MULTIMICROPHONE MONAURAL AIDS FOR THE HEARING IMPAIRED

本研究的最终目标是开发感官 在多个点对声学环境进行采样的辅助工具 （多麦克风辅助设备），以帮助听力受损的人 在复杂的环境中更有效地发挥作用， 干扰和混响。 更直接的目标是 创建增强单声道语音的多麦克风系统 在这样的环境下接受。 这项研究，结合 研究双耳互动在受损的听众，将 为多麦克风的发展提供了坚实的背景 助听器，以帮助听力受损的听众， 一只或两只耳朵。 为了增强单声道语音接收，我们设想一个麦克风 一个数组，它将传入的信号分解为 定向信道，随后是定向编码操作 它将这些信号转换成这样一种方式， 在信号被求和之后， 介绍给一只耳朵。 关于麦克风阵列的拟议工作重点是创建 单方向信道和减少干扰 与目标源方向不同的源。 的 研究减少干扰方案主要参考 以前的工作天线理论和双耳听力，包括 固定的和自适应的，线性的和非线性的信号， 处理算法 根据已经取得的积极成果， 在本计划中，这些方案的一个子集将在 用于现场测试的可穿戴设备。 建议的工作方向编码包括研究的编码 差分滤波的有效性，声音的变化 质量，并通过信号推断这些变化 处理. 此外，为了用作比较参考， 双耳偏侧变化的有效性（自然偏侧） 编码方法）将被检查。 我们关于减少干扰的许多结果将是 适用于耳蜗植入辅助器和感觉替代辅助器 以及常规的声学辅助。

The ultimate goal of this research is the development of sensory aids that sample the acoustic environment at more than one point in space (multimicrophone aids) to help hearing-impaired subjects function more effectively in complex environments containing interference and reverberation. The more immediate goal is the creation of multimicrophone systems that enhance monaural speech reception in such environments. This research, combined with research on binaural interaction in impaired listeners, will provide solid background for the development of multimicrophone aids to assist impaired listeners who have significant hearing in either one or two ears. To enhance monaural speech reception, we envision a microphone array that resolves the incoming signals into simultaneous directional channels, followed by a directional coding operation that transforms these signals in such a way that resolution is preserved at the perceptual level after the signals are summed for presentation to a single ear. Proposed work on the microphone array focuses on the creation of a single directional channel and reduction of interference from sources directionally distinct from the target source. The interference reduction schemes to be studied draw heavily from previous work on antenna theory and binaural hearing and include both fixed and adaptive, and linear and nonlinear, signal- processing algorithms. Based on positive results already obtained in this program, a subset of these schemes will be implemented in wearable devices for field testing. Proposed work on directional coding includes study of the coding effectiveness of differential filtering, variations in voice quality, and extrapolations of these variations by signal processing. Also, for use as a comparative reference, the coding effectiveness of variations in binaural lateralization (the natural coding method) will be examined. Many of our results on the reduction of interference will be applicable to cochlear-implant aids and sensory-substitution aids as well as conventional acoustic aids.