Integrating Monaural and Binaural Cues for Sound Localization and Segregation in Reverberant Environments PDF Download
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Author: John F. Woodruff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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We also consider how the computational goal of CASA-based segregation should be defined in reverberant environments. The ideal binary mask (IBM) has been established as a main goal of CASA. While the IBM is defined unambiguously in anechoic conditions, in reverberant environments there is some flexibility in how one might define the target signal itself and therefore, ambiguity is introduced to the notion of the IBM. Due to the perceptual distinction between early and late reflections, we introduce the reflection boundary as a parameter to the IBM definition to allow target reflections to be divided into desirable and undesirable components. We conduct a series of intelligibility tests with normal hearing listeners to compare alternative IBM definitions. Results show that it is vital for the IBM definition to account for the energetic effect of early target reflections, and that late target reflections should be characterized as noise.
Author: John F. Woodruff
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 204
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Book Description
We also consider how the computational goal of CASA-based segregation should be defined in reverberant environments. The ideal binary mask (IBM) has been established as a main goal of CASA. While the IBM is defined unambiguously in anechoic conditions, in reverberant environments there is some flexibility in how one might define the target signal itself and therefore, ambiguity is introduced to the notion of the IBM. Due to the perceptual distinction between early and late reflections, we introduce the reflection boundary as a parameter to the IBM definition to allow target reflections to be divided into desirable and undesirable components. We conduct a series of intelligibility tests with normal hearing listeners to compare alternative IBM definitions. Results show that it is vital for the IBM definition to account for the energetic effect of early target reflections, and that late target reflections should be characterized as noise.
Author: Nicoleta Roman
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Adaptive filters
Languages : en
Pages :
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Abstract: At a cocktail party, we can selectively attend to a single voice and filter out other interferences. This perceptual ability has motivated a new field of study known as computational auditory scene analysis (CASA) which aims to build speech separation systems that incorporate auditory principles. The psychological process of figure-ground segregation suggests that the target signal should be segregated as foreground while the remaining stimuli are treated as background. Accordingly, the computational goal of CASA should be to estimate an ideal time-frequency (T-F) binary mask, which selects the target if it is stronger than the interference in a local T-F unit. This dissertation investigates four aspects of CASA processing: location-based speech segregation, binaural tracking of multiple moving sources, binaural sound segregation in reverberation, and monaural segregation of reverberant speech. For localization, the auditory system utilizes the interaural time difference (ITD) and interaural intensity difference (IID) between the ears. We observe that within a narrow frequency band, modifications to the relative strength of the target source with respect to the interference trigger systematic changes for ITD and IID resulting in a characteristic clustering. Consequently, we propose a supervised learning approach to estimate the ideal binary mask. A systematic evaluation shows that the resulting system produces masks very close to the ideal binary ones and large speech intelligibility improvements. In realistic environments, source motion requires consideration. Binaural cues are strongly correlated with locations in T-F units dominated by one source resulting in channel-dependent conditional probabilities. Consequently, we propose a multi-channel integration method of these probabilities in order to compute the likelihood function in a target space. Finally, a hidden Markov model is employed for forming continuous tracks and automatically detecting the number of active sources. Reverberation affects the ITD and IID cues. We therefore propose a binaural segregation system that combines target cancellation through adaptive filtering and a binary decision rule to estimate the ideal binary mask. A major advantage of the proposed system is that it imposes no restrictions on the interfering sources. Quantitative evaluations show that our system outperforms related beamforming approaches. Psychoacoustic evidence suggests that monaural processing play a vital role in segregation. It is known that reverberation smears the harmonicity of speech signals. We therefore propose a two-stage separation system that combines inverse filtering of target room impulse response with pitch-based segregation. As a result of the first stage, the harmonicity of a signal arriving from target direction is partially restored while signals arriving from other locations are further smeared, and this leads to improved segregation and considerable signal-to-noise ratio gains.
Author: Tom Goeckel
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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Author: Jens Blauert
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030003868
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 815
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Sound, devoid of meaning, would not matter to us. It is the information sound conveys that helps the brain to understand its environment. Sound and its underlying meaning are always associated with time and space. There is no sound without spatial properties, and the brain always organizes this information within a temporal–spatial framework. This book is devoted to understanding the importance of meaning for spatial and related further aspects of hearing, including cross-modal inference. People, when exposed to acoustic stimuli, do not react directly to what they hear but rather to what they hear means to them. This semiotic maxim may not always apply, for instance, when the reactions are reflexive. But, where it does apply, it poses a major challenge to the builders of models of the auditory system. Take, for example, an auditory model that is meant to be implemented on a robotic agent for autonomous search-&-rescue actions. Or think of a system that can perform judgments on the sound quality of multimedia-reproduction systems. It becomes immediately clear that such a system needs • Cognitive capabilities, including substantial inherent knowledge • The ability to integrate information across different sensory modalities To realize these functions, the auditory system provides a pair of sensory organs, the two ears, and the means to perform adequate preprocessing of the signals provided by the ears. This is realized in the subcortical parts of the auditory system. In the title of a prior book, the term Binaural Listening is used to indicate a focus on sub-cortical functions. Psychoacoustics and auditory signal processing contribute substantially to this area. The preprocessed signals are then forwarded to the cortical parts of the auditory system where, among other things, recognition, classification, localization, scene analysis, assignment of meaning, quality assessment, and action planning take place. Also, information from different sensory modalities is integrated at this level. Between sub-cortical and cortical regions of the auditory system, numerous feedback loops exist that ultimately support the high complexity and plasticity of the auditory system. The current book concentrates on these cognitive functions. Instead of processing signals, processing symbols is now the predominant modeling task. Substantial contributions to the field draw upon the knowledge acquired by cognitive psychology. The keyword Binaural Understanding in the book title characterizes this shift. Both books, The Technology of Binaural Listening and the current one, have been stimulated and supported by AABBA, an open research group devoted to the development and application of models of binaural hearing. The current book is dedicated to technologies that help explain, facilitate, apply, and support various aspects of binaural understanding. It is organized into five parts, each containing three to six chapters in order to provide a comprehensive overview of this emerging area. Each chapter was thoroughly reviewed by at least two anonymous, external experts. The first part deals with the psychophysical and physiological effects of Forming and Interpreting Aural Objects as well as the underlying models. The fundamental concepts of reflexive and reflective auditory feedback are introduced. Mechanisms of binaural attention and attention switching are covered—as well as how auditory Gestalt rules facilitate binaural understanding. A general blackboard architecture is introduced as an example of how machines can learn to form and interpret aural objects to simulate human cognitive listening. The second part, Configuring and Understanding Aural Space, focuses on the human understanding of complex three-dimensional environments—covering the psychological and biological fundamentals of auditory space formation. This part further addresses the human mechanisms used to process information and interact in complex reverberant environments, such as concert halls and forests, and additionally examines how the auditory system can learn to understand and adapt to these environments. The third part is dedicated to Processing Cross-Modal Inference and highlights the fundamental human mechanisms used to integrate auditory cues with cues from other modalities to localize and form perceptual objects. This part also provides a general framework for understanding how complex multimodal scenes can be simulated and rendered. The fourth part, Evaluating Aural-scene Quality and Speech Understanding, focuses on the object-forming aspects of binaural listening and understanding. It addresses cognitive mechanisms involved in both the understanding of speech and the processing of nonverbal information such as Sound Quality and Quality-of- Experience. The aesthetic judgment of rooms is also discussed in this context. Models that simulate underlying human processes and performance are covered in addition to techniques for rendering virtual environments that can then be used to test these models. The fifth part deals with the Application of Cognitive Mechanisms to Audio Technology. It highlights how cognitive mechanisms can be utilized to create spatial auditory illusions using binaural and other 3D-audio technologies. Further, it covers how cognitive binaural technologies can be applied to improve human performance in auditory displays and to develop new auditory technologies for interactive robots. The book concludes with the application of cognitive binaural technologies to the next generation of hearing aids.
Author: Christopher Montagne
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Auditory adaptation
Languages : en
Pages : 28
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Sound localization can be difficult in a reverberant environment. Fortunately listeners can utilize various perceptual compensatory mechanisms to increase the reliability of sound localization when provided with ambiguous physical evidence. For example, the directional information of echoes can be perceptually suppressed by the direct sound to achieve a single, fused auditory event in a process called the precedence effect (Litovsky et al., 1999). Visual cues also influence sound localization through a phenomenon known as the ventriloquist effect. It is classically demonstrated by a puppeteer who speaks without visible lip movements while moving the mouth of a puppet synchronously with his/her speech (Gelder and Bertelson, 2003). If the ventriloquist is successful, sound will be "captured" by vision and be perceived to be originating at the location of the puppet. This thesis investigates the influence of vision on the spatial localization of audio-visual stimuli. Participants seated in a sound-attenuated room indicated their perceived locations of either ISI or level-difference stimuli in free field conditions. Two types of stereophonic phantom sound sources, created by modulating the inter-stimulus time interval (ISI) or level difference between two loudspeakers, were used as auditory stimuli. The results showed that the light cues influenced auditory spatial perception to a greater extent for the ISI stimuli than the level difference stimuli. A binaural signal analysis further revealed that the greater visual bias for the ISI phantom sound sources was correlated with the increasingly ambiguous binaural cues of the ISI signals. This finding suggests that when sound localization cues are unreliable, perceptual decisions become increasingly biased towards vision for finding a sound source. These results support the cue saliency theory underlying cross-modal bias and extend this theory to include stereophonic phantom sound sources.
Author: Jens Blauert
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642377629
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 516
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This book reports on the application of advanced models of the human binaural hearing system in modern technology, among others, in the following areas: binaural analysis of aural scenes, binaural de-reverberation, binaural quality assessment of audio channels, loudspeakers and performance spaces, binaural perceptual coding, binaural processing in hearing aids and cochlea implants, binaural systems in robots, binaural/tactile human-machine interfaces, speech-intelligibility prediction in rooms and/or multi-speaker scenarios. An introduction to binaural modeling and an outlook to the future are provided. Further, the book features a MATLAB toolbox to enable readers to construct their own dedicated binaural models on demand.
Author: Ruth Y. Litovsky
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030571009
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 425
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Book Description
The field of Binaural Hearing involves studies of auditory perception, physiology, and modeling, including normal and abnormal aspects of the system. Binaural processes involved in both sound localization and speech unmasking have gained a broader interest and have received growing attention in the published literature. The field has undergone some significant changes. There is now a much richer understanding of the many aspects that comprising binaural processing, its role in development, and in success and limitations of hearing-aid and cochlear-implant users. The goal of this volume is to provide an up-to-date reference on the developments and novel ideas in the field of binaural hearing. The primary readership for the volume is expected to be academic specialists in the diverse fields that connect with psychoacoustics, neuroscience, engineering, psychology, audiology, and cochlear implants. This volume will serve as an important resource by way of introduction to the field, in particular for graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, the faculty who train them and clinicians.
Author: Paul W. Anderson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Auditory perception
Languages : en
Pages : 122
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Auditory localization involves different cues depending on the spatial domain. Azimuth localization cues include interaural time differences (ITDs), interaural level differences (ILDs) and pinnae cues. Auditory distance perception (ADP) cues include intensity, spectral cues, binaural cues, and the direct-to-reverberant energy ratio (D/R). While D/R has been established as a primary ADP cue, it is unlikely that it is directly encoded in the auditory system because it can be difficult to extract from ongoing signals. It is also noteworthy that no neuronal population has been identified that specifically codes D/R. It has therefore been proposed that D/R is indirectly encoded in the auditory system, through sensitivity to other acoustic parameters that are correlated with D/R, such as temporal cues (Zahorik, 2002b), spectral properties (Jetzt, 1979; Larsen, 2008), and interaural correlation (Bronkhorst and Houtgast, 1999). An additional D/R correlate relies on attenuation of amplitude modulation (AM) as a function of distance. Room modulation transfer functions act as low-pass filters on AM signals, and therefore the direct portion of a signal will have less modulation depth attenuation than the reverberant portion. Although recent neural and behavioral work has demonstrated that this cue can provide distance information monaurally, the extent to which the modulation attenuation cue contributes to ADP relative to other ADP cues is not fully understood. It is also possible modulation attenuation by the room can provide additional directional localization information, perhaps through the resulting dynamic fluctuation of the ILD cue. The role of AM in directional sound localization has not been extensively studied, particularly in reverberant soundfields which can affect the modulation reaching the two ears in a directionally-dependent fashion. Three human psychophysical experiments assessed the role of AM signals in distance and directional auditory localization in reverberant soundfields. Experiment I focused on validating a graphical response method to be used in subsequent experiments. In Experiment II, an auditory distance estimation task was performed which yielded measures of the relative perceptual contributions of the modulation depth cue during ADP in a reverberant room. Experiment III investigated the effect of AM on binaural localization in the horizontal plane in a reverberant room.
Author: Anna C. Diedesch
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Electronic dissertations
Languages : en
Pages : 118
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Author:
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ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages :
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