Aids for the Deaf: Models of Speech Intelligibility

描述(由申请人提供)：这项研究旨在通过语言清晰度模型的研究计划来改善助听器和人工耳蜗用户的语音接收。我们的目标是开发和实验评估一种稳健的物理指标，该指标可以为听力受损(HI)的听者和人工耳蜗(CI)使用者预测语音信号的各种变化的可理解性分数。该度量将是基于语音的语音传输指数(SSTI)的改编，SSTI直接从语音信号和单个收听者的特征计算新的度量，并处理传统STI方法无法充分建模的广泛类别的非线性失真。我们有四个目标。第一个目标是测量三类听者的语音接收：HI听者、CI用户和听力正常的受试者，通过对4种类型的语音变化(噪声和混响引起的声学退化、带通滤波、幅度压缩和降噪算法)的人工耳蜗声音处理的通道声码器模拟来测量。第二个目标是描述个体的高音听者和中介语使用者相关的基本心理声学能力(在基本灵敏度、动态范围、频谱分辨率和时间分辨率方面)，以及他们整合不同过滤语音频带的线索的能力。第三个目标是开发基于SSTI的语言清晰度度量，并将其应用于用于测试HI和CL听者的刺激。这些指标将纳入个别听者的特征，既有心理声学能力，也有跨频率整合线索的能力。第四个目标是通过将对各种听者和语音处理条件的度量预测与我们获得的关于语音接收度量的经验数据进行比较来评估这些度量。在本项目结束时，我们将有一个既适用于HI听众又适用于CI用户(进而也适用于正常听力听众)的单一指标。该度量将预测噪声、混响、滤波、幅度压缩和降噪算法对语音清晰度的影响，并将在研究和临床设置中有许多应用。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This research is directed toward improved speech reception for users of hearing aids and cochlear implants through a program of research on models of speech intelligibility. The goal is to develop and experimentally evaluate a robust physical metric that predicts intelligibility scores for a variety of alterations of the speech signal for both hearing-impaired (HI) listeners and Cochlear Implant (Cl) users. This metric will be an adaptation of the speech-based Speech Transmission Index (sSTI) that computes a novel metric from the speech signals directly and the characteristics of individual listeners, and deals with a wide class of nonlinear distortions that are not adequately modeled by traditional STI methods. We have 4 aims. The first aim is to measure speech reception in 3 classes of listeners: HI listeners, Cl users, and normal-hearing subjects listening through a channel-vocoder simulation of cochlear-implant sound processing for 4 types of alterations of speech (acoustic degradations arising from noise and reverberation, band-pass filtering, amplitude compression, and noise-reduction algorithms). The second aim is to characterize the relevant basic psychoacoustic abilities of individual HI listeners and Cl users (in terms of basic sensitivity, dynamic range, spectral resolution, and temporal resolution) and their ability to integrate cues across different filtered bands of speech. The third aim is to develop sSTI-based metrics of speech intelligibility and apply them to the stimuli used to test HI and Cl listeners. The metrics will incorporate the individual listener characteristics, both psychoacoustic abilities and facility at integrating cues across frequency. The fourth aim is to evaluate these metrics by comparing metric predictions for a variety of listeners and speech processing conditions to the empirical data we have obtained on measures of speech reception. At the end of this project, we will have a single metric that is applicable to both HI listeners and Cl users (and by extension to normal-hearing listeners as well). This metric will predict the effects of noise, reverberation, filtering, amplitude compression, and noise reduction algorithms on speech intelligibility and will have a number of applications in research and clinical settings.