Speech Dereverberation and Noise Reduction for both diffusive noise field and point noise source in Binaural Hearing Aids: Preliminary Version

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new variation of the multichannel Wiener filter method for binaural hearing aids that effectively reduces noise and reverberation while preserving the original spatial cues of residual noise, enhancing perceptual quality.

Contribution

A novel MWF-IC variation that maintains the spatial characteristics of residual noise in binaural hearing aids, applicable to both diffuse and point noise sources.

Findings

Objective measures show improved spatial cue preservation.

Preliminary psychoacoustic tests indicate perceptual benefits.

No significant performance loss in dereverberation and noise reduction.

Abstract

The multichannel Wiener filter (MWF) and its variations have been extensively applied to binaural hearing aids. However, its major drawback is the distortion of the binaural cues of the residual noise, changing the original acoustic scenario, which is of paramount importance for hearing impaired people. The MWF-IC method was previously proposed for joint speech dereverberation and noise reduction, preserving the interaural coherence (IC) of diffuse noise fields. In this work, we propose a new variation of the MWF-IC for both speech dereverberation and noise reduction, which preserves the original spatial characteristics of the residual noise for either diffuse fields or point sources. Objective measures and preliminary psychoacoustic experiments indicate the proposed method is capable of perceptually preserving the original spatialization of both types of noise, without significant performance loss in both speech dereverberation and noise reduction.