Output details

Objective prediction of the sound quality of music processed by an adaptive feedback canceller

Significance of output:

Several million British people suffer from hearing impairment and may benefit from hearing aids (Davis,A., 1998). A common problem with hearing aids is feedback producing an annoying whistle. Adaptive feedback cancellation can reduce this problem and allow smaller, more comfortable ear moulds. However cancellation can produce unpleasant sounding distortion. This paper describes a reliable method to predict, without the necessity for expensive subjective testing, the annoyance of hearing aid cancellers, leading to a potential reduction in development costs for new hearing aids. As a result of this work, the first author was employed by Siemens developing hearing aids.