Investigation of the envelope and phase information for improved speech perception using an acoustic simulation model for Cochlear Implants
01 Dec 2012-pp 555-558
TL;DR: A new acoustic simulation model for CI is discussed, that extracts the `envelope' by continuous-interleaved sampling (CIS) principle and `temporal fine structure' cue (phase information) by Hilbert algorithm and produces improvement in the vowels and consonants identification significantly.
Abstract: Cochlear Implants (CI) are surgically implanted biomedical devices that can provide hearing to severely deaf people by direct stimulation of the auditory nerve, electrically Current CI speech processors do not convey phase information, which is important for perceiving music and for hearing in noisy environments This paper discusses a new acoustic simulation model for CI, that extracts the ‘envelope’ by continuous-interleaved sampling (CIS) principle and ‘temporal fine structure’ cue (phase information) by Hilbert algorithm The dominant channels are identified from the filter bank outputs and subjected to temporal analysis The amplitude estimates are derived through rectification and low-pass filtering By Hilbert transform, the temporal fine structure is extracted through formant peaks in the signal which contributes for speech intelligibility After band pass filtering the speech signal, carrier signals that are specific to the band output, are constructed by placing square pulses in the extracted fine structure which has greater energy level The envelopes are subjected to amplitude-modulation using the carrier signal and the synthesized speech is generated 15 phonemes are analyzed for its envelope and phase information and the simulation results indicated that this model produced improvement in the vowels and consonants identification significantly The proposed model should be helpful for developing advanced speech processing strategies and improving the speech perception of CI users
Citations
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01 Jan 2016
TL;DR: The main desired advantages of the novel auralization method are more accurate approximation of the perceived sound, possibility to differentiate between the hearing experience of experienced patients and newly implanted patients, and significant time reducing of research and development for new/improved stimulation strategies.
Abstract: Cochlear implants are the most successful and widespread bionic prosthetics to restore hearing of deaf people by electrically stimulation of intra-cochlear nerve tissues. Several stimulation strategies were developed to convert sound in electric stimuli aiming to give better hearing quality. To help the development of new stimulation strategies, hearing simulations (auralization methods) were developed to synthesize perceived sound from electric stimuli. Existing auralization approaches are based on the observations that the stimulation place and rate of the cochlear nerve tissues generate perceived sounds of different frequencies and amplitudes. Although, auralization results can give some insight on the hearing quality, they completely ignore the adaptation capability of the auditory cortex and therefore it can represent only the perceived hearing of newly implanted patients. This paper presents fundaments of natural hearing and artificial hearing through cochlear implant, analyzes two main auralization methods, and finally proposes a novel auralization method. In the proposed method, the neural nerve firing pattern evoked by electric stimulation is fed to an artificial neural network trained to output the frequency domain representation of the original sound given by the electric stimuli. Then, the obtained frequency domain representation is transformed back to time domain. The main desired advantages of the novel auralization method are: (i) more accurate approximation of the perceived sound, (ii) possibility to differentiate between the hearing experience of experienced patients and newly implanted patients, and (iii) significant time reducing of research and development for new/improved stimulation strategies.
4 citations
Cites background or methods from "Investigation of the envelope and p..."
...Two main information coding mechanisms were found in the normal hearing: i) place coding (spatial cues), and ii) rate coding (temporal cues) [10], [5]....
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...The synthetized sounds present distortions and artifacts caused by the reduced number of implant stimulation electrodes which implies the transition of only a few spectral components [12], [11], [10]....
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...Each carrier signal is modulated with the corresponding channel envelope and then summed up all together to form the output sound of the auralization model [12], [10]....
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...Based on the clinical experiments, simulation software were developed to synthetize sounds as they are perceived by cochlear implant users, making possible assess expected hearing quality by technicians and fitting specialists [10], [11],...
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Journal Article•
TL;DR: This project aims to develop a non-invasive bone conduction device for those with problems in their various parts of ear that will help the people to communicate effectively both in direct conversation and mobile communication.
Abstract: Human ear is an organ of hearing in which the environmental sound is channeled to auditory meatus. Any obstruction in this mechanism results in hearing impairments. This may occur at birth or by the dysfunction of auditory nerve which cannot be improved surgically. This project aims to develop a non-invasive bone conduction device for those with problems in their various parts of ear. It transfers sound at the frequency of 20HZ-20kHZ by bone vibration directly to the cochlea thus bypassing the outer or middle ear and used for some hearing losses. The “SoundBite Hearing System” is developed for people with hearing disabilities like unilateral deafness and CHL. A simulation of hearing sound has been done through the LabVIEW. Bone conduction included provide a hearing support to the patient. In addition the system has a facility for mobile communication which is focused on coherent hearing. Here the signal processing strategy is adopted for restoration of cross-channel suppression in hearing impaired listeners. The input voice from the microphone is given simultaneously to the speaker and motor. Thereupon the sound travel to input mic tool which pick up the sound, converge the waves and convert them to useful data. This data is used in a wave form generator to plot the graph with respect to amplitude and time with a frequency of 1kHZ. This project concentrates on various emotions like anger, joy etc. This device is sure to help the people to communicate effectively both in direct conversation and mobile communication. Keywords-: Bone-Conduction, SoundBite , LabVIEW , prosthetic device.
2 citations
11 Apr 2023
TL;DR: In this article , the authors proposed a system that uses a camera, a piezoelectric transducer, an ultrasonic sensor, a Raspberry Pi, and other components to detect incoming automobiles and provide vibrational alerts to the user.
Abstract: Hearing impairment is an issue faced by a loT of young and old people alike in different parts of the globe. The work intends to look into the design and construction of an IoT device that can help people with hearing impairments identify vehicles while they are walking on the road. The system would use a camera, a piezoelectric transducer, an ultrasonic sensor, a Raspberry Pi, and other components to detect incoming automobiles and provide vibrational alerts to the user. The scope of this study involves developing a prototype, designing the device, testing it, determining how effective it is, and making adjustments in response to the findings. The tool has a great deal of promise to increase the independence and security of people with hearing loss while they are strolling on the street. The device could help lower the risk of accidents and injuries by vibrating to alert users, as well as increase hearing-impaired people's mobility and confidence. By encouraging greater accessibility and inclusivity for those with hearing loss, the device may also have good socioeconomic effects by raising their employability and lightening the load on family carers and medical staff. The proposed work has the capacity to considerably improve the standard of living for those who are hard of hearing and to encourage greater inclusion in society.
References
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01 Sep 1993
TL;DR: A tutorial on signal processing in state-of-the-art speech recognition systems is presented, reviewing those techniques most commonly used, and three important trends that have developed in the last five years in speech recognition are examined.
Abstract: A tutorial on signal processing in state-of-the-art speech recognition systems is presented, reviewing those techniques most commonly used. The four basic operations of signal modeling, i.e. spectral shaping, spectral analysis, parametric transformation, and statistical modeling, are discussed. Three important trends that have developed in the last five years in speech recognition are examined. First, heterogeneous parameter sets that mix absolute spectral information with dynamic, or time-derivative, spectral information, have become common. Second, similarity transform techniques, often used to normalize and decorrelate parameters in some computationally inexpensive way, have become popular. Third, the signal parameter estimation problem has merged with the speech recognition process so that more sophisticated statistical models of the signal's spectrum can be estimated in a closed-loop manner. The signal processing components of these algorithms are reviewed. >
792 citations
TL;DR: The greatest benefits with cochlear implantation have occurred in patients who (1) acquired speech and language before their hearing loss, and (2) have shorter duration of deafness.
Abstract: Cochlear implants have been very successful in restoring partial hearing to profoundly deaf people. Many individuals with implants are now able to communicate and understand speech without lip-reading, and some are able to talk over the phone. Children with implants can develop spoken-language skills and attend normal schools (i.e., schools with normal-hearing children). The greatest benefits with cochlear implantation have occurred in patients who (1) acquired speech and language before their hearing loss, and (2) have shorter duration of deafness. Gradual, but steady, improvements in speech production and speech perception have also occurred in prelingually deafened adults or children.
225 citations
"Investigation of the envelope and p..." refers background in this paper
...Hearing is achieved by stimulating the auditory nerve electrically [1]....
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TL;DR: The author discusses the accomplishments and challenges in treating sensorineurnal deafness through electrical stimulation with a focus on the treatment of the central nervous system.
Abstract: The author discusses the accomplishments and challenges in treating sensorineurnal deafness through electrical stimulation.
101 citations
Additional excerpts
...The speech signals are received, processed and transmitted to the internal component (receiver-stimulator) and are delivered as electrical signals through the electrode array directly to the auditory nerve [3]....
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TL;DR: Analysis of three potentially informative acoustic properties present during consonants and vowels for monosyllabic words and sentences suggests that speech information transmitted by the envelope is responsible, in part, for greater vowel contributions in sentences, but is not predictive for isolated words.
Abstract: The speech signal contains many acoustic properties that may contribute differently to spoken word recognition. Previous studies have demonstrated that the importance of properties present during consonants or vowels is dependent upon the linguistic context (i.e., words versus sentences). The current study investigated three potentially informative acoustic properties that are present during consonants and vowels for monosyllabic words and sentences. Natural variations in fundamental frequency were either flattened or removed. The speech envelope and temporal fine structure were also investigated by limiting the availability of these cues via noisy signal extraction. Thus, this study investigated the contribution of these acoustic properties, present during either consonants or vowels, to overall word and sentence intelligibility. Results demonstrated that all processing conditions displayed better performance for vowel-only sentences. Greater performance with vowel-only sentences remained, despite removing dynamic cues of the fundamental frequency. Word and sentence comparisons suggest that the speech envelope may be at least partially responsible for additional vowel contributions in sentences. Results suggest that speech information transmitted by the envelope is responsible, in part, for greater vowel contributions in sentences, but is not predictive for isolated words.
71 citations
03 Aug 2010
TL;DR: The design of an analog complex gammatone filter is introduced in order to extract both envelope and phase information of the incoming speech signals as well as to emulate the basilar membrane spectral selectivity.
Abstract: According to recent physiological experiments, the envelope and phase of speech signals are required to enhance the perceptive capability of a cochlear implant processor. In this paper, the design of an analog complex gammatone filter is introduced in order to extract both envelope and phase information of the incoming speech signals as well as to emulate the basilar membrane spectral selectivity. The gammatone impulse response is first transformed into the frequency domain and the resulting 8th-order transfer function is subsequently mapped onto a state-space description of an orthonormal ladder filter. Using this approach, the real and imaginary transfer functions that share the same denominator can be extracted using two different C matrices. This results in a compact filter structure. The proposed filter is designed using G m -C integrators and sub-threshold CMOS devices in AMIS 0.35μm technology. Simulation results using Cadence RF Spectre confirm the design principle and ultra low power operation.
24 citations