Hearing in the presence of background noise is challenging enough for people with normal hearing. The problem is much worse for the hearing impaired. It is also a situation where traditional hearing aids don't perform well. In this project, researcher will use a 64 element microphone array. We will place the array in the center of a table while several people sitting at the table carry on a normal conversation to produce the Cocktail Party Effect . Using data collected from the microphone array, the student will develop algorithms to remove the background noise and amplify the current speaker. The current speaker can be identified based on signal strength or from the pose of the listener identified with a camera. This filtered signal will then be transmitted to the smart phone of a hearing impaired person wearing one or two headphones.
|
Author
Luting Yang, graduate student in Electrical and System Engineering department in Washington University in St.Louis AdvisorProfessor Arye Nehorai
Edward Richter |