Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.

Temporal envelope is the primary acoustic cue used in most cochlear implant (CI) speech processors to elicit speech perception for patients fitted with CI devices. Envelope compression narrows down envelope dynamic range and accordingly degrades speech understanding abilities of CI users, especially...

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Main Authors: Ying-Hui Lai, Yu Tsao, Fei Chen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2015-01-01
Series:PLoS ONE
Online Access:http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4510405?pdf=render
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spelling doaj-7c0b586f2fc845e2b8c640db4539c5002020-11-24T21:24:26ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032015-01-01107e013351910.1371/journal.pone.0133519Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.Ying-Hui LaiYu TsaoFei ChenTemporal envelope is the primary acoustic cue used in most cochlear implant (CI) speech processors to elicit speech perception for patients fitted with CI devices. Envelope compression narrows down envelope dynamic range and accordingly degrades speech understanding abilities of CI users, especially under challenging listening conditions (e.g., in noise). A new adaptive envelope compression (AEC) strategy was proposed recently, which in contrast to the traditional static envelope compression, is effective at enhancing the modulation depth of envelope waveform by making best use of its dynamic range and thus improving the intelligibility of envelope-based speech. The present study further explored the effect of adaptation rate in envelope compression on the intelligibility of compressed-envelope based speech. Moreover, since noise reduction is another essential unit in modern CI systems, the compatibility of AEC and noise reduction was also investigated. In this study, listening experiments were carried out by presenting vocoded sentences to normal hearing listeners for recognition. Experimental results demonstrated that the adaptation rate in envelope compression had a notable effect on the speech intelligibility performance of the AEC strategy. By specifying a suitable adaptation rate, speech intelligibility could be enhanced significantly in noise compared to when using static envelope compression. Moreover, results confirmed that the AEC strategy was suitable for combining with noise reduction to improve the intelligibility of envelope-based speech in noise.http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4510405?pdf=render
collection DOAJ
language English
format Article
sources DOAJ
author Ying-Hui Lai
Yu Tsao
Fei Chen
spellingShingle Ying-Hui Lai
Yu Tsao
Fei Chen
Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.
PLoS ONE
author_facet Ying-Hui Lai
Yu Tsao
Fei Chen
author_sort Ying-Hui Lai
title Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.
title_short Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.
title_full Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.
title_fullStr Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.
title_full_unstemmed Effects of Adaptation Rate and Noise Suppression on the Intelligibility of Compressed-Envelope Based Speech.
title_sort effects of adaptation rate and noise suppression on the intelligibility of compressed-envelope based speech.
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
series PLoS ONE
issn 1932-6203
publishDate 2015-01-01
description Temporal envelope is the primary acoustic cue used in most cochlear implant (CI) speech processors to elicit speech perception for patients fitted with CI devices. Envelope compression narrows down envelope dynamic range and accordingly degrades speech understanding abilities of CI users, especially under challenging listening conditions (e.g., in noise). A new adaptive envelope compression (AEC) strategy was proposed recently, which in contrast to the traditional static envelope compression, is effective at enhancing the modulation depth of envelope waveform by making best use of its dynamic range and thus improving the intelligibility of envelope-based speech. The present study further explored the effect of adaptation rate in envelope compression on the intelligibility of compressed-envelope based speech. Moreover, since noise reduction is another essential unit in modern CI systems, the compatibility of AEC and noise reduction was also investigated. In this study, listening experiments were carried out by presenting vocoded sentences to normal hearing listeners for recognition. Experimental results demonstrated that the adaptation rate in envelope compression had a notable effect on the speech intelligibility performance of the AEC strategy. By specifying a suitable adaptation rate, speech intelligibility could be enhanced significantly in noise compared to when using static envelope compression. Moreover, results confirmed that the AEC strategy was suitable for combining with noise reduction to improve the intelligibility of envelope-based speech in noise.
url http://europepmc.org/articles/PMC4510405?pdf=render
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