MSc thesis project proposal

Beamforming for speech enhancement preserving spatial cues

Project outside the university

In Delft, but inn collaboration with Oticon A/S (Denmark)
An often-reported problem for hearing impaired people is the inability to understand speech in complex acoustical environments as well as the inability to localize sound. Due to the development of wireless technology, it is possible to equip hearing aids with more powerful noise reduction algorithms to further increase the intelligibility. However, these more powerful multichannel noise reduction algorithms sacrifice naturalness of the sound environment, also when state-of-the-art binaural noise reduction algorithms are used.

Assignment

This project aims at developing signal processing algorithms to help hearing aid users in these situations, by providing them a natural impression of the acoustical scene. An aspect of this project is to develop a hearing aid noise reduction algorithm that maintains the spatial correctness or more generally, the naturalness of a given acoustical situation, in addition to the more conventional hearing aid goals of improving sound quality and speech intelligibility.

Requirements

This project requires knowledge on at least:
  • signal processing
  • stochastic/random processes
  • Digital audio and speech processing (in particular speech enhancement)
  • experience with Matlab

Contact

dr.ir. Richard Hendriks

Signal Processing Systems Group

Department of Microelectronics

Last modified: 2019-12-23