Intelligibility of frequency-lowered speech produced by a channel vocoder

Frequency lowering is a form of signal processing designed to match speech to the residual auditory capacity of a listener with a high frequency hearing loss. A vocoder-based frequency-lowering system similar to one studied by Lippmann was evaluated in the present study. In this system, speech levels in high frequency bands modulated one-third-octave bands of noise at low frequencies, which were then added to unprocessed speech. Results obtained with this system indicated, in agreement with Lippmann, that processing improved the recognition of stop, fricative, and affricate consonants when the listening bandwidth was restricted to 800 Hz. However, results also showed that processing degraded the perception of nasals and semivowels, consonants not included in Lippmann's study. Based on these results, the frequency-lowering system was modified so as to suppress the processing whenever low frequency components dominated the input signal. High and low frequency energies of an input signal were measured continuously in the modified system, and the decision to process or to leave the signal unaltered was based on their relative levels. Results indicated that the modified system maintained the processing advantage for stops, fricatives, and affricates without degrading the perception of nasals and semi-vowels. The results of the present study also indicated that training is an important consideration when evaluating frequency-lowering systems.