Perception of frequency-dependent processing delays motivated by hearing devices

Area of Science:

• Acoustics and Psychoacoustics
• Signal Processing
• Auditory Perception

Background:

• Processing delays in audio signals, particularly in hearing devices, can degrade the listening experience by interfering with direct sound.
• The perception of these delays is frequency-dependent and related to the phase shifts introduced by signal processing.

Purpose of the Study:

• To measure psychometric functions for delay perception across different frequency bands.
• To assess how delay noticeability accumulates across frequency bands for frequency-dependent processing delays.
• To evaluate the predictive performance of auditory models for delay perception.

Main Methods:

• Measurement of psychometric functions for delay perception in individual frequency bands.
• Assessment of delay noticeability accumulation across frequency bands.
• Comparison of auditory models, including GPSMq, against experimental results.

Main Results:

• Delay noticeability is strongly dependent on the phase shift within each frequency band, peaking at (2n+1)π.
• The overall noticeability of frequency-dependent delays (dtotal') is the root mean square (RMS) of individual band noticeabilities (dn').
• The GPSMq audio quality model demonstrated high accuracy (ρ>0.85) in predicting experimental results across most conditions.

Conclusions:

• Auditory perception of processing delays is primarily influenced by spectral effects.
• The GPSMq model effectively predicts the noticeability of frequency-dependent delays.
• Understanding phase shift effects is crucial for mitigating negative impacts of processing delays in audio devices.