RF-Inhomogeneity Correction (aka bias) artifact is an important research field in Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Bias corrupts MR images altering their illumination even though they are acquired with the most recent scanners. Homomorphic Unsharp Masking (HUM) is a filtering technique aimed at correcting illumination inhomogeneity, but it produces a halo around the edges as a side effect. In ...

A difference in fundamental frequency (ΔF0) and a difference in spatial location (ΔSL) are two cues known to provide masking releases when multiple speakers talk at once in a room. We examined situations in which reverberation should have no effect on the mechanisms underlying the releases from energetic masking produced by these two cues. Speech reception thresholds using both unpredictable ta...

The iterative process of masking minimisation when mixing multitrack audio is a challenging optimisation problem, in part due to the complexity and non-linearity of auditory perception. In this article, we first propose a multitrack masking metric inspired by the MPEG psychoacoustic model. We investigate different audio processing techniques to manipulate the frequency and dynamic characteristi...

In this paper, a hybrid active noise barrier (ANB) with sound masking capability is considered. To protect the speech privacy, several sound masking techniques have been developed. However, these sound masking techniques based on the superposition of the masker and original sound will lead to increase in the loudness of the sound after masking. Against this problem, this paper proposes a soundp...

In the presence of noise, do speakers actively shift their spectral energy distribution to regions least affected by the noise? The current study measured speech level, fundamental frequency, first formant frequency, and spectral center of gravity for read speech produced in the presence of low- and high-pass filtered noise. In both filtering conditions, these acoustic parameters increased rela...

Three basic auditory abilities were measured in 21 visually impaired college students and 21 sighted college students with same age and gender composition. The measurement consists of the hearing level of 11 tones, masking thresholds of same 11 tones masked by 80dB narrow band noises and frequency difference limens (FDL) of 3 tones. The results indicate that all the three auditory abilities of ...

Binaural masking level difference is the behavioral threshold difference between a diotic condition (SoNo) and a dichotic condition with a 180 degrees interaural phase delay of either the signal (SpiNo) or the masker (SoNpi). Threshold disparity is partially related to coincidence-detecting units in the medial superior olive that are sensitive to low-frequency binaural stimuli with interaural p...

Previous work showed that adapting to low spatial frequency gratings (below 1.5 cycles/degree) may cause maximal spatial adaptation at a significantly higher spatial frequency. It has been suggested that there are no adaptable spatial-frequency channels tuned to below 1.5 c/deg. Contrary to this view, we found that adaptation and masking with low spatial frequencies (0.12-1.0 c/deg) produced ma...