The First Cadenza Signal Processing Challenge: Improving Music for Those With a Hearing Loss

TL;DR

The Cadenza Signal Processing Challenge aims to develop innovative audio processing techniques to enhance music listening experiences for individuals with hearing loss, focusing on scenarios like headphone listening and car environments.

Contribution

This paper introduces a novel challenge framework for improving music quality for hearing-impaired listeners through signal processing tasks like source separation and noise reduction.

Findings

Development of personalized remixing techniques

Enhanced audio quality in noisy environments

Objective and subjective evaluation methods established

Abstract

The Cadenza project aims to improve the audio quality of music for those who have a hearing loss. This is being done through a series of signal processing challenges, to foster better and more inclusive technologies. In the first round, two common listening scenarios are considered: listening to music over headphones, and with a hearing aid in a car. The first scenario is cast as a demixing-remixing problem, where the music is decomposed into vocals, bass, drums and other components. These can then be intelligently remixed in a personalized way, to increase the audio quality for a person who has a hearing loss. In the second scenario, music is coming from car loudspeakers, and the music has to be enhanced to overcome the masking effect of the car noise. This is done by taking into account the music, the hearing ability of the listener, the hearing aid and the speed of the car. The audio quality of the submissions will be evaluated using the Hearing Aid Audio Quality Index (HAAQI) for objective assessment and by a panel of people with hearing loss for subjective evaluation.