Sound Source Selection Based on Head Movements in Natural Group Conversation.

To optimally improve signal-to-noise ratio in noisy environments, a hearing assistance device must correctly identify what is signal and what is noise. Many of the biosignal-based approaches to solving this question are themselves subject to noise, but head angle is an overt behavior that may be possible to capture in practical devices in the real world. Previous orientation studies have demonstrated that head angle is systematically related to listening target; our study aimed to examine whether this relationship is sufficiently reliable to be used in group conversations where participants may be seated in different layouts and the listener is free to turn their body as well as their head.

Negative impacts from latency masked by noise in simulated beamforming.

Those experiencing hearing loss face severe challenges in perceiving speech in noisy situations such as a busy restaurant or cafe. There are many factors contributing to this deficit including decreased audibility, reduced frequency resolution, and decline in temporal synchrony across the auditory system. Some hearing assistive devices implement beamforming in which multiple microphones are used in combination to attenuate surrounding noise while the target speaker is left unattenuated.

A framework for designing head-related transfer function distance metrics that capture localization perception.

Linear comparisons can fail to describe perceptual differences between head-related transfer functions (HRTFs), reducing their utility for perceptual tests, HRTF selection methods, and prediction algorithms. This work introduces a machine learning framework for constructing a perceptual error metric that is aligned with performance in human sound localization. A neural network is first trained to predict measurement locations from a large database of HRTFs and then fine-tuned with perceptual data.

Speech intelligibility with various head-related transfer functions: A computational modelling approach.

Speech intelligibility (SI) is known to be affected by the relative spatial position between target and interferers. The benefit of a spatial separation is, along with other factors, related to the head-related transfer function (HRTF). The HRTF is individually different and thus, the cues that affect SI might also be different.

Conversation in small groups: Speaking and listening strategies depend on the complexities of the environment and group.

Many conversations in our day-to-day lives are held in noisy environments - impeding comprehension, and in groups - taxing auditory attention-switching processes. These situations are particularly challenging for older adults in cognitive and sensory decline. In noisy environments, a variety of extra-linguistic strategies are available to speakers and listeners to facilitate communication, but while models of language account for the impact of context on word choice, there has been little consideration of the impact of context on extra-linguistic behaviour.