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Speech segregation to improve intelligility of reverberant-noisy speech

Award Number: R01DC012048
ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS
OPDIV: NIH
AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY
AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/01/2013
PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 12/31/2024

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Speech segregation to improve intelligility of reverberant-noisy speech - Project Summary Hearing loss is one of the most prevalent chronic conditions, affecting 37.5 million Americans. Although signal amplification in modern hearing aids makes sound more audible to hearing impaired listeners, speech understanding in background interference remains the biggest challenge by hearing aid wearers. The proposed research seeks a monaural (one-microphone) solution to this challenge by developing supervised speech segregation based on deep learning. Unlike traditional speech enhancement, deep learning based speech segregation is driven by training data, and three components of a deep neural network (DNN) model are features, training targets, and network architectures. Recently, deep learning has achieved tremendous successes in a variety of real world applications. Our approach builds on the progress made in the PI's previous R01 project which demonstrated, for the first time, substantial speech intelligibility improvements for hearing-impaired listeners in noise. A main focus of the proposed work in this cycle is to combat room reverberation in addition to background interference. The proposed work is designed to achieve three specific aims. The first aim is to improve intelligibility of reverberant-noisy speech for hearing- impaired listeners. To achieve this aim, we will train DNNs to perform time-frequency masking. The second aim is to improve intelligibility of reverberant speech in the presence of competing speech. To achieve this aim, we will perform DNN training to estimate two ideal masks, one for the target talker and the other for the interfering talker. The third aim is to improve intelligibility of reverberant speech in combined speech and nonspeech interference. To achieve this aim, we will develop a two-stage DNN model where the first stage will be trained to remove nonspeech interference and the second stage to remove interfering speech. Eight speech intelligibility experiments involving both hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners will be conducted to systematically evaluate the developed system. The proposed project is expected to substantially close the speech intelligibility gap between hearing-impaired and normal-hearing listeners in daily conditions, with the ultimate goal of removing the gap altogether.


Issue Date FY	Funding FY	Legal Entity Name	Legal Entity Address	Legal Entity City	Legal Entity State	Legal Entity Zip Code	Legal Entity COUNTY	Legal Entity COUNTRY	Assistance Listing	Award Code	Budget Year	Action Date	Action Type	Action Amount

Issue Date FY: 2025 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2025	2022	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	10	5/5/2025	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2024 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2024	2022	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	10	11/30/2023	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2023 ( Subtotal = $0 )
2023	2022	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	10	10/20/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
														Subtotal = $0

Issue Date FY: 2022 ( Subtotal = $300,366 )
2022	2022	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	10	4/20/2022	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$30,037
2022	2022	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	10	12/11/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$270,329
														Subtotal = $300,366

Issue Date FY: 2021 ( Subtotal = $301,954 )
2021	2021	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	9	1/8/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2021	2021	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	9	12/11/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$271,758
2021	2021	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	002	9	1/14/2021	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$30,196
														Subtotal = $301,954

Issue Date FY: 2020 ( Subtotal = $303,452 )
2020	2020	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	8	1/15/2020	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$30,346
2020	2020	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	8	12/2/2019	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$273,106
														Subtotal = $303,452

Issue Date FY: 2019 ( Subtotal = $304,865 )
2019	2019	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	7	12/4/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$304,865
														Subtotal = $304,865

Issue Date FY: 2018 ( Subtotal = $292,174 )
2018	2018	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	003	6	4/23/2018	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$276,332
2018	2018	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	6	1/8/2018	COMPETING CONTINUATION	$292,174
2018	2017	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	1/5/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$0
2018	2017	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	002	5	4/23/2018	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	-$276,332
														Subtotal = $292,174

Issue Date FY: 2017 ( Subtotal = $359,319 )
2017	2017	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	5	5/24/2017	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$35,932
2017	2017	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY, THE	1960 KENNY RD	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	5	12/14/2016	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$323,387
														Subtotal = $359,319

Issue Date FY: 2016 ( Subtotal = $360,520 )
2016	2016	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	4	12/24/2015	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$324,468
2016	2016	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	4	1/26/2016	EXTENSION WITH OR WITHOUT FUNDS	$36,052
														Subtotal = $360,520

Issue Date FY: 2015 ( Subtotal = $358,035 )
2015	2015	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	3	12/17/2014	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$325,486
2015	2015	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	3	1/13/2015	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$32,549
														Subtotal = $358,035

Issue Date FY: 2014 ( Subtotal = $362,721 )
2014	2014	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	001	2	2/5/2014	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$36,272
2014	2014	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	2	1/7/2014	NON-COMPETING CONTINUATION	$326,449
														Subtotal = $362,721

Issue Date FY: 2013 ( Subtotal = $346,930 )
2013	2013	OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY	1800 CANNON DR/700 LINCOLN TOW	COLUMBUS	OH	43210	FRANKLIN	USA	Research Related to Deafness and Communication Disorders	000	1	12/14/2012	NEW	$346,930
														Subtotal = $346,930

Grand Total All Awards = $3,290,336

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Speech segregation to improve intelligility of reverberant-noisy speech

Award Number: R01DC012048

ORGANIZATION: NATIONAL INSTITUTE ON DEAFNESS AND OTHER COMMUNICATION DISORDERS

OPDIV: NIH

AWARD CLASS: DISCRETIONARY

AWARD ACTIVITY TYPE: SCIENTIFIC/HEALTH RESEARCH (INCLUDES SURVEYS)

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE START DATE: 01/01/2013

PERIOD OF PERFORMANCE END DATE: 12/31/2024

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