Abstract
Users of cochlear implants (auditory aids, which stimulate the auditory nerve electrically at the inner ear) often suffer from poor speech understanding in noise. We evaluate a small (intermicrophone distance 7 mm) and computationally inexpensive adaptive noise reduction system suitable for behind-the-ear cochlear implant speech processors. The system is evaluated in simulated and real, anechoic and reverberant environments. Results from simulations show improvements of 3.4 to 9.3 dB in signal to noise ratio for rooms with realistic reverberation and more than 18 dB under anechoic conditions. Speech understanding in noise is measured in 6 adult cochlear implant users in a reverberant room, showing average improvements of 7.9–9.6 dB, when compared to a single omnidirectional microphone or 1.3–5.6 dB, when compared to a simple directional two-microphone device. Subjective evaluation in a cafeteria at lunchtime shows a preference of the cochlear implant users for the evaluated device in terms of speech understanding and sound quality.
Highlights
Unsatisfactory speech understanding in noise is a major complaint of users of cochlear implant systems [1, 2], even for users with acceptable levels of speech understanding in situations without background noise [3]
One method to alleviate this problem is the use of directional multimicrophone noise reduction systems, which reduce noise arriving from the sides or from the back of the cochlear implant user, while preserving signals arriving from the front
The aim of the study presented in this paper is to evaluate the performance of the proposed system [4] in simulated and real acoustic environments, and to perform physical tests as well as speech intelligibility tests with actual cochlear implant users
Summary
Unsatisfactory speech understanding in noise is a major complaint of users of cochlear implant systems [1, 2], even for users with acceptable levels of speech understanding in situations without background noise [3]. One method to alleviate this problem is the use of directional multimicrophone noise reduction systems, which reduce noise arriving from the sides or from the back of the cochlear implant user, while preserving signals arriving from the front. Supporting algorithms were developed and evaluated in simulated anechoic and reverberant environments [4, 5]. The aim of the study presented in this paper is to evaluate the performance of the proposed system [4] in simulated and real acoustic environments, and to perform physical tests as well as speech intelligibility tests with actual cochlear implant users.
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