The impact of noise power estimation on speech intelligibility in cochlear-implant speech coding strategies (L)

The advanced combination encoder (ACE (TM)) is an established speech-coding strategy in cochlear-implant processing that selects a number of frequency channels based on amplitudes. However, speech intelligibility outcomes with this strategy are limited in noisy conditions. To improve speech intelligibility, either noise-dominant channels can be attenuated prior to ACE (TM) with noise reduction or, alternatively, channels can be selected based on estimated signal-to-noise ratios. A noise power estimation stage is, therefore, required. This study investigated the impact of noise power estimation in noise-reduction and channel-selection strategies. Results imply that estimation with improved noise-tracking capabilities does not necessarily translate into increased speech intelligibility. (C) 2019 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).