Low-complexity F0-based speech/nonspeech discrimination approach for digital hearing aids

  • Authors:

  • Pablo Cabañas Molero;Nicolas Ruiz Reyes;Pedro Vera Candeas;Saturnino Maldonado Bascon

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Jaén, Polytechnic School, Jaén, Spain;Department of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Jaén, Polytechnic School, Jaén, Spain;Department of Telecommunication Engineering, University of Jaén, Polytechnic School, Jaén, Spain;Department of Signal Theory and Communications, University of Alcalá, Polytechnic School, Madrid, Spain

  • Venue:
  • Multimedia Tools and Applications
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Digital hearing aids impose strong complexity and memory constraints on digital signal processing algorithms that implement different applications. This paper proposes a low complexity approach for automatic sound classification in digital hearing aids. The proposed scheme, which operates on a frame-by-frame basis, consists of two stages: analysis stage and classification stage. The analysis stage provides a set of low-complexity signal features derived from fundamental frequency (F0) estimation. Here, F0 estimation is performed by a decimated difference function, which results in a reduced-complexity analysis stage. The classification stage has been designed with the aim of reducing the complexity while maintaining high accuracy rates. Three low-complexity classifiers have been evaluated (tree-based C4.5, 1-Nearest Neighbor (1-NN) and a Multilayer Perceptron (MLP)), the MLP being chosen because it provides the best accuracy rates and fits to the computational and memory constraints of ultra low-power DSP-based hearing aids. The classification stage is composed of a MLP classifier followed by a Hidden Markov Model (HMM), providing a good trade-off solution between complexity and classification accuracy rate. The goal of the proposed approach is to perform a robust discrimination among speech/nonspeech parts of audio signals in commercial digital hearing aids, the computational cost being a critical issue. For the experiments, an audio database including speech, music and noise signals has been used.