TY - GEN
T1 - Improving the performance of noise reduction in hearing aids based on the genetic algorithm
AU - Lai, Ying Hui
AU - Chen, Chien Hsun
AU - Tang, Shih Tsang
AU - Yeh, Zong Mu
AU - Tsao, Yu
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016.
PY - 2016
Y1 - 2016
N2 - The noise reduction (NR) approach is a critical component for enabling hearing aid (HA) users to attain improved speech perception capabilities and to reduce the listening effort under noisy conditions. More specifically, the NR can improve the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) level to enhance the speech intelligibility and sound quality for individuals with hearing loss. Recently, a discriminative post-filter (DPF) approach has been developed and the preliminary results indicate that the DPF can further improve the output SNR performance. It is important to specify suitable parameters for the DPF; however, it remains unknown how to set these parameters properly. Therefore, this study mainly focuses on the genetic algorithm (GA) to investigate these parameters of the DPF to further enhance the output SNR performance for HA users. The results of the objective evaluations show that under noisy conditions, the parameters of the DPF investigated by the GA algorithm can maintain the sound quality and yield higher SNR performance as compared to the NR approach used solely. More specifically, the proposed method can enhance the output SNR over the NR approach applied singly by 5.31 dB and 4.05 dB at SNR conditions of 0 dB and 5 dB, respectively. It implies that the proposed approach can help HA users to reduce the listening effort and to hear well even in noisy conditions.
AB - The noise reduction (NR) approach is a critical component for enabling hearing aid (HA) users to attain improved speech perception capabilities and to reduce the listening effort under noisy conditions. More specifically, the NR can improve the output signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) level to enhance the speech intelligibility and sound quality for individuals with hearing loss. Recently, a discriminative post-filter (DPF) approach has been developed and the preliminary results indicate that the DPF can further improve the output SNR performance. It is important to specify suitable parameters for the DPF; however, it remains unknown how to set these parameters properly. Therefore, this study mainly focuses on the genetic algorithm (GA) to investigate these parameters of the DPF to further enhance the output SNR performance for HA users. The results of the objective evaluations show that under noisy conditions, the parameters of the DPF investigated by the GA algorithm can maintain the sound quality and yield higher SNR performance as compared to the NR approach used solely. More specifically, the proposed method can enhance the output SNR over the NR approach applied singly by 5.31 dB and 4.05 dB at SNR conditions of 0 dB and 5 dB, respectively. It implies that the proposed approach can help HA users to reduce the listening effort and to hear well even in noisy conditions.
KW - Discriminative post filter
KW - Generalized maximum a posteriori spectral amplitude
KW - Genetic algorithm
KW - Hearing aids
KW - Noise reduction
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84968538395&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_43
DO - 10.1007/978-3-319-32703-7_43
M3 - Conference contribution
AN - SCOPUS:84968538395
SN - 9783319327013
T3 - IFMBE Proceedings
SP - 209
EP - 214
BT - XIV Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, MEDICON 2016
A2 - Kyriacou, Efthyvoulos
A2 - Christofides, Stelios
A2 - Pattichis, Constantinos S.
PB - Springer Verlag
T2 - 14th Mediterranean Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering and Computing, MEDICON 2016
Y2 - 31 March 2016 through 2 April 2016
ER -
