Speech Enhancement in Noisy Environments
GOAL
Over 90% of people with hearing loss report difficulty understanding speech in noisy group environments [1]. One contributing factor is that those with hearing loss have trouble focusing on a single speaker when multiple people are talking. Directional hearing aids and noise cancellation can reduce this problem by helping the user selectively attend to a single speaker.
For this project, we created a hearing enhancement device to improve speech quality and intelligibility in noisy environments. Spatial filtering was accomplished with a Delay-Sum Beamformer, and additional noise cancellation was provided by the Power-Level Ratio (PLR) noise-reduction algorithm.
SPECIFICATIONS
We developed project specifications that describe a feasible and useable hearing improvement device. These specifications are listed below.
1. Bandwidth: 300 Hz – 7 kHz
2. Size: less than 55 cm in length
3. SNR Improvement compared to an omnidirectional microphone: 10 dB
4. Signal Processing Delay: less than 40ms
1. Bandwidth: 300 Hz – 7 kHz
2. Size: less than 55 cm in length
3. SNR Improvement compared to an omnidirectional microphone: 10 dB
4. Signal Processing Delay: less than 40ms