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Predicting the perceived sound quality of frequency-compressed speech
Rainer Huber1, Vijay Parsa2, Susan Scollie2
1Centre of Competence HörTech gGmbH, Oldenburg, Germany; Cluster of Excellence Hearing4All, Oldenburg and Hannover, Germany.
Plos One
|November 18, 2014
Summary
Objective speech quality measures accurately predict perceived sound quality for frequency-compressed hearing aid speech. Models incorporating hearing loss show improved accuracy for hearing-impaired listeners.
Area of Science:
- Audiology
- Speech Processing
- Acoustics
Background:
- Hearing aids use frequency compression to improve audibility for severe high-frequency hearing loss.
- Objective speech quality measures are needed to assess the effectiveness of these processing techniques.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate objective speech and audio quality measures for predicting perceived quality of frequency-compressed speech.
- To assess the performance of these measures with both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.
Main Methods:
- Applied existing objective quality measures to hearing aid-processed speech signals.
- Compared objective measures with subjective quality ratings from a previous study.
- Implemented hearing loss-specific model extensions for improved prediction accuracy.
Main Results:
- High correlations were found between subjective ratings and objective measures from models based on Dau et al.'s auditory model (PSM in PEMO-Q, qc, HASQI linear subcomponent).
- Extensions incorporating hearing loss significantly improved prediction accuracy for hearing-impaired listeners.
- Objective measures show potential for aiding the initial setup of frequency compression parameters.
Conclusions:
- Objective speech quality measures, particularly those based on auditory models, can effectively predict perceived speech quality in hearing aids.
- Incorporating hearing loss into objective models enhances prediction accuracy for hearing-impaired users.
- These objective tools can assist in optimizing hearing aid frequency compression settings.
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