Reliability in Measuring Head Related Transfer Functions of Hearing Aids

Harder, Stine; Paulsen, Rasmus Reinhold; Larsen, Martin; Laugesen, Søren; Mihocic, Michael; Majdak, Piotr

doi:10.3813/aaa.918900

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…We refer to this ATF as the hearing aid head-related transfer function (HAHRTF), or equivalently its time domain representation, the hearing aid head-related impulse response (HAHRIR). Most available databases [13][14][15][16][17] of HAHRIR measurements have used either a single mannequin or a single human 17 and so are unsuitable for investigating such differences; a notable exception is a recent database 18 that includes measurements of 16 subjects and 3 dummy heads. Comparing measurements between these databases is also not helpful since each uses a different hearing aid device.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Personalized signal-independent beamforming for binaural hearing aids

Moore

Haan

Pedersen

et al. 2019

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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The effect of personalized microphone array calibration on the performance of hearing aid beamformers under noisy reverberant conditions is studied. The study makes use of a new, publicly available, database containing acoustic transfer function measurements from 29 loudspeakers arranged on a sphere to a pair of behind-the-ear hearing aids in a listening room when worn by 27 males, 14 females, and 4 mannequins. Bilateral and binaural beamformers are designed using each participant's hearing aid head-related impulse responses (HAHRIRs). The performance of these personalized beamformers is compared to that of mismatched beamformers, where the HAHRIR used for the design does not belong to the individual for whom performance is measured. The case where the mismatched HAHRIR is that of a mannequin is of particular interest since it represents current practice in commercially available hearing aids. The benefit of personalized beamforming is assessed using an intrusive binaural speech intelligibility metric and in a matrix speech intelligibility test. For binaural beamforming, both measures demonstrate a statistically signficant (p < 0.05) benefit of personalization. The benefit varies substantially between individuals with some predicted to benefit by as much as 1.5 dB.

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mentioning

confidence: 99%

Personalized signal-independent beamforming for binaural hearing aids

Moore

Haan

Pedersen

et al. 2019

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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“…The repetition of the HRTF measurement yielded similar HRTFs for frequencies below 1.7 kHz but less similar HRTFs for higher frequencies. Further investigations of HRTF reliability for our data can be found in [42]. Fig.…”

Section: Hrtf Evaluationmentioning

confidence: 87%

A framework for geometry acquisition, 3-D printing, simulation, and measurement of head-related transfer functions with a focus on hearing-assistive devices

Harder

Paulsen

Larsen

et al. 2016

Computer-Aided Design

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Individual head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) are essential in applications like fitting hearing-assistive devices (HADs) for providing accurate sound localization performance. Individual HRTFs are usually obtained through intricate acoustic measurements. This paper investigates the use of a three-dimensional (3D) head model for acquisition of individual HRTFs. Two aspects were investigated; whether a 3D-printed model can replace measurements on a human listener and whether numerical simulations can replace acoustic measurements. For this purpose, HRTFs were acoustically measured for four human listeners and for a 3D printed head model of one of these listeners. Further, HRTFs were simulated by applying the finite element method to the 3D head model. The monaural spectral features and spectral distortions were very similar between re-measurements and between human and printed measurements, however larger deviations were observed between measurement and simulation. The binaural cues were in agreement among all HRTFs of the same listener, indicating that the 3D model is able to provide localization cues potentially accessible to HAD users. Hence, the pipeline of geometry acquisition, printing, and acoustic measurements or simulations, seems to be a promising step forward towards in-silico design of HADs.

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Spectral directional cues captured by hearing device microphones in individual human ears

Denk

Ewert

Kollmeier

2018

The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America

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Spatial hearing abilities with hearing devices ultimately depend on how well acoustic directional cues are captured by the microphone(s) of the device. A comprehensive objective evaluation of monaural spectral directional cues captured at 9 microphone locations integrated in 5 hearing device styles is presented, utilizing a recent database of head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) that includes data from 16 human and 3 artificial ear pairs. Differences between HRTFs to the eardrum and hearing device microphones were assessed by descriptive analyses and quantitative metrics, and compared to differences between individual ears. Directional information exploited for vertical sound localization was evaluated by means of computational models. Directional information at microphone locations inside the pinna is significantly biased and qualitatively poorer compared to locations in the ear canal; behind-the-ear microphones capture almost no directional cues. These errors are expected to impair vertical sound localization, even if the new cues would be optimally mapped to locations. Differences between HRTFs to the eardrum and hearing device microphones are qualitatively different from between-subject differences and can be described as a partial destruction rather than an alteration of relevant cues, although spectral difference metrics produce similar results. Dummy heads do not fully reflect the results with individual subjects.

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Reliability in Measuring Head Related Transfer Functions of Hearing Aids

Cited by 3 publications

References 6 publications

Personalized signal-independent beamforming for binaural hearing aids

Personalized signal-independent beamforming for binaural hearing aids

A framework for geometry acquisition, 3-D printing, simulation, and measurement of head-related transfer functions with a focus on hearing-assistive devices

Spectral directional cues captured by hearing device microphones in individual human ears

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