Conference_programme: 10.1 - Noise and hearing aids: A bidirectional association
Lecture: Reverberation effects on source localization and beamforming for hearing aid applications
Author(s): Giurda Ruksana , Georganti Eleftheria, Dillier Norbert
Summary:
Methods for Auditory Scene Analysis (CASA) aim at reproducing the capabilities of the human auditory system with machines based on sensory inputs. These methods aim at achieving human performance with respect to sound source separation, localization and recognition by using microphone recordings of the acoustic scenes. Within the context of hearing aids, it is evident that information of the auditory scene can improve the parametrization of the algorithms and lead to better performance. Commonly, localization methods rely on the computation of binaural cues such as level and time differences and employ this information to detect the orientation angle of the sound sources with respect to the microphone positions. However, reverberation affects the signals significantly and thus the binaural cues. This study investigates the relationships between direct and reverberant components of the signals with the binaural cues. Moreover, a widely used signal processing algorithm within hearing aids, such as beamforming, will be analyzed. More specifically, the effects of beamforming on the reverberant signals and on the binaural cues will be examined. Finally, aspects related to the influence of the microphone positions (behind-the-ear vs. in-the-ear) on the recordings will be discussed. \n \n
Corresponding author
Name: Dr Eleftheria Georganti
e-mail: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
Country: Switzerland
