IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, ICA 2004, Kyoto, April 4-9, 2004 / Session: HRS43 Paper No (Tu.5.X2.5) Evaluation of Speech Processing Schemes Using Binaural Dichotic Presentation to Reduce the Effect of Masking in Hearing-Impaired Listeners By A.N. Cheeran P.C. Pandey IIT Bombay, India

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Outline of the presentation ● Introduction ● Processing schemes ● Evaluation ● Test results ● Conclusion

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (1/9) Outer ear Inner ear Middle ear External canal Pinna Nasal cavity Cochlea Cochlear nerve Vestibular nerve Oval window Round window Eustachian tube Eardrum (Tympanic membrane) Vestibular apparatus with semicircular canals Malleus Incus Stapes Hearing impairments Conductive Sensorineural Central Functional Peripheral auditory system

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (2/9) Causes of Sensorineural Loss Damage to hair cells in the cochlea Degeneration of auditory nerve fibers Sensorineural Loss Characteristics Increased hearing thresholds Reduced dynamic range, loudness recruitment Poor freq. selectivity, increased spectral masking Poor time resolution, increased temporal masking

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (3/9) Effects of Increased Spectral Masking Broader auditory filters  Smearing of spectral peaks & valleys  Reduction in internal spectral contrast.  Reduced discrimination of consonantal place feature. Effects of Increased Temporal Masking Forward & backward masking of weak segments by strong ones.  Reduced ability to discriminate sub-phonemic segments like noise bursts, voice-onset time, formant transitions.  Reduced discrimination of duration & other consonantal features.

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (4/9) Dichotic Presentation for Bilateral Residual Hearing  Masking at the peripheral level.  Information integration from the two ears at higher levels.  Binaural dichotic presentation for bilateral residual hearing: speech signal split into a complementary form.  Signal components likely to mask each other presented to different ears.  Improved speech recognition due to reduction in the effects of masking.

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (5/9) Binaural Presentation Schemes Spectral Splitting Filtering by two complementary comb filters:  Sensory cells corresponding to alternate filter bands on the basilar membrane not stimulated.  Reduction in spectral masking.  Better consonantal place reception. Temporal Splitting Gating by two complementary fading functions:  Cyclic stimulation and relaxation of all the sensory cells  Reduction in temporal masking  Better duration and place reception

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (6/9) Binaural Presentation Schemes (contd.) Combined Splitting Processing by two time-varying complementary comb filters  Sensory cells in alternate bands in a given ear stimulated at a time. All the sensory cells on the basilar membrane get periodic relaxation from stimulation.  Reduction in spectral and temporal masking  Better reception of consonantal duration, place, and other features.  Better overall speech recognition & reduction in load on perception process

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (7/9) Earlier Work Lunner et al. [Linkoping, 1993]. Comb filters using filter bank with constant BW (700 Hz) filters & band gain adjustment : Improvement of 2 dB in SNR. Combined splitting by symmetrical switching (at 50 Hz) of comb filter bands: No further improvement. Poor sound quality due to switching. Chaudhari & Pandey [IIT Bombay, 1998]. Comb filters with auditory critical bands and sharp transitions. Improvement in reception of primarily the consonantal place feature. Reduction in response time. Individually adjustable frequency response  further improvement, but not distinctly for place.

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (8/9) Earlier Work (contd.) Jangamashetti & Pandey [IIT Bombay, 2003]  Temporal splitting using symmetrical inter-aural switching of 20 ms along with overlap and various fading functions. Improvement mainly in the reception of the duration feature Jangamashetti, Cheeran & Pandey [IIT Bombay, 2003]  Combined splitting using time-varying comb filters with constant sweep cycle of 20 ms and with 2, 4, 8, & 16 shiftings Improvement in reception of both duration & place features

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Introduction (9/9) Objective of the present study Implementation of binaural dichotic presentation schemes & evaluation through listening tests  Spectral splitting with perceptually balanced comb filters  Temporal splitting with trapezoidal fading functions of inter- aural switching periods of 20, 40, 80 ms  Combined splitting with cyclically swept comb filters with sweep cycle of 20, 40, 80 ms and 4, 8, and 16 shiftings

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Parameters: Transition width: 78 Hz – 117 Hz, Inter-band crossover gains: -4 to -6 dB, Pass band ripple < 1 dB. Processing schemes (1/3) Spectral Splitting with Perceptually Balanced Comb Filters

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Processing schemes (2/3) Temporal Splitting with Trapezoidal Fading Parameters: Inter-aural switching period ( N ) : 20, 40, 80 ms Duty cycle ( L ) : 70 % of N, Transition duration ( M ) : 3 ms

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Processing schemes (3/3) Combined Splitting with Time-varying Comb Filters Parameters: Sweep cycle duration : 20, 40, 80, 120, 160 ms No of shiftings ( m ) : 4, 8, 16

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Evaluation Listening Tests for Evaluation Type of evaluation : Open-set Test material : Phonetically balanced set of monosyllables (used at AYJNIHH, Mumbai) in the first language of the subjects. Subjects & listening condition: Seven normal hearing S’s with loss simulated by adding Gaussian noise with short-time SNRs of , 3, 0, -3, -6, -9 dB. MCL (70-75 dB SPL). Performance measurement: Response time (indication of load on perceptual processing) Recognition scores

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Results (1/4) Listening test results Averaged scores for normal hearing S’s (7) with simulated loss

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Results (2/4) Averaged Recogn. Scores vs SNR

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Processing schemeRel. imp. in rec. score (%) -9 dB SNR -6 dB SNR -3 dB SNR SS TS-20 TS-40 TS-80 CS-20/4 CS-20/8 CS-20/16 CS-40/ Unprocessed (% rec. score) = 23.9 at –9dB, 39.9 dB at –6 dB & 66.3 at –3 dB Results (3/4) Relative improvements in recogn. scores

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Processing schemeRel. imp. in rec. score (%) -9 dB SNR -6 dB SNR -3 dB SNR CS-40/8 CS-40/16 CS-80/4 CS-80/8 CS-80/16 CS-120/8 CS-120/16 CS-160/8 CS-160/ Unprocessed (% rec. score) = 23.9 at –9dB, 39.9 dB at –6 dB & 66.3 at –3 dB Results (4/4) Relative improvements in recogn. Scores (contd.)

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Conclusion (1/2 ) Summary of results Spectral splitting showed highest relative improvement at all SNR condition For 60 % recognition score spectral splitting gave an improvement of  5 dB SNR Combined splitting at sweep cycle 80 ms with 8 and 16 shiftings showed improvements close to spectral splitting Results similar for 8 and 16 shiftings Temporal splitting was best with inter-aural switching of 20 ms Inter-aural switching of 80 ms showed degradation

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9, Conclusion (2/2) Further work  Evaluation by conducting listening tests on moderate bilateral sensorineural hearing-impaired persons.  Combining audiogram dependant filtering and multi-band compression with dichotic presentation.  Implementation of dichotic presentation schemes in wearable hearing aids, with personalized parameter setting.

IIT Bombay {pcpandey,   Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion Intro. Proc. Schemes Evaluation Results Conclusion ICA 2004, Kyoto, Japan, April 4 - 9,