Speech Intelligibility Considerations in Specifying Characteristics of a Programmable Hearing Aid

With the use of sophisticated speech processing techniques in auditory prosthetic devices, it will be possible to convert the speech signal to maximal satisfaction for the user. However, the user's satisfaction is a multidimensional percept that may include speech naturalness, intelligibility, pleasantness, etc. This paper discusses the place of speech intelligibility considerations in the ensemble of criteria that could be associated with these perceptual attributes. It also discusses some of the problems that may be responsible for the relative inadequacy of the available speech intelligibility prediction procedures for use in digital hearing aids.