Matching Items (2)
Description
Following the success in incorporating perceptual models in audio coding algorithms, their application in other speech/audio processing systems is expanding. In general, all perceptual speech/audio processing algorithms involve minimization of an objective function that directly/indirectly incorporates properties of human perception. This dissertation primarily investigates the problems associated with directly embedding an auditory model in the objective function formulation and proposes possible solutions to overcome high complexity issues for use in real-time speech/audio algorithms. Specific problems addressed in this dissertation include: 1) the development of approximate but computationally efficient auditory model implementations that are consistent with the principles of psychoacoustics, 2) the development of a mapping scheme that allows synthesizing a time/frequency domain representation from its equivalent auditory model output. The first problem is aimed at addressing the high computational complexity involved in solving perceptual objective functions that require repeated application of auditory model for evaluation of different candidate solutions. In this dissertation, a frequency pruning and a detector pruning algorithm is developed that efficiently implements the various auditory model stages. The performance of the pruned model is compared to that of the original auditory model for different types of test signals in the SQAM database. Experimental results indicate only a 4-7% relative error in loudness while attaining up to 80-90 % reduction in computational complexity. Similarly, a hybrid algorithm is developed specifically for use with sinusoidal signals and employs the proposed auditory pattern combining technique together with a look-up table to store representative auditory patterns. The second problem obtains an estimate of the auditory representation that minimizes a perceptual objective function and transforms the auditory pattern back to its equivalent time/frequency representation. This avoids the repeated application of auditory model stages to test different candidate time/frequency vectors in minimizing perceptual objective functions. In this dissertation, a constrained mapping scheme is developed by linearizing certain auditory model stages that ensures obtaining a time/frequency mapping corresponding to the estimated auditory representation. This paradigm was successfully incorporated in a perceptual speech enhancement algorithm and a sinusoidal component selection task.
ContributorsKrishnamoorthi, Harish (Author) / Spanias, Andreas (Thesis advisor) / Papandreou-Suppappola, Antonia (Committee member) / Tepedelenlioğlu, Cihan (Committee member) / Tsakalis, Konstantinos (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
Sound localization can be difficult in a reverberant environment. Fortunately listeners can utilize various perceptual compensatory mechanisms to increase the reliability of sound localization when provided with ambiguous physical evidence. For example, the directional information of echoes can be perceptually suppressed by the direct sound to achieve a single, fused auditory event in a process called the precedence effect (Litovsky et al., 1999). Visual cues also influence sound localization through a phenomenon known as the ventriloquist effect. It is classically demonstrated by a puppeteer who speaks without visible lip movements while moving the mouth of a puppet synchronously with his/her speech (Gelder and Bertelson, 2003). If the ventriloquist is successful, sound will be “captured” by vision and be perceived to be originating at the location of the puppet. This thesis investigates the influence of vision on the spatial localization of audio-visual stimuli. Participants seated in a sound-attenuated room indicated their perceived locations of either ISI or level-difference stimuli in free field conditions. Two types of stereophonic phantom sound sources, created by modulating the inter-stimulus time interval (ISI) or level difference between two loudspeakers, were used as auditory stimuli. The results showed that the light cues influenced auditory spatial perception to a greater extent for the ISI stimuli than the level difference stimuli. A binaural signal analysis further revealed that the greater visual bias for the ISI phantom sound sources was correlated with the increasingly ambiguous binaural cues of the ISI signals. This finding suggests that when sound localization cues are unreliable, perceptual decisions become increasingly biased towards vision for finding a sound source. These results support the cue saliency theory underlying cross-modal bias and extend this theory to include stereophonic phantom sound sources.
ContributorsMontagne, Christopher (Author) / Zhou, Yi (Thesis advisor) / Buneo, Christopher A (Thesis advisor) / Yost, William A. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015