Improving speech intelligibility using microphones on behind the ear hearing aids

Abstract

Hearing aids have a great potential to facilitate better speech communication not only for hearing impaired users but also for people with normal hearing since the device will allow users to render sound with better speech intelligibility using signal processing techniques. This paper studies how a sound source separation technique would enable improving the intelligibility of a targeted speech when the technique is applied to the behind-the-ear hearing aids which has multiple microphones on each device. The sound source separation technique utilised in this study is based on the beamforming with post-filter framework and separates sound arriving from different direction. Experimental results using microphones attached to a head and torso simulator suggest the speech intelligibility can be improved by emphasising the target speech while suppressing sound from other angles.