Intelligibility of Digital Speech Masked by Noise: Normal Hearing and Hearing Impaired Listeners
Abstract
The intelligibility in noise of normal and digital speech (ADPCM, CVSD, LPC-10 vocoders) was measured for normal hearing and hearing impaired listeners. The digitally coded speech was generally less intelligible than normal speech, however the highest quality digital system provided speech that was similar in intelligibility to normal speech. The speech from some digital systems was more vulnerable to noise masking than from others. Hearing impaired persons with no prior experience listening to digital speech required more time to attain maximum listening performance than normal hearing listeners. The rank ordering of intelligibility of the three types of digital speech was the same for the hearing impaired as for the normal hearing listeners. persons with moderate hearing loss will have greater difficulty than normal hearing listeners in understanding digital speech in noise. Personnel with hearing impairment using digital speech systems in operational noise environment may be contributing to voice communication problems attributed only to the digital speech.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1990
- Accession Number
- ADA234852
Entities
People
- Charles W. Nixon
- Mark S. Stephenson
- Michael J. Jacobs
- Richard L. McKinley
- Vernie G. Fisher
Organizations
- Armstrong Laboratory