Speech-to-screen : spatial separation of dialogue from noise towards improved speech intelligibility for the small screen

Demonte, P; Tang, Y; Hughes, RJ; Cox, TJ; Fazenda, BM; Shirley, BG

Abstract

Can externalizing dialogue when in the presence of stereo background noise improve speech intelligibility? This has been investigated for audio over headphones using head-tracking in order to explore potential future developments for small-screen devices. A quantitative listening experiment tasked participants with identifying target words in spoken sentences played in the presence of background noise via headphones. Sixteen different combinations of three independent variables were tested: speech and noise locations (internalized/externalized), video (on/off), and masking noise (stationary/fluctuating noise). The results revealed that the best improvements to speech intelligibility were generated by both the video-on condition and externalizing speech at the screen while retaining masking noise in the stereo mix.

Citation

Demonte, P., Tang, Y., Hughes, R., Cox, T., Fazenda, B., & Shirley, B. (2018, May). Speech-to-screen : spatial separation of dialogue from noise towards improved speech intelligibility for the small screen. Presented at 144th International Pro Audio Convention (AES Milan 2018), Milan, Italy

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: 144th International Pro Audio Convention (AES Milan 2018)
• Conference Location: Milan, Italy
• Start Date: May 23, 2018
• End Date: May 26, 2018
• Acceptance Date: Feb 14, 2018
• Online Publication Date: May 14, 2018
• Publication Date: May 14, 2018
• Deposit Date: May 30, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: May 13, 2019
• Publisher URL: http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=19407
• Related Public URLs: http://www.aes.org/
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference; Funders : Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC);BBC; Projects : S3A: Future Spatial Audio for an Immersive Experience at Home; Grant Number: EP/L000539/1