Radio Acoustical Virtual Environment: from Lab to Field

Verbal communication in noise while wearing hearing protection devices (HPDs) is often difficult. Recently, a Radio Acoustical Environment (RAVE) was developed within the EERS-ETS Industrial Research Chair in In-Ear Technologies (CRITIAS) to enhance communication for people wearing HPDs in noise. With RAVE, speech is captured from inside the ear, denoised, and enhanced to be sent only to listeners within a given spatial range. This range is determined based on the changes in the talkers vocal effort and background noise level. Currently, RAVE is at its prototype stage. During this Postdoctoral Fellowship, the algorithms developed for RAVE will be implemented on DSP and optimized. Subjective intelligibility tests will be performed to benchmark the speech-based algorithms. Finally, realistic features will be added to transmitted signals to enhance processes such as localization and distance perception. This project in partnership with EERS will enable the completion of a very unique and innovative commercial project.

Faculty Supervisor:

Jeremie Voix

Student:

Rachel Bouserhal

Partner:

EERS Technologies 4.0 Inc

Discipline:

Engineering - mechanical

Sector:

Information and communications technologies

University:

Program: