SPATIAL-CUE-BASED MULTI-BAND BINAURAL NOISE REDUCTION FOR HEARING AIDS

Abstract

A noise reduction algorithm for binaural hearing aids is proposed in this paper. The proposed algorithm suppresses the directional interferences and diffuse noise using the interaural time difference (ITD), interaural level difference (ILD) and interaural coherence cues via the time-frequency (T-F) masking process. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is evaluated under different specifications of ANSI-like filter banks for comprehending dominant factors in boosting the de-noise performance. Experimental results suggest that a higher resolution in low frequencies (approximately less than 1000 Hz) and a higher overlapping ratio of the filters are beneficial to de-noise performance in terms of sound quality.