Evaluation of the penalized inequality constrained minimum variance beamformer for hearing aids

Jinjun Xiao, Wenqiang Pu, Zhi Quan Luo, Tao Zhang

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceedingConference contribution

4 Scopus citations

Abstract

Beamforming is a common technique used to improve speech intelligibility and listening comfort of hearing aids users in a noisy environment. Traditional beamforming algorithms such as linearly constrained minimum variance (LCMV) beamformer cannot effectively suppress multiple interferences when the degree of freedom (DoF) of the array is less than the number of sources in the environment. In [1], a penalized inequality-constrained minimum variance (P-ICMV) beamformer was proposed to address this challenge. In this study, we evaluate the P-ICMV beamformer and compare its performance with other beamformers including the LCMV in a multiple-interference environment. In an objective evaluation, objective metrics related to speech intelligibility and sound quality are used to compare the algorithm performance. In a subjective evaluation, the speech intelligibility of the beamformer processed stimuli are evaluated using normal-hearing listeners. Both the objective and subjective evaluation results show that the P-ICMV beamformer can suppress the interferences more effectively than the existing beamformers when the array DoF is limited.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Title of host publication2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ICASSP 2018 - Proceedings
PublisherInstitute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.
Pages3344-3348
Number of pages5
ISBN (Print)9781538646588
DOIs
StatePublished - Sep 10 2018
Event2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ICASSP 2018 - Calgary, Canada
Duration: Apr 15 2018Apr 20 2018

Publication series

NameICASSP, IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing - Proceedings
Volume2018-April
ISSN (Print)1520-6149

Other

Other2018 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing, ICASSP 2018
Country/TerritoryCanada
CityCalgary
Period4/15/184/20/18

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2018 IEEE.

Keywords

  • Acoustic beamforming
  • Binaural signal processing
  • Microphone array signal processing
  • Speech intelligibility

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