The speech intelligibility index (SII) (ANSI S3.5-1997) provides a means for estimating speech intelligibility under conditions of additive stationary noise or bandwidth reduction. The SII concept for estimating intelligibility is extended in this paper to include broadband peak-clipping and center-clipping distortion, with the coherence between the input and output signals used to estimate the noise and distortion effects. The speech intelligibility predictions using the new procedure are compared with intelligibility scores obtained from normal-hearing and hearing-impaired subjects for conditions of additive noise and peak-clipping and center-clipping distortion. The most effective procedure divides the speech signal into low-, mid-, and high-level regions, computes the coherence SII separately for the signal segments in each region, and then estimates intelligibility from a weighted combination of the three coherence SII values.
REFERENCES
1.
Allen
, J. B.
, Hall
, J. L.
, and Jeng
, P. S.
(1990
). “Loudness growth in -octave bands—a procedure for the assessment of loudness
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
88
, 745
–753
.2.
ANSI S3.22-1996 (1996). American National Standard: Specification of Hearing Aid Characteristics (American National Standards Institute, New York).
3.
ANSI S3.42-1992 (1992). American National Standard: Testing Hearing Aids with a Broadband Noise Signal (American National Standards Institute, New York).
4.
ANSI S3.5-1997 (1997). American National Standard: Methods for the Calculation of the Speech Intelligibility Index (American National Standards Institute, New York).
5.
ANSI S3.6-1989 (1989). American National Standard: Specification for Audiometers (American National Standards Institute, New York).
6.
Byrne
, D.
, and Dillon
, H.
(1986
). “The National Acoustics Laboratories’ (NAL) new procedure for selecting the gain and frequency response of a hearing aid
,” Ear Hear.
7
, 257
–265
.7.
Carter
, G. C.
, Knapp
, C. H.
, and Nuttall
, A. H.
(1973
). “Estimation of the magnitude-squared coherence function via overlapped fast Fourier transform processing
,” IEEE Trans. Audio Electroacoust.
21
, 337
–344
.8.
CCITT (1986). “Objective evaluation of non-linear distortion effects on voice transmission quality,” CCITT Study Group XII, Communication XII No. 8.
9.
CCITT (1987). “Re-evaluation of the objective method for measurement of non-linear distortion,” CCITT Study Group XII, Communication XII-175-E.
10.
Ching
, T. Y. C.
, Dillon
, H.
, and Byrne
, D.
(1998
). “Speech recognition of hearing-impaired listeners: Predictions from audibility and the limited role of high-frequency amplification
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
103
, 1128
–1140
.11.
Crain
, T.
, and Van Tasel
, D. J.
(1994
). “Effect of peak clipping on speech recognition threshold
,” Ear Hear.
15
, 443
–453
.12.
Dubno
, J. R.
, and Schaefer
, A. B.
(1991
). “Frequency selectivity for hearing-impaired and broadband-noise masked normal listeners
,” Q. J. Exp. Psychol.
43
, 543
–564
.13.
Dyrlund
, O.
(1989
). “Characterization of non-linear distortion in hearing aids using coherence: A pilot study
,” Scand. Audiol.
18
, 143
–148
.14.
Eisenberg
, L. S.
, Dirks
, D. D.
, Takayanagi
, S.
, and Martinez
, A. S.
(1998
). “Subjective judgments of clarity and intelligibility for filtered stimuli with equivalent speech intelligibility index predictions
,” J. Speech Lang. Hear. Res.
41
, 327
–339
.15.
Festen
, J. M.
, and Plomp
, R.
(1990
). “Effects of fluctuating noise and interfering speech on the speech reception threshold for impaired and normal hearing
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
88
, 1725
–1736
.16.
Fletcher
, H.
, and Galt
, R. H.
(1950
). “The perception of speech and its relation to telephony
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
22
, 89
–151
.17.
Fortune
, T. W.
, and Preves
, D. A.
(1992
). “Hearing aid saturation and aided loudness discomfort
,” J. Speech Hear. Res.
35
, 175
–185
.18.
French
, N. R.
, and Steinberg
, J. C.
(1947
). “Factors governing the intelligibility of speech sounds
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
19
, 90
–119
.19.
Gagné
, J.-P.
(1983
). “Excess masking among listeners with a sensorineural hearing loss
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
83
, 2311
–2321
.20.
Glasberg
, B. R.
, and Moore
, B. C. J.
(1986
). “Auditory filter shapes with unilateral and bilateral cochlear impairments
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
79
, 1020
–1033
.21.
Gordon-Salant
, S.
, and Fitzgibbons
, P.
(1995
). “Comparing recognition of distorted speech using an equivalent signal-to-noise ratio
,” J. Speech Hear. Res.
38
, 706
–713
.22.
Greenberg, S. (2005). “A multi-tier framework for understanding spoken language,” to appear in Listening to Speech: An Auditory Perspective, edited by S. Greenberg and W. Ainsworth (Erlbaum, Mahwah, NJ).
23.
Hornsby
, B. W. Y.
, and Ricketts
, T. A.
(2003
). “The effects of hearing loss on the contributions of high- and low-frequency speech information to speech understanding
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
113
, 1706
–1717
.24.
Houtgast
, T.
, and Steeneken
, H. J. M.
(1985
). “A review of the MTF concept in room acoustics and its use for estimating speech intelligibility in auditoria
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
77
, 1069
–1077
.25.
Kates
, J. M.
(1987
). “The short-time articulation index
,” J. Rehabil. Res. Dev.
24
, 271
–276
.26.
Kates
, J. M.
(1992
). “On using coherence to measure distortion in hearing aids
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
91
, 2236
–2244
.27.
Kates
, J. M.
(2000
). “Cross-correlation procedures for measuring noise and distortion in hearing aids
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
107
, 3407
–3414
.28.
Kates
, J. M.
, and Arehart
, K. H.
(2004
). “A metric for evaluating speech intelligibility and quality in hearing aids
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
116
, 2536
–2537
.29.
Kates
, J. M.
, and Kozma-Spytek
, L.
(1994
). “Quality ratings for frequency-shaped peak-clipped speech
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
95
, 3586
–3594
.30.
Knagenhjelm, H. P., and Kleijn, W. B. (1995). “Spectral dynamics is more important than spectral distortion,” Proc. IEEE Int. Conf. on Acoust. Speech and Sig. Proc., Detroit.
31.
Kozma-Spytek
, L.
, Kates
, J. M.
, and Revoile
, S. G.
(1996
). “Quality ratings for frequency-shaped peak-clipped speech: Results for listeners with hearing loss
,” J. Speech Hear. Res.
39
, 1115
–1123
.32.
Kryter
, K. D.
(1962
). “Methods for the calculation and use of the Articulation Index
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
34
, 1689
–1697
.33.
Licklider
, J. C. R.
(1946
). “Effects of amplitude distortion upon the intelligibility of speech
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
18
, 429
–434
.34.
Ludvigsen
, C.
(1987
). “Prediction of speech intelligibility for normal-hearing and cochlearly hearing-impaired listeners
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
82
, 1162
–1171
.35.
Magnusson
, L.
, Karlsson
, M.
, and Leijon
, A.
(2001
). “Predicted and measured speech recognition performance in noise with linear amplification
,” Ear Hear.
22
, 46
–57
.36.
Moore
, B. C. J.
, and Glasberg
, B. R.
(1983
). “Suggested formulas for calculating auditory-filter bandwidths and excitation patterns
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
74
, 750
–753
.37.
Nelder
, J. A.
, and Mead
, R.
(1965
). “A simplex method for function minimization
,” Comput. J.
7
, 308
–313
.38.
Nilsson
, M.
, Soli
, S. D.
, and Sullivan
, J.
(1994
). “Development of the hearing in noise test for the measurement of speech reception thresholds in quiet and in noise
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
95
, 1085
–99
.39.
Oxenham
, A. J.
, and Bacon
, S. P.
(2003
). “Cochlear compression: Perceptual measures and implications for normal and impaired hearing
,” Ear Hear.
24
, 352
–366
.40.
Palmer
, C. V.
, Killion
, M. C.
, Wilber
, L. A.
, and Ballad
, W. J.
(1995
). “Comparison of two hearing aid receiver-amplifier combinations using sound quality judgments
,” Ear Hear.
16
, 587
–598
.41.
Pavlovic
, C. V.
(1984
). “Use of the articulation index for assessing residual auditory functions in listeners with sensorineural hearing impairment
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
75
, 1253
–1258
.42.
Pavlovic
, C. V.
, Studebaker
, G. A.
, and Sherbecoe
, R. L.
(1986
). “An articulation index based procedure for predicting the speech recognition performance of hearing-impaired individuals
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
80
, 50
–57
.43.
Payton
, K. L.
, and Braida
, L. D.
(1999
). “A method to determine the speech transmission index from speech waveforms
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
106
, 3637
–3648
.44.
Peters
, R. W.
, Moore
, B. C. J.
, and Baer
, T.
(1998
). “Speech reception thresholds in noise with and without spectral and temporal dips for hearing-impaired and normally hearing people
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
103
, 577
–587
.45.
Plomp
, R.
(1988
). “The negative effect of amplitude compression in multichannel hearing aids in the light of the modulation transfer function
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
83
, 2322
–2327
.46.
Preminger
, J. E.
, and Van Tasell
, D. J.
(1995
). “Quantifying the relation between speech quality and speech intelligibility
,” J. Speech Hear. Res.
38
, 714
–725
.47.
Preves
, D. A.
(1990
). “Expressing hearing aid noise and distortion with coherence measurements
,” Am. Speech Hear. Assoc.
32
, 56
–59
.48.
Preves
, D. A.
, Beck
, L. B.
, Burnett
, E. D.
, and Teder
, H.
(1989
). “Input stimuli for obtaining frequency responses of automatic gain control hearing aids
,” J. Speech Hear. Res.
32
, 189
–194
.49.
Rankovic
, C. M.
(1998
). “Factors governing speech reception benefits of adaptive linear filtering for listeners with sensorineural hearing loss
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
103
, 1043
–1057
.50.
Reger
, S. N.
(1936
). “Differences in loudness response of the normal and hard-of-hearing at intensity levels slightly above threshold
,” Ann. Otol. Rhinol. Laryngol.
45
, 1029
–1036
.51.
Rhebergen
, K. S.
, and Versfeld
, N. J.
(2004
). “An SII-based approach to predict the speech intelligibility in fluctuating noise for normal-hearing listeners
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
115
, 2394
.52.
Schneider
, T.
, and Jamieson
, D. G.
(1995
). “Using maximum length sequence coherence for broadband distortion measurements in hearing aids
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
97
, 2282
–2292
.53.
Steeneken
, H. J. M.
, and Houtgast
, T
(1980
). “A physical method for measuring speech-transmission quality
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
67
, 318
–326
.54.
Tan
, C.-T.
, Moore
, B. C. J.
, Zacharov
, N.
, and Matilla
, V.-M.
(2004
). “Predicting the perceived quality of nonlinearly distorted music and speech signals
,” J. Audio Eng. Soc.
52
, 699
–711
.55.
Tyler, R. S. (1986). “Frequency resolution in hearing-impaired listeners,” Frequency Selectivity in Hearing, edited by B. C. J. Moore (Academic, London), pp. 309–371.
56.
Yoo, S., Boston, R., Durrant, J. D., Kovacyk, K., Karn, S., Shaiman, S., El-Jaroudi, A., and Li, C-C. (2004). “Relative energy and intelligibility of transient speech components,” Proc. EUSIPCO, Vienna, 6–10 September.
57.
Zwicker
, E.
(1961
). “Subdivision of the audible frequency range into critical bands
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
33
, 248
.58.
Zwicker
, E.
, and Terhardt
, E.
(1980
). “Analytical expressions for critical-band rate and critical bandwidth as a function of frequency
,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am.
68
, 1523
–1525
.
This content is only available via PDF.
© 2005 Acoustical Society of America.
2005
Acoustical Society of America
You do not currently have access to this content.