Broadband beamforming compensation algorithm in CI front-end acquisition

BACKGROUND To increase the signal to noise ratio (SNR) and to suppress directional noise in front-end signal acquisition, microphone array technologies are being applied in the cochlear implant (CI). Due to size constraints, the dual microphone-based system is most suitable for actual application. However, direct application of the array technology will result in the low frequency roll-off problem, which can noticeably distort the desired signal. METHODS In this paper, we theoretically analyze the roll-off characteristic on the basis of CI parameters and present a new low-complexity compensation algorithm. We obtain the linearized frequency response of the two-microphone array from modeling and analysis for further algorithm realization. REALIZATION AND RESULTS: Linear method was used to approximate the theoretical response with adjustable delay and weight parameters. A CI dual-channel hardware platform is constructed for experimental research. Experimental results show that our algorithm performs well in compensation and realization. DISCUSSIONS We discuss the effect from environment noise. Actual daily noise with more low-frequency energy will weaken the algorithm performance. A balance between low-frequency distortion and corresponding low-frequency noise need to be considered. CONCLUSIONS Our novel compensation algorithm uses linear function to obtain the desired system response, which is a low computational-complexity method for CI real-time processing. Algorithm performance is tested in CI CIS modulation and the influence of experimental distance and environmental noise were further analyzed to evaluate algorithm constraint.