We propose a new measure of perceptual image quality based on a multiple channel human visual system (HVS) model for use in digital image compression. The model incorporates the HVS light sensitivity, spatial frequency and orientation sensitivity, and masking effects. The model is based on the concept of local band-limited contrast (LBC) in oriented spatial frequency bands. This concept leads t...

Masking of low- (4 kHz) and high-frequency (25 kHz) signals by one-octave bandpass maskers either spatially coincident with the signal or contralateral to it was examined in mice, 4-6 and 20-22 months of age, in the free field. Signals were presented 120 ms prior to a startle stimulus and differences in their inhibition of the startle reflex, relative to startle stimulus alone trials, were used...

Frequency-response masking (FRM) technique produces a filter network which comprises several sub-filters with very sparse coefficient values. If the sub-filters are optimized seperately, the overall filter network will be suboptimal. In this paper, an unconstrained weighted least squares algorithm for simultaneously optimizing the sub-filters generated by the frequency-response masking techniqu...

This paper studies the design of frequency response masking (FRM) filters with infinite duration impulse response (IIR) model and masking sub-filters. They are useful in realizing sharp cutoff digital filters with low passband delays. The designs of the model and masking filters are carried out by means of semidefinite programming (SDP) and model order reduction. Design results show that low co...

It has been proposed that tinnitus is generated by aberrant neural activity that develops among neurons in tonotopic of regions of primary auditory cortex (A1) affected by hearing loss, which is also the frequency region where tinnitus percepts localize (Eggermont and Roberts 2004; Roberts et al., 2010, 2013). These models suggest (1) that differences between tinnitus and control groups of simi...

The goal of the study was to enlarge knowledge of discrimination of complex sound signals by the auditory system in masking noise. For that, influence of masking noise on detection of shift of rippled spectrum was studied in normal listeners. The signal was a shift of ripple phase within a 0.5-oct wide rippled spectrum centered at 2 kHz. The ripples were frequency-proportional (throughout the b...

Time-frequency mask estimation has shown considerable success recently. In this paper, we demonstrate its utility as a feature enhancement frontend for large vocabulary conversational speech recognition. Additionally, we investigate how masking compares with feature denoising, which directly reconstructs clean features from noisy ones. We train a mask estimator that predicts ideal ratio masks. ...

To discriminate between broadband noises with and without a high-frequency spectral notch is more difficult at 70-80 dB sound pressure level than at lower or higher levels [Alves-Pinto, A. and Lopez-Poveda, E. A. (2005). "Detection of high-frequency spectral notches as a function of level," J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 118, 2458-2469]. One possible explanation is that the notch is less clearly represent...

Masking is said to occur when a mask stimulus interferes with the visibility of a target (test) stimulus. One widely held view of this process supposes interactions between mask and test mechanisms (cross-channel masking), and explicit models (e.g., J. M. Foley, 1994) have proposed that the interactions are inhibitory. Unlike a within-channel model, where masking involves the combination of mas...

Sensorineural hearing loss causes reduction in frequency resolving capacity of the ear due to spread of masking of frequency components by adjacent frequency components. We have carried out experimental evaluation of splitting speech into two complementary signals on the basis of frequency and presenting it binaurally for increasing the speech intelligibility. In this scheme, input speech signa...