A recent trend in hearing aids is the connection of the left and right devices to collaborate between them. Binaural systems can provide natural binaural hearing and support the improvement of speech intelligibility in noise, but they require data transmission between both devices, which increases the power consumption. This paper presents a novel sound source separation algorithm for binaural ...

Spatial hearing skills are essential for children as they grow, learn and play. These skills provide critical cues for determining the locations of sources in the environment, and enable segregation of important sounds, such as speech, from background maskers or interferers. Spatial hearing depends on availability of monaural cues and binaural cues. The latter result from integration of inputs ...

When two white noises differing only in phase in a particular frequency range are presented simultaneously each to one of our ears, a pitch sensation may be perceived inside the head. This phenomenon, called ’binaural pitch’ or ’dichotic pitch’, can be produced by frequency-dependent interaural phasedifference patterns. The evaluation of these interaural phase differences depends on the functio...

Binaural room synthesis is a sound reproduction technology that is, for a normal hearing listener, based on convolution of the sound signals to be reproduced with the impulse responses of the sound pressure propagation paths from the sources to be simulated to the listener’s eardrums. The convolution products are then presented by adequately equalized, appropriate headphones. The simulation of ...

Binaural cortical responses are mixtures of inputs from both ears. We introduce here a novel method that allows, for the first time, to selectively follow these inputs in humans up to the cortex during binaural hearing. We recorded neuromagnetic cortical responses to amplitude-modulated continuous tones, with different modulation frequencies at each ear. During binaural hearing, the left- and r...

OBJECTIVE Hearing loss can significantly impair patient's quality of life, affecting communicative behavior, emotional and social function. This study assesses the impact of hearing aids on the quality of life of patients in a rural area and its correlation with socio-economic factors. MATERIALS-METHODS Thirty patients (18 male, 12 female), with bilateral sensorineural hearing loss of variabl...

While hearing in noise is a complex task, even in high levels of noise humans demonstrate remarkable hearing ability. Binaural hearing, which involves the integration and analysis of incoming sounds from both ears, is an important mechanism that promotes hearing in complex listening environments. Analyzing inter-ear differences helps differentiate between sound sources--a key mechanism that fac...

BACKGROUND There is a paucity of published studies examining how children with hearing loss understand speech over the telephone. Previous studies on adults with hearing aids have suggested that adults with bilateral hearing aids experience significant difficulty recognizing speech on the telephone when listening with one ear, but the provision of telephone input to both ears substantially impr...

This thesis developed methods of presenting two speech envelope cues in the small bandwidth likely to be available to people with severe hearing impairments. Identifying such methods could facilitate face-to-face communication substantially. Seven presentation conditions were evaluated. Two of the conditions, the OneEnvelope Monaural and the Two-Envelope Monaural, were developed by Grant, Braid...

There are significant challenges to restoring binaural hearing to children who have been deaf from an early age. The uncoordinated and poor temporal information available from cochlear implants distorts perception of interaural timing differences normally important for sound localization and listening in noise. Moreover, binaural development can be compromised by bilateral and unilateral audito...