The effects of fundamental frequency and formant space on speaker discrimination through bone-conducted ultrasonic hearing

Human listeners can perceive speech signals from a voicemodulated ultrasonic carrier which is presented through a boneconduction stimulator, even if they are sensorineural hearing loss patients. As an application of this phenomenon, we have been developing a bone-conducted ultrasonic hearing aid (BCUHA). This research examined whether formant space and F0 can be cues of speaker discrimination in BCU hearing as well as via air-conduction (AC) hearing. A series of speaker discrimination experiments revealed that both formant space and F0 can act as cues for speaker discrimination even via BCUHA. However, sensitivity to formant space in BCU hearing is less than in AC hearing.