Laboratory for Experimental Audiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich 8091, Switzerland.
J Acoust Soc Am. 2012 Jun;131(6):4732-42. doi: 10.1121/1.4705292.
Sound localization with hearing aids has traditionally been investigated in artificial laboratory settings. These settings are not representative of environments in which hearing aids are used. With individual Head-Related Transfer Functions (HRTFs) and room simulations, realistic environments can be reproduced and the performance of hearing aid algorithms can be evaluated. In this study, four different environments with background noise have been implemented in which listeners had to localize different sound sources. The HRTFs were measured inside the ear canals of the test subjects and by the microphones of Behind-The-Ear (BTEs) hearing aids. In the first experiment the system for virtual acoustics was evaluated by comparing perceptual sound localization results for the four scenes in a real room with a simulated one. In the second experiment, sound localization with three BTE algorithms, an omnidirectional microphone, a monaural cardioid-shaped beamformer and a monaural noise canceler, was examined. The results showed that the system for generating virtual environments is a reliable tool to evaluate sound localization with hearing aids. With BTE hearing aids localization performance decreased and the number of front-back confusions was at chance level. The beamformer, due to its directivity characteristics, allowed the listener to resolve the front-back ambiguity.
使用助听器进行声音定位传统上是在人工实验室环境中进行研究的。这些设置不能代表助听器使用的环境。通过个体头部相关传递函数 (HRTF) 和房间模拟，可以再现逼真的环境，并评估助听器算法的性能。在这项研究中，实施了四个具有背景噪声的不同环境，听众必须在其中定位不同的声源。HRTF 是在测试对象的耳道内和耳后 (BTE) 助听器的麦克风内测量的。在第一个实验中，通过将四个场景的感知声音定位结果在真实房间和模拟房间中进行比较，评估了虚拟声学系统。在第二个实验中，研究了三种 BTE 算法、全向麦克风、单声道心形指向波束形成器和单声道噪声消除器的声音定位性能。结果表明，生成虚拟环境的系统是评估助听器声音定位的可靠工具。使用 BTE 助听器，定位性能下降，前后混淆的次数处于随机水平。由于指向性特征，波束形成器使听众能够解决前后模糊性。
