Enhancement of spectral contrast in speech for hearing impaired listeners

People with hearing loss of cochlear origin experience difficulties perceiving speech in noise, and there is much evidence that their difficulties are due, in part, to the reduction of frequency selectivity that usually accompanies the hearing loss. Enhancement of the spectral peaks of the spectrum of speech can compensate for this reduced frequency resolution. Presented here is a processing algorithm based on a sinusoidal speech model, which result is a sharpened speech with enhancement of spectral peaks. This sharpening algorithm is adaptive to the shape of the spectrum of the phoneme. Preliminary listening tests indicate that listeners with moderate and greater hearing losses showed benefit from the processing algorithm through enhancement of the valleys between formants.