 批准号: 7099853
• 负责人: PAMELA E. SOUZA
• 金额: $ 2.62万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2005
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2005-03-01 至 2010-02-28
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7099853
• 关键词: Acoustic; perceptual; effects; WDRC; amplification

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The overall focus of this research program is to describe the effects of multichannel wide-dynamic range compression (WDRC) amplification on speech intelligibility. Hearing aids (and by extension, hearing rehabilitation programs) are now based on this technology, which is expected to improve speech intelligibility over conventional amplification strategies. At present it is unclear whether the inconsistent benefit from multichannel WDRC seen in previous studies was due to a failure of the hearing aid to preserve and transmit acoustic information, or to the listener's inability to process transmitted information. We hypothesize that changes in signal audibility and/or temporal cues can be described by measuring speech characteristics at the output of the amplification system and will partially account for differences in intelligibility across subjects. Few attempts have been made to understand the effects of hearing aids by actually measuring the acoustic characteristics of speech as transmitted to the listener (i.e., at the output of the hearing aid). Using recorded natural speech tokens measured at the output of the amplification system, we propose to identify specific acoustic cues (e.g., rise time, spectral peak) that are enhanced or disrupted by multichannel WDRC. Additionally, we intend to measure the extent to which these cues are altered by variations in compression parameters (release time, number of channels). We will relate changes in the acoustic signal to intelligibility. Finally, we will determine if the consequences of WDRC for speech intelligibility differ as a function of age and whether age-related performance differences, if they exist, are linked to the alteration of the temporal characteristics of the signal.

描述（由申请人提供）：本研究计划的总体重点是描述多通道宽动态范围压缩（WDRC）放大对语音清晰度的影响。助听器（以及扩展的听力康复计划）现在基于这项技术，预计将改善传统放大策略的语音清晰度。目前还不清楚在以前的研究中看到的多通道WDRC的不一致的好处是由于助听器未能保存和传输声学信息，还是由于听者无法处理传输的信息。我们假设信号可听度和/或时间线索的变化可以通过测量放大系统输出处的语音特性来描述，并且将部分地解释受试者之间的可懂度差异。通过实际测量传输给收听者的语音的声学特性（即，在助听器的输出处）。使用在放大系统的输出处测量的记录的自然语音标记，我们提出识别特定的声学线索（例如，上升时间、频谱峰值）。此外，我们打算测量这些线索因压缩参数（释放时间、通道数量）的变化而改变的程度。我们将把声音信号的变化与可懂度联系起来。最后，我们将确定WDRC的语音清晰度的后果是否不同的年龄的函数，以及是否与年龄相关的性能差异，如果它们存在，与信号的时间特性的改变。