Maximizing environmental sound recognition and speech intelligibility using time-frequency masking
Environmental sound recognition is an essential part of the human auditory experience that not only provides a sense of connection to one’s surroundings but also forecasts potential nearby safety hazards. Unfortunately, important environmental sounds can be rendered inaudible or otherwise unrecogniz...
Saved in:
Published in | The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Vol. 153; no. 3; p. A364 |
---|---|
Main Authors | , |
Format | Journal Article |
Language | English |
Published |
01.03.2023
|
Online Access | Get full text |
ISSN | 0001-4966 1520-8524 |
DOI | 10.1121/10.0019177 |
Cover
Abstract | Environmental sound recognition is an essential part of the human auditory experience that not only provides a sense of connection to one’s surroundings but also forecasts potential nearby safety hazards. Unfortunately, important environmental sounds can be rendered inaudible or otherwise unrecognizable by modern noise-reduction technology, leading to reduced environmental sound recognition. What is needed is a system that simultaneously provides listeners with access to audible, recognizable environmental sounds and intelligible speech. Many modern noise-reduction systems rely on some form of time-frequency masking, such as the ideal ratio mask. Restricting the output range of this mask by limiting the maximum allowable attenuation of any given time-frequency unit results in a mask that preserves environmental sounds to a certain extent while enhancing speech. In an experiment, subjects with hearing impairment and normal hearing listened to mixtures of sound + speech that had been processed by time-frequency masks with various levels of maximum attenuation, resulting in different amounts of environmental sound preservation. In a dual-task paradigm, environmental sound recognition and speech intelligibility were measured, and it was found that both types of listeners simultaneously attain high levels of performance on both tasks when the attenuation of time-frequency units is limited to 23 dB. [Work supported by NIH F32DC019314, NIH R01DC015521, and The OSU Graduate School.] |
---|---|
AbstractList | Environmental sound recognition is an essential part of the human auditory experience that not only provides a sense of connection to one’s surroundings but also forecasts potential nearby safety hazards. Unfortunately, important environmental sounds can be rendered inaudible or otherwise unrecognizable by modern noise-reduction technology, leading to reduced environmental sound recognition. What is needed is a system that simultaneously provides listeners with access to audible, recognizable environmental sounds and intelligible speech. Many modern noise-reduction systems rely on some form of time-frequency masking, such as the ideal ratio mask. Restricting the output range of this mask by limiting the maximum allowable attenuation of any given time-frequency unit results in a mask that preserves environmental sounds to a certain extent while enhancing speech. In an experiment, subjects with hearing impairment and normal hearing listened to mixtures of sound + speech that had been processed by time-frequency masks with various levels of maximum attenuation, resulting in different amounts of environmental sound preservation. In a dual-task paradigm, environmental sound recognition and speech intelligibility were measured, and it was found that both types of listeners simultaneously attain high levels of performance on both tasks when the attenuation of time-frequency units is limited to 23 dB. [Work supported by NIH F32DC019314, NIH R01DC015521, and The OSU Graduate School.] |
Author | Johnson, Eric M. Healy, Eric W. |
Author_xml | – sequence: 1 givenname: Eric M. surname: Johnson fullname: Johnson, Eric M. organization: Div. of Commun. Sci. and Disord., West Virginia Univ. School of Medicine, 375 Birch St., Morgantown, WV 26506, eric.johnson5@hsc.wvu.edu – sequence: 2 givenname: Eric W. surname: Healy fullname: Healy, Eric W. organization: Dept. of Speech and Hearing Sci., The Ohio State Univ., Columbus, OH |
BookMark | eNp9kD1PwzAYhC1UJNLCwi_wDArYTuLYI6qgIBWxdK_8GV5InGKniPLrSdTOTKc7PTrpbo5moQ8OoWtK7ihl9H5UQqikdX2GMloxkouKlTOUkTHOS8n5BZqn9DHaShQyQ_pV_UAHvxAa7MI3xD50LgyqxanfB4ujM30TYIA-YDX6tHPOvGMIg2tbaEBDC8MB79NUMEDnch_d194Fc8CdSp9jfInOvWqTuzrpAm2eHjfL53z9tnpZPqxzU9M6t8pyK7gmrJJCSlESy4WhtOCCeEkKwlghS6-01NxrWyhWasqtFl6X3GlaLNDNsdbEPqXo_HYXoVPxsKVkO50z6emcEb49wsnAoKZ1_9F_xG1oTA |
CODEN | JASMAN |
ContentType | Journal Article |
Copyright | Acoustical Society of America |
Copyright_xml | – notice: Acoustical Society of America |
DBID | AAYXX CITATION |
DOI | 10.1121/10.0019177 |
DatabaseName | CrossRef |
DatabaseTitle | CrossRef |
DatabaseTitleList | CrossRef |
DeliveryMethod | fulltext_linktorsrc |
Discipline | Physics |
EISSN | 1520-8524 |
EndPage | A364 |
ExternalDocumentID | 10_1121_10_0019177 jasa |
GroupedDBID | --- --Z -~X .DC .GJ 123 186 29L 3O- 4.4 41~ 5-Q 53G 5RE 5VS 6TJ 85S AAAAW AAGWI AAPUP AAYIH ABDNZ ABDPE ABEFU ABJGX ABJNI ABNAN ABPPZ ABZEH ACBNA ACBRY ACCUC ACGFO ACGFS ACNCT ACXMS ACYGS ADCTM ADMLS ADXHL AEGXH AEILP AENEX AETEA AFFNX AFHCQ AGKCL AGLKD AGMXG AGTJO AGVCI AHPGS AHSDT AI. AIAGR AIDUJ ALMA_UNASSIGNED_HOLDINGS AQWKA BAUXJ CS3 D0L DU5 EBS EJD F5P H~9 M71 M73 MVM NEJ NHB OHT P2P RAZ RIP RNS ROL RQS SC5 SJN TN5 TWZ UHB UPT UQL VH1 VOH WH7 XJT XOL XSW YQT ZCG ZXP ZY4 ~02 ~G0 AAYXX CITATION |
ID | FETCH-LOGICAL-c717-dad6d86b0259899840d68c113680f903022394fab9b6fbd3a24b16db8fb46eb13 |
ISSN | 0001-4966 |
IngestDate | Wed Oct 01 01:48:21 EDT 2025 Sun Aug 03 03:50:20 EDT 2025 |
IsPeerReviewed | true |
IsScholarly | true |
Issue | 3 |
Language | English |
LinkModel | OpenURL |
MeetingName | 184th Meeting of the Acoustical Society of America |
MergedId | FETCHMERGED-LOGICAL-c717-dad6d86b0259899840d68c113680f903022394fab9b6fbd3a24b16db8fb46eb13 |
PageCount | 1 |
ParticipantIDs | crossref_primary_10_1121_10_0019177 scitation_primary_10_1121_10_0019177 |
ProviderPackageCode | CITATION AAYXX |
PublicationCentury | 2000 |
PublicationDate | 20230300 2023-03-01 |
PublicationDateYYYYMMDD | 2023-03-01 |
PublicationDate_xml | – month: 03 year: 2023 text: 20230300 |
PublicationDecade | 2020 |
PublicationTitle | The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America |
PublicationYear | 2023 |
SSID | ssj0005839 |
Score | 2.406027 |
Snippet | Environmental sound recognition is an essential part of the human auditory experience that not only provides a sense of connection to one’s surroundings but... |
SourceID | crossref scitation |
SourceType | Index Database Publisher |
StartPage | A364 |
Title | Maximizing environmental sound recognition and speech intelligibility using time-frequency masking |
URI | http://dx.doi.org/10.1121/10.0019177 |
Volume | 153 |
hasFullText | 1 |
inHoldings | 1 |
isFullTextHit | |
isPrint | |
journalDatabaseRights | – providerCode: PRVEBS databaseName: Inspec with Full Text customDbUrl: eissn: 1520-8524 dateEnd: 20241001 omitProxy: false ssIdentifier: ssj0005839 issn: 0001-4966 databaseCode: ADMLS dateStart: 20050101 isFulltext: true titleUrlDefault: https://www.ebsco.com/products/research-databases/inspec-full-text providerName: EBSCOhost |
link | http://utb.summon.serialssolutions.com/2.0.0/link/0/eLvHCXMwnV1LT8JAEN4gxujF-IzvbCI3UuxjWdoj8RFjrBcxeiO73W2CBjQCiXDxrzv7oA80Br00sKFt6HzMfLN8M4NQzRc84gl4P5d4kUNkGjmcEua0gBtI1kxd5ql65_iOXj-Qm6fmU6XyWVAtjUe8kUx_rCv5j1VhDeyqqmT_YNnsorAAr8G-cAQLw3EhG8fso9fvTVW2XyhYUxUgalhSPRMHWcXx8E1KvcNhunAaXeykPtbbBWrIvJO-G2X1pN5nw5dZVHvOEVXgr7omJXnV08BUSxEr_1TM1vwLVBTn2Lou5XXrcSPfgGVm0LVef2wUtyD8INdgZW4VEtGI2p7W1pNCXho2TYF05mpNY2CLqaA7VJNLc4mP8aHtwPQ1t_F49va7r_c9s-2gaKpnh8GUGmrPBbpMfqgTH9_reqo1qj53CS37LUr9KlpuX8S397lKKAxsBmW-oe1wC2ef5XcucZpVoC5GRVEgKp0NtG4thNsGLpuoIgdbaEUrfZPhNuI5aHAJNFiDBhdAgwE02IAGz4EGa9DgMmiwBc0O6lxdds6vHTtow0kgm3cEE1SElAP9jVT6TVxBw0QN-wndNIIoABQyIimDXzVNuQiYT7hHBQ9TTijE-mAXVQevA7mHMGQXSQopayhFkwguuYql1G8BKWxJL3H30ensSXXfTDuV7ndr7KNa9hB_-djBQhc7RGs5Zo9QdfQ-lsdAJEf8xBr7C1UjdbE |
linkProvider | EBSCOhost |
openUrl | ctx_ver=Z39.88-2004&ctx_enc=info%3Aofi%2Fenc%3AUTF-8&rfr_id=info%3Asid%2Fsummon.serialssolutions.com&rft_val_fmt=info%3Aofi%2Ffmt%3Akev%3Amtx%3Ajournal&rft.genre=article&rft.atitle=Maximizing+environmental+sound+recognition+and+speech+intelligibility+using+time-frequency+masking&rft.jtitle=The+Journal+of+the+Acoustical+Society+of+America&rft.au=Johnson%2C+Eric+M.&rft.au=Healy%2C+Eric+W.&rft.date=2023-03-01&rft.issn=0001-4966&rft.eissn=1520-8524&rft.volume=153&rft.issue=3_supplement&rft.spage=A364&rft.epage=A364&rft_id=info:doi/10.1121%2F10.0019177&rft.externalDBID=n%2Fa&rft.externalDocID=10_1121_10_0019177 |
thumbnail_l | http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/lc.gif&issn=0001-4966&client=summon |
thumbnail_m | http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/mc.gif&issn=0001-4966&client=summon |
thumbnail_s | http://covers-cdn.summon.serialssolutions.com/index.aspx?isbn=/sc.gif&issn=0001-4966&client=summon |