A method for evaluating the relation between sound source segregation and masking

Sound source segregation refers to the ability to hear as separate entities two or more sound sources comprising a mixture. Masking refers to the ability of one sound to make another sound difficult to hear. Often in studies, masking is assumed to result from a failure of segregation, but this assumption may not always be correct. Here a method is offered to identify the relation between masking and sound source segregation in studies and an example is given of its application.     

Correlation functions and pressure of a nonisothermal plasma

Expressions are obtained for the correlation functions of a classical nonisothermal two-component plasma. In the limiting case _{e i} strong correlations arise because of the presence of weakly-damped waves (ion acoustic waves) with a phase velocity lying between the thermal velocities of the particles u_e /k u_i. Under such conditions the correction to the pressure because of Coulomb interaction changes sign in comparison with the case of thermodynamic equilibrium, when there are no such waves.     

耳机重发下延迟时间对空间分离前向掩蔽效应影响的研究

采用耳机虚拟声重发的方法,探讨了掩蔽信号和被掩蔽信号在水平面方向分离的情况下延迟时间对前向掩蔽效应的影响。结果表明,掩蔽阈值有随延迟时间增加而下降较多的总体趋势。而且,在水平面空间分离的情况下,掩蔽阈值存在差值,最大为15 dB左右。但在掩蔽声的声压级较大时(如70 dB),在延迟时间20~40 ms处出现掩蔽阈值差值的小幅度上升。通过对时间积分效应和基膜响应的分析,这一实验结果能得到合理的解释。     

The influence of time delay on forward masking when spatially separated sound image reproduced with headphone

With the virtual reproduction of headphone, the influence of delay time between masker and masked signal on forward masking when sound images are virtually spatial separated in azimuth is studied. The result shows that the thresholds tend to decrease dramatically with the increase in delay time. Furthermore, in case of spatial separation, there are differences of masking thresholds with the maximum about 15 dB. However, when the masker level is 70 dB, the difference of the thresholds increases a little as the delay time increases from 20 ms to 40 ms, which can be explained by the time integration effect and basilar membrane response.     

Effect of adding artificial reverberation to speech-like masking sound

Time-reversed speech has been known to effectively mask information for speech privacy applications. However, the annoyance and distraction caused by the time-reversed speech-like masking sound is higher than other masking sound. This study investigates the effects of adding artificial reverberation to the time-reversed speech. Subjective listening tests have been conducted to measure the intelligibility of target speech, annoyance and distraction caused by the masking sound. The experimental results suggest that adding artificial reverberation to a speech-like masking sound has a significant effect to reduce the annoyance level while maintaining the masking effectiveness of the original masking sound. A trend was also observed that the addition of artificial reverberation could reduce the level of distraction caused by the masking sound.     

Role of suppression and retro-cochlear processes in comodulation masking release

Recent physiological studies suggest that comodulation masking release (CMR) could be a consequence of wideband inhibition at the level of the cochlear nucleus. The present study investigates whether the existence region of psychophysical CMR is comparable to the inhibitory areas of units showing a physiological correlate of CMR. Since the inhibitory areas are similar to suppressive regions at the level of the basilar membrane, the amount of CMR that can be accounted for by suppression was determined by predicting the data with a model incorporating a peripheral nonlinearity. A CMR of up to 6 dB could still be experimentally observed for a flanking band (FB) four octaves below the on-frequency masker (OFM). For FB frequencies below the OFM, the suggested model predicts CMR equal to the measured CMR for high levels of the FB. The model underestimates the magnitude of CMR for midlevels of the FB, indicating that suppression alone cannot account for CMR. The data are consistent with the hypothesis that wideband inhibition plays a role in CMR.     

Note on the relationship of sound pressure and sound intensity

It is usual to calculate the sound pressure at a given location by energy addition of all relevant components. Another approach considers the sound power per unit area. This note shows that the two approaches lead to different results for ideal line or planar sources. The calculated sound pressure level is higher than expected on the basis of sound intensity. For this reason, the use of sound pressure levels measured close to a source leads to a sound power estimate which is too high.     

Comodulation masking release as a function of bandwidth and time delay between on-frequency and flanking-band maskers

The threshold for a signal masked by a narrow band of noise centered at the signal frequency (the on-frequency band) may be reduced by adding to the masker a second band of noise (the flanking band) whose envelope is correlated with that of the first band, an effect called comodulation masking release (CMR). This paper examines CMR as a function of masker bandwidth and time delay between the envelopes of the on-frequency and flanking bands. The 1.0-kHz sinusoidal signal had a duration of 400 ms. The on-frequency band was presented alone (reference condition) or with the flanking band. The flanking-band envelope was either correlated or uncorrelated with that of the on-frequency band. Flanking-band center frequencies ranged from 0.25-2.0 kHz. The flanking band was presented either in the same ear as the on-frequency band (monaural condition) or in the opposite ear (dichotic condition). The noise bands had bandwidths of 6.25, 25, or 100 Hz. In the correlated conditions, the flanking-band envelope was delayed with respect to that of the on-frequency band by 0, 5, 10, or 20 ms. For the 100-Hz bandwidth, CMRs were small (typically less than 1 dB) in both monaural and dichotic conditions at all delay times. For the 25-Hz bandwidth, CMRs were about 3.5 dB for the 0-ms delay, and decreased to about 1.5 dB for the 20-ms delay. For the 6.25-Hz bandwidth, CMRs averaged about 5 dB and were almost independent of delay time. The results suggest that the absolute delay time is not the critical variable determining CMR. The magnitude of CMR appears to depend on the correlation between the envelopes of the on-frequency and flanking bands. However, the results do not support a model of CMR that assumes that signal threshold corresponds to a constant change in across-band envelope correlation when the correlation is transformed to Fisher's z.     

Isentropic compressibility, effective pressure, classical sound absorption and shear relaxation time of aqueous lithium bromide, sodium bromide and potassium bromide solutions

Densities, speeds of sound and viscosities of aqueous lithium bromide, sodium bromide and potassium bromide solutions were measured as functions of concentration (0.0085≤m (mol kg⁻¹)≤14.06) and temperature (273.15≤T(K)≤323.15). Allied properties like isentropic compressibilities, effective pressure, classical sound absorption and shear relaxation time were calculated by using the measured data. The interaction in these three bromide solutions vary in the order of NaBr>KBr>LiBr. The primary hydration shells are saturated at 10.8, 5.1 and 5.8 mol kg⁻¹ with 5.1, 10.9 and 9.6 number of water molecules in the primary hydration shell of lithium bromide, sodium bromide and potassium bromide solutions respectively. The cationic environment is found to influence the hydration phenomena of the anion.

The non-Arrhenius temperature dependence of shear relaxation time were analysed by using the Vogel-Tammann-Fulcher (VTF) equation. The concentration dependence of shear relaxation time is different in these three bromide solutions. Such an effect is attributed to the competitive effects of hydrogen bonding, structure forming/breaking effect of ions and the formation of ion pairs.     

Examination of bone-conducted transmission from sound field excitation measured by thresholds, ear-canal sound pressure, and skull vibrations

Bone conduction (BC) relative to air conduction (AC) sound field sensitivity is here defined as the perceived difference between a sound field transmitted to the ear by BC and by AC. Previous investigations of BC-AC sound field sensitivity have used different estimation methods and report estimates that vary by up to 20 dB at some frequencies. In this study, the BC-AC sound field sensitivity was investigated by hearing threshold shifts, ear canal sound pressure measurements, and skull bone vibrations measured with an accelerometer. The vibration measurement produced valid estimates at 400 Hz and below, the threshold shifts produced valid estimates at 500 Hz and above, while the ear canal sound pressure measurements were found erroneous for estimating the BC-AC sound field sensitivity. The BC-AC sound field sensitivity is proposed, by combining the present result with others, as frequency independent at 50 to 60 dB at frequencies up to 900 Hz. At higher frequencies, it is frequency dependent with minima of 40 to 50 dB at 2 and 8 kHz, and a maximum of 50 to 60 dB at 4 kHz. The BC-AC sound field sensitivity is the theoretical limit of maximum attenuation achievable with ordinary hearing protection devices.     

Coupling between pressure and temperature amplitudes in waves of second sound in liquid helium

A very sensitive microphone suitable for acoustic measurements in liquid helium is described. With the use of it both, the pressure amplitude of second sound and the amplitude of first sound radiated from the second sound transmitter (carbon layer heater) can be detected. By a special extension of the reciprocity theory the first sound pressure response of the microphone and the second sound transmitter response can be measured. The measured pressure signals of first and second sound are compared with the results of the two-fluid theory.     

良导体导热系数实验中稳态时间、稳态温度与水流量的相关性

通过改变参数进行实验测定,分析了稳态法测量良导体导热系数实验中系统达到稳态的时间、水流量、稳定温度及测得导热系数结果的准确性等相关问题,提供了可供参考的经验数据,对学生实验过程有指导作用.     

Ipsilateral masking between acoustic and electric stimulations

Residual acoustic hearing can be preserved in the same ear following cochlear implantation with minimally traumatic surgical techniques and short-electrode arrays. The combined electric-acoustic stimulation significantly improves cochlear implant performance, particularly speech recognition in noise. The present study measures simultaneous masking by electric pulses on acoustic pure tones, or vice versa, to investigate electric-acoustic interactions and their underlying psychophysical mechanisms. Six subjects, with acoustic hearing preserved at low frequencies in their implanted ear, participated in the study. One subject had a fully inserted 24 mm Nucleus Freedom array and five subjects had Iowa/Nucleus hybrid implants that were only 10 mm in length. Electric masking data of the long-electrode subject showed that stimulation from the most apical electrodes produced threshold elevations over 10 dB for 500, 625, and 750 Hz probe tones, but no elevation for 125 and 250 Hz tones. On the contrary, electric stimulation did not produce any electric masking in the short-electrode subjects. In the acoustic masking experiment, 125-750 Hz pure tones were used to acoustically mask electric stimulation. The acoustic masking results showed that, independent of pure tone frequency, both long- and short-electrode subjects showed threshold elevations at apical and basal electrodes. The present results can be interpreted in terms of underlying physiological mechanisms related to either place-dependent peripheral masking or place-independent central masking.     

Temporal masking functions for listeners with real and simulated hearing loss

A functional simulation of hearing loss was evaluated in its ability to reproduce the temporal masking functions for eight listeners with mild to severe sensorineural hearing loss. Each audiometric loss was simulated in a group of age-matched normal-hearing listeners through a combination of spectrally-shaped masking noise and multi-band expansion. Temporal-masking functions were obtained in both groups of listeners using a forward-masking paradigm in which the level of a 110-ms masker required to just mask a 10-ms fixed-level probe (5-10 dB SL) was measured as a function of the time delay between the masker offset and probe onset. At each of four probe frequencies (500, 1000, 2000, and 4000 Hz), temporal-masking functions were obtained using maskers that were 0.55, 1.0, and 1.15 times the probe frequency. The slopes and y-intercepts of the masking functions were not significantly different for listeners with real and simulated hearing loss. The y-intercepts were positively correlated with level of hearing loss while the slopes were negatively correlated. The ratio of the slopes obtained with the low-frequency maskers relative to the on-frequency maskers was similar for both groups of listeners and indicated a smaller compressive effect than that observed in normal-hearing listeners.     

Experimental studies of sound field suppression at discrete frequencies

Practical implementation of an active sound control system ensuring sound suppression in outer space is described as applied to sound insulation problems for equipment whose total noise level is mainly due to low-frequency discrete spectral components. The operational principle of the proposed system is based on inverse field generation with respect to the field of the initial source of quasi-monochromatic signals. The inverse field is formed by a set of radiators, which are controlled by the signals of pressure receivers positioned in the near field of the source. Experimental studies carried out with the proposed sound control system demonstrate its efficiency and testify to the stability of its operation.     

基于声源方位信息和非线性时频掩蔽的语音盲提取算法

针对欠定卷积混合的语音信号模型,提出一种基于声源方位信息和非线性时频掩蔽的语音盲提取算法。首先对低频段混合语音信号进行时频分析估计瞬时相对时延(ITD)并采用势函数聚类分析方法估计出声源个数及其ITD,接着锁定目标提取准确的目标语音方位信息,最后利用独立语音在时频域上的近似W一分离正交性,采用非线性时频掩蔽的方法提取目标语音。仿真实验表明,该方法能锁定任意感兴趣目标方位,能有效提取目标语音,文中实验条件下信噪比增益平均达9.5 dB。     

Correlation functions and computer simulations

If the equilibrium properties of a statistical system are obtained by solving numerically the associated Langevin equation describing the approach to equilibrium, the connected correlation functions can be computed directly with small effort and high precision.