PMID- 22712946
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20120921
LR  - 20120620
IS  - 1520-8524 (Electronic)
IS  - 0001-4966 (Linking)
VI  - 131
IP  - 6
DP  - 2012 Jun
TI  - Localization of virtual sound sources with bilateral hearing aids in realistic 
      acoustical scenes.
PG  - 4732-42
LID - 10.1121/1.4705292 [doi]
AB  - Sound localization with hearing aids has traditionally been investigated in 
      artificial laboratory settings. These settings are not representative of 
      environments in which hearing aids are used. With individual Head-Related 
      Transfer Functions (HRTFs) and room simulations, realistic environments can be 
      reproduced and the performance of hearing aid algorithms can be evaluated. In 
      this study, four different environments with background noise have been 
      implemented in which listeners had to localize different sound sources. The HRTFs 
      were measured inside the ear canals of the test subjects and by the microphones 
      of Behind-The-Ear (BTEs) hearing aids. In the first experiment the system for 
      virtual acoustics was evaluated by comparing perceptual sound localization 
      results for the four scenes in a real room with a simulated one. In the second 
      experiment, sound localization with three BTE algorithms, an omnidirectional 
      microphone, a monaural cardioid-shaped beamformer and a monaural noise canceler, 
      was examined. The results showed that the system for generating virtual 
      environments is a reliable tool to evaluate sound localization with hearing aids. 
      With BTE hearing aids localization performance decreased and the number of 
      front-back confusions was at chance level. The beamformer, due to its directivity 
      characteristics, allowed the listener to resolve the front-back ambiguity.
FAU - Mueller, Martin F
AU  - Mueller MF
AD  - Laboratory for Experimental Audiology, University Hospital Zurich, Zurich 8091, 
      Switzerland. marmuell@gmail.com
FAU - Kegel, Andrea
AU  - Kegel A
FAU - Schimmel, Steven M
AU  - Schimmel SM
FAU - Dillier, Norbert
AU  - Dillier N
FAU - Hofbauer, Markus
AU  - Hofbauer M
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
PL  - United States
TA  - J Acoust Soc Am
JT  - The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America
JID - 7503051
SB  - IM
MH  - *Acoustics
MH  - Adult
MH  - Algorithms
MH  - Computer Simulation
MH  - Female
MH  - *Hearing Aids
MH  - Humans
MH  - Male
MH  - Noise/adverse effects
MH  - Sound Localization/*physiology
MH  - Sound Spectrography
EDAT- 2012/06/21 06:00
MHDA- 2012/09/22 06:00
CRDT- 2012/06/21 06:00
PHST- 2012/06/21 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2012/06/21 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2012/09/22 06:00 [medline]
AID - 10.1121/1.4705292 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - J Acoust Soc Am. 2012 Jun;131(6):4732-42. doi: 10.1121/1.4705292.