A Hopf Resonator for 2-D Artificial Cochlea: Piecewise Linear Model and Digital Implementation

Abstract

The mammalian auditory system is able to process sounds over an extraordinarily large dynamic range, which makes it possible to extract information from very small changes both in sound amplitude and frequency. Evidently, response of the cochlea is essentially nonlinear, where it operates within Hopf bifurcation boundaries to maximize tuning and amplification. This paper presents a set of piecewise linear (PWL) and multiplierless piecewise linear (MLPWL1 and MLPWL2) active cochlear models, which mimic a range of behaviors, similar to the biological cochlea. These proposed models show similar dynamical characteristics of the Hopf equation for the active nonlinear artificial cochlea. Accordingly, a compact model structure is proposed upon which a 2-D cochlea is developed. The proposed models are investigated, in terms of their digital realization and hardware cost, targeting large scale implementation. Hardware synthesis and physical implementation on a FPGA show that the proposed models can reproduce precise active cochlea behaviors with higher performance and considerably lower computational costs in comparison with the original model. Results indicate that the MLPWL1 model has a lower computational overhead, precision, and hardware cost, while the PWL model has a higher precision and dynamically tracks the original model. On the other hand, the MLPWL2 model outperforms the others in terms of accuracy, dynamical tracking of the original model and implementation cost. The gain variations of the original, PWL, MLPWL1, and MLPWL2 models are 230, 100, 105, and 230 dB, respectively. The mean normalized root mean square errors (NRMSEs) of the PWL, MLPWL1, and MLPWL2 models are 0.11%, 11.97%, and 0.34%, respectively, as compared to the original cochlear model.