Article
Head movements during speech in noise tests and their effects on speech recognition
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Authors
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Larissa Jäger
- Deutsches Hörgeräte Institut GmbH, Lübeck, DE
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Florian Denk
- Deutsches Hörgeräte Institut GmbH, Lübeck, DE
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Alexandra Winkler
- Institut für Hörtechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule, Oldenburg, DE
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Inga Holube
- Institut für Hörtechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule, Oldenburg, DE
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Tobias Sankowsky-Rothe
- Institut für Hörtechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule, Oldenburg, DE
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Matthias Blau
- Institut für Hörtechnik und Audiologie, Jade Hochschule, Oldenburg, DE
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Hendrik Husstedt
- Deutsches Hörgeräte Institut GmbH, Lübeck, DE
| Published: | March 1, 2023 |
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Outline
Text
Speech tests in noise can be used to evaluate the success of a hearing aid fitting by comparing speech recognition scores with and without hearing aids. In practical applications, however, speech recognition scores can be affected by several factors such as room acoustics or noise source direction. Even when these factors are kept constant, the orientation of the listener’s head can be another influential factor. Head movements mainly help listeners to localize sound sources but also to improve speech recognition in noise. By turning the head, interaural time and level differences (ITD and ILD) as well as spectral cues can be increased to improve speech recognition in noise [1]. Especially when making sequential speech recognition measurements in noise, e.g., for hearing aid evaluation, different head orientations can reduce the comparability of the results. To evaluate the effects of head orientation on speech recognition in noise, head movements of normal-hearing participants were monitored with a headtracker. Three translational movements: front-back (x), right-left (y), up-down (z) and three rotational movements: yaw, pitch and roll were monitored while the Freiburg monosyllabic speech test in noise was performed. Head orientations were measured for five typical spatial configurations of speech (S) and noise (N) signals: S0N0, S0N±45, S0N±90, S0N180, S±45N∓45 in six different rooms. Effects of head orientations on SRT were predicted using the binaural speech intelligibility model (BSIM) [2], based on binaural room impulse responses measured on KEMAR with positions and head orientations adapted to those occurring in the participants. The results show that the loudspeaker configuration or position of the experimenter did not influence the participants’ head position systematically. The participants slightly moved their heads back (x direction) and up (pitch) over time. Further, random movements in the range of several degrees and cm occur. Speech recognition scores are most critically affected for the speaker configuration S0N180, with predicted SRT differences of several dB for the typically occurring head movements.
References
- 1.
- Grange JA, Culling JF. The benefit of head orientation to speech intelligibility in noise. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2016;139(2):703–12.
- 2.
- Beutelmann R, Brand T, Kollmeier B. Revision, extension, and evaluation of a binaural speech intelligibility model. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 2010;127(4):2479–97.
