A new algorithm for embedding a digital watermark into an audio signal is proposed. It uses spread spectrum theory to generate a watermark resistant to different removal attempts and a psychoacoustic auditory model to shape and embed the watermark into the audio signal while retaining the signal’s perceptual quality. Recovery is performed without knowledge of the original audio signal. A softwa...

Manymodern speech bandwidth extension techniques predict the high-frequency band based on features extracted from the lower band.While this method works for certain types of speech, problems arise when the correlation between the low and the high bands is not sufficient for adequate prediction. These situations require that additional high-band information is sent to the decoder. This overhead ...

This article reviews research on vocal vibrato and related phenomena. As the vibrato corresponds to a modulation of the fundamental frequency, the primary acoustic attributes are the@equency and amplitude of this modulation as well as its waveform. The range of variation of these parameters in classical operatic singing are discussed as well as the boundaries to similar phenomena such as tremol...

The diagnosis of tinnitus relies on self-report. Psychoacoustic measurements of tinnitus pitch and loudness are essential for assessing claims and discriminating true from false ones. For this reason, the quantification of tinnitus remains a challenging research goal. We aimed to: (1) assess the precision of a new tinnitus likeness rating procedure with a continuous-pitch presentation method, c...

The SoundScape Renderer (SSR) is a versatile software tool for real-time spatial audio reproduction. It is capable of generating driving signals for a variety of loudspeakerbased and headphone-based reproduction methods. Due to its extensive remote-control possibilities, it can be conveniently used as an audio backend in psychoacoustic listening and conversational experiments, for example in th...

Traditional audio coding is based on a perceptual compression paradigm that exploits psychoacoustic information to efficiently encode audio signals. Recently, extensive research has been conducted in order to understand how the brain encodes natural signals. These results suggest that the encoding process is very efficient in terms of redundancy reduction of the signal information. It could be ...

Algorithms for the suppression of acoustic noise in speech signals are generally Short-Time Spectral Amplitude (STSA) methods such as Spectral Subtraction. These methods have been effective at reducing or removing the background noise, but have a tendency (at low SNR) to add annoying artefacts, such as musical noise, and distortion of the speech signal. By employing an auditory model, psychoaco...

In this paper we propose a new speech compression technique based on the application of a psychoacoustic model combined with a general approach for Filter Bank Design using optimization. This technique is a modified version of the compression technique using a MDCT (Modified Discrete Cosine Transform) filter banks of 32 filters each and a psychoacoustic model. The two techniques are evaluated a...

We describe a new signal processing technique for cochlear implants using a psychoacoustic-masking model. The technique is based on the principle of a so-called “NofM” strategy. These strategies stimulate fewer channels (N) per cycle than active electrodes (NofM;N < M). In “NofM” strategies such as ACE or SPEAK, only theN channels with higher amplitudes are stimulated. The new strategy is based...

This study tested how linguistic experience and psychoacoustic factors affect tonal perception of Mandarin, English and French speakers. AX discrimination tasks of speech and non-speech tones were conducted. Results showed that the subjects performed differently in the speech and nonspeech tasks. In the speech task, while the three L1 groups shared some confusable tone pairs due to their acoust...