Nonnative phonetic category training in varying acoustic environments

2015 ◽  
Vol 137 (4) ◽  
pp. 2385-2385
Author(s):  
Eleni L. Vlahou ◽  
Aaron Seitz ◽  
Norbert Kopčo
Keyword(s):  
Phonetic Category ◽  
Acoustic Environments

Hearing Aid Amplification Reduces Communication Effort of People With Hearing Impairment and Their Conversation Partners

2020 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 1299-1311 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Beechey ◽  
Jörg M. Buchholz ◽  
Gitte Keidser
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Impairment ◽  
Hearing Aid ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Referential Communication ◽  
Hearing Impaired ◽  
Directional Hearing ◽  
Acoustic Environment ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Acoustic Environments ◽  
The Impact

Objectives This study investigates the hypothesis that hearing aid amplification reduces effort within conversation for both hearing aid wearers and their communication partners. Levels of effort, in the form of speech production modifications, required to maintain successful spoken communication in a range of acoustic environments are compared to earlier reported results measured in unaided conversation conditions. Design Fifteen young adult normal-hearing participants and 15 older adult hearing-impaired participants were tested in pairs. Each pair consisted of one young normal-hearing participant and one older hearing-impaired participant. Hearing-impaired participants received directional hearing aid amplification, according to their audiogram, via a master hearing aid with gain provided according to the NAL-NL2 fitting formula. Pairs of participants were required to take part in naturalistic conversations through the use of a referential communication task. Each pair took part in five conversations, each of 5-min duration. During each conversation, participants were exposed to one of five different realistic acoustic environments presented through highly open headphones. The ordering of acoustic environments across experimental blocks was pseudorandomized. Resulting recordings of conversational speech were analyzed to determine the magnitude of speech modifications, in terms of vocal level and spectrum, produced by normal-hearing talkers as a function of both acoustic environment and the degree of high-frequency average hearing impairment of their conversation partner. Results The magnitude of spectral modifications of speech produced by normal-hearing talkers during conversations with aided hearing-impaired interlocutors was smaller than the speech modifications observed during conversations between the same pairs of participants in the absence of hearing aid amplification. Conclusions The provision of hearing aid amplification reduces the effort required to maintain communication in adverse conditions. This reduction in effort provides benefit to hearing-impaired individuals and also to the conversation partners of hearing-impaired individuals. By considering the impact of amplification on both sides of dyadic conversations, this approach contributes to an increased understanding of the likely impact of hearing impairment on everyday communication.

Spatial audio displays for speech communications: A comparison of free field and virtual acoustic environments

1999 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. Todd Nelson ◽  
Robert S. Bolia ◽  
Mark A. Ericson ◽  
Richard L. McKinley
Keyword(s):  
Free Field ◽  
Spatial Audio ◽  
Acoustic Environments

scholarly journals A Comparative Survey of Feature Extraction and Machine Learning Methods in Diverse Acoustic Environments

Sensors ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1274
Author(s):  
Daniel Bonet-Solà ◽  
Rosa Ma Alsina-Pagès
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Feature Extraction ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Gaussian Mixture ◽  
Machine Learning Algorithms ◽  
Multimedia Retrieval ◽  
Natural Environments ◽  
K Nearest Neighbor ◽  
Acoustic Environments

Acoustic event detection and analysis has been widely developed in the last few years for its valuable application in monitoring elderly or dependant people, for surveillance issues, for multimedia retrieval, or even for biodiversity metrics in natural environments. For this purpose, sound source identification is a key issue to give a smart technological answer to all the aforementioned applications. Diverse types of sounds and variate environments, together with a number of challenges in terms of application, widen the choice of artificial intelligence algorithm proposal. This paper presents a comparative study on combining several feature extraction algorithms (Mel Frequency Cepstrum Coefficients (MFCC), Gammatone Cepstrum Coefficients (GTCC), and Narrow Band (NB)) with a group of machine learning algorithms (k-Nearest Neighbor (kNN), Neural Networks (NN), and Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM)), tested over five different acoustic environments. This work has the goal of detailing a best practice method and evaluate the reliability of this general-purpose algorithm for all the classes. Preliminary results show that most of the combinations of feature extraction and machine learning present acceptable results in most of the described corpora. Nevertheless, there is a combination that outperforms the others: the use of GTCC together with kNN, and its results are further analyzed for all the corpora.

The Contribution of Hearing and Hearing Loss to Balance Control

2016 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 195-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Vitkovic ◽  
Carmen Le ◽  
Su-Ling Lee ◽  
Ross A. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Hearing Loss ◽  
Postural Control ◽  
Postural Sway ◽  
Balance Control ◽  
Normal Hearing ◽  
Centre Of Pressure ◽  
Auditory Cues ◽  
Sensory Weighting ◽  
Acoustic Environments ◽  
Pressure Analysis

This study investigated the hypothesis that a hearing ‘map' of our surroundings is used to maintain balance control. We investigated the effects of sound on postural sway using centre of pressure analysis in 50 subjects with normal hearing, 28 with hearing loss and 19 with vestibular dysfunction. The acoustic environments utilized sound cues that were either present or absent. It was found that auditory cues are utilized by subjects with normal hearing to improve postural sway. The ability to utilize sound for postural control is diminished when there is a hearing loss, but this appears to be overcome by the use of a hearing aid. Patients with additional vestibular deficits exploit auditory cues to a greater degree, suggesting that sensory weighting to enhance the use of auditory cues may be applied when there is diminished sensory redundancy.

scholarly journals Using Virtual Soundwalk Approach for Assessing Sound Art Soundscape Interventions in Public Spaces

2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (6) ◽  
pp. 2102
Author(s):  
Tin Oberman ◽  
Kristian Jambrošić ◽  
Marko Horvat ◽  
Bojana Bojanić Obad Šćitaroci
Keyword(s):  
Public Space ◽  
Public Spaces ◽  
Cultural Factors ◽  
Sound Art ◽  
Subjective Responses ◽  
The Public ◽  
First Order ◽  
Sound Source Identification ◽  
Acoustic Environments ◽  
Positive Effect

This paper discusses the soundscape assessment approaches to soundscape interventions with musical features introduced to public spaces as permanent sound art, with a focus on the ISO 12913 series, Method A for data collection applied in a laboratory study. Three soundscape interventions in three cities are investigated. The virtual soundwalk is used to combine the benefits of the on-site and laboratory settings. Two measurement points per location were recorded—one at a position where the intervention was clearly perceptible, the other further away to serve as a baseline condition. The participants (N = 44) were exposed to acoustic environments (N = 6) recorded using the first-order Ambisonics microphone on-site and then reproduced via the second-order Ambisonics system in laboratory. A series of rank-based Kruskal–Wallis tests were performed on the results of the subjective responses. Results revealed a statistically significant positive effect on soundscape at two locations, and limitations related to sound source identification due to cultural factors and geometrical configuration of the public space at one location.

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