SS01: NOISE REDUCTION IN HEARINGS AIDS AND ITS EVALUATION

EVALUATION OF NOISE REDUCTION ALGORITHMS: METHODS AND STRATEGIES

Jürgen Kiessling

Justus-Liebig University Giessen, Germany.

The evaluation of noise reduction algorithms in hearing instruments can be structured in verification and validation procedures. The domain of hearing aid verification includes coupler and real ear measurements testing to what extent the signal-to-noise ratio can be improved technically, and whether the hearing aid works as intended. On the other hand, validation procedures target on hearing aid performance, benefit for and satisfaction of the end user. This paper focuses on methods and strategies in hearing aid validation as the verification domain is covered in a separate session. Noise reduction algorithms can be validated by SRT measurements or other speech testing in different types of background noise (unmodulated/modulated, non-speech/speech, meaningful/meaningless etc.), assessment of listening effort, and sound quality measurements in the lab. The use of virtual acoustic environments can also be helpful for the evaluation of noise reduction algorithms. The most important factor, however, is hearing aid performance in everyday life to be assessed by questionnaires and hearing diaries. Finally, the feature of datalogging has proved to be a useful tool for the validation of noise reduction schemes as it reveals how listening programs tailored for noisy situations are actually used in the field.

Email: juergen.kiessling@hno.med.uni-giessen.de