A fundamental frequency estimator for the real-time processing of musical sounds for cochlear implants

  • Authors:

  • Justin A. Zakis;Hugh J. McDermott;Andrew E. Vandali

  • Affiliations:

  • The Co-operative Research Centre for Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid Innovation, 384-388 Albert St., East Melbourne, Vic. 3002, Australia and The Bionic Ear Institute, 384-388 Albert St., East Me ...;The Department of Otolaryngology, The University of Melbourne, 32 Gisborne St, East Melbourne, Vic. 3002, Australia;The Co-operative Research Centre for Cochlear Implant and Hearing Aid Innovation, 384-388 Albert St., East Melbourne, Vic. 3002, Australia and The Bionic Ear Institute, 384-388 Albert St., East Me ...

  • Venue:
  • Speech Communication
  • Year:
  • 2007

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

A real-time fundamental frequency (F"0) estimator that operates in the frequency domain was developed for the processing of musical sounds in cochlear-implant (CI) sound processors. Its performance was evaluated with male and female sung-vowel stimuli in quiet, and in white noise and babble noise. The error rates of the developed F"0 estimator were much lower than those of a temporal F"0 estimator that was previously used in CI sound processors, and were comparable to the published error rates of F"0 estimators that were designed for other applications and evaluated with speech or musical instrument stimuli. It is envisaged that the experimental F"0 estimator will be used in advanced CI coding strategies to improve the perception of pitch by CI users, which may result in improved perception of musical sounds, as well as improved speech perception for tonal languages.