Modeling and enhancement of binaural speech perception

• Applicant: Dr. Jan Rennies-Hochmuth
• Subject Area: Acoustics
• Term: from 2017 to 2018
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 387093062

Speech intelligibility is often impaired by different factors such as noise, reverberation, reduced transmission quality, or individual hearing impairment. Despite a large number of research studies dedicated to speech perception and the development of several functional models, which can predict speech intelligibility in many situations, there is still a lack of knowledge regarding the complex perceptual processing stages of human speech recognition. The main goal of this project is to better understand the role of the factors affecting speech perception and the underlying effective speech processing mechanisms. The specific research focus is on binaural speech processing (i.e., effects involving processing of both ear signals), which is particularly relevant for speech recognition in real listening conditions with spatially distributed sound sources and reverberant rooms. The project will comprise a series of systematic listening experiments with established methods from speech intelligibility research as well as alternative methods to assess the listening effort associated with speech recognition. The temporal and spatial structure of the employed stimuli will be systematically varied to investigate their impact on speech perception. The experimental results will serve as a basis for critically testing and improving functional models of effective human speech recognition, and they will also be used to test if the improved models can predict and further improve the achievable benefit of state-of-the-art speech enhancement algorithms. The project results will therefore not only be relevant for increasing the basic knowledge on human speech perception in difficult listening conditions, but also for practical applications, e.g., in audiology or communication systems.

• DFG Programme: Research Fellowships
• International Connection: USA
• Host: Professor Gerald Kidd, Ph.D.