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Temporal Masking
In audio signal processing, auditory masking occurs when the perception of one sound is affected by the presence of another sound.Gelfand, S.A. (2004) ''Hearing – An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics'' 4th Ed. New York, Marcel Dekker Auditory masking in the frequency domain is known as simultaneous masking, frequency masking or spectral masking. Auditory masking in the time domain is known as temporal masking or non-simultaneous masking. Masked threshold The ''unmasked threshold'' is the quietest level of the signal which can be perceived without a masking signal present. The ''masked threshold'' is the quietest level of the signal perceived when combined with a specific masking noise. The amount of masking is the difference between the masked and unmasked thresholds. Gelfand provides a basic example.Gelfand, S.A. (2004) ''Hearing – An Introduction to Psychological and Physiological Acoustics'' 4th Ed. New York, Marcel Dekker Let us say that for a g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Audio Signal Processing
Audio signal processing is a subfield of signal processing that is concerned with the electronic manipulation of audio signals. Audio signals are electronic representations of sound waves—longitudinal waves which travel through air, consisting of compressions and rarefactions. The energy contained in audio signals or sound power level is typically measured in decibels. As audio signals may be represented in either Digital signal (signal processing), digital or analog signal, analog format, processing may occur in either domain. Analog processors operate directly on the electrical signal, while digital processors operate mathematically on its digital representation. History The motivation for audio signal processing began at the beginning of the 20th century with inventions like the telephone, phonograph, and radio that allowed for the transmission and storage of audio signals. Audio processing was necessary for early radio broadcasting, as there were many problems with stud ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Data Compression
In information theory, data compression, source coding, or bit-rate reduction is the process of encoding information using fewer bits than the original representation. Any particular compression is either lossy or lossless. Lossless compression reduces bits by identifying and eliminating statistical redundancy. No information is lost in lossless compression. Lossy compression reduces bits by removing unnecessary or less important information. Typically, a device that performs data compression is referred to as an encoder, and one that performs the reversal of the process (decompression) as a decoder. The process of reducing the size of a data file is often referred to as data compression. In the context of data transmission, it is called source coding: encoding is done at the source of the data before it is stored or transmitted. Source coding should not be confused with channel coding, for error detection and correction or line coding, the means for mapping data onto a sig ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hearing Test
A hearing test provides an evaluation of the sensitivity of a person's sense of hearing and is most often performed by an audiologist using an audiometer. An audiometer is used to determine a person's hearing sensitivity at different frequencies. There are other hearing tests as well, e.g., Weber test and Rinne test. Ear examination Prior to the hearing test, the ears of the patient are usually examined with an otoscope to make sure they are free of wax, that the eardrum is intact, the ears are not infected, and the middle ear is free of fluid (indicating middle ear infection). Pure tone audiometry The standard and most common type of hearing test is pure tone audiometry, which measures the air and bone conduction thresholds for each ear in a set of 8 standard frequencies from 250Hz to 8000Hz. The test is conducted in a sound booth using either a pair of foam inserts or supraural headphones connected to an external audiometer. The result of the test is an audiogram diagram wh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pure Tone Audiometry
Pure-tone audiometry is the main hearing test used to identify Hearing (sense), hearing threshold levels of an individual, enabling determination of the degree, type and configuration of a hearing loss and thus providing a basis for diagnosis and management. Pure-tone audiometry is a subjective, behavioural measurement of a hearing threshold, as it relies on patient responses to ''pure tone'' stimuli. Therefore, pure-tone audiometry is only used on adults and children old enough to cooperate with the test procedure. As with most clinical tests, standardized calibration of the test environment, the equipment and the stimuli is needed before testing proceeds (in reference to ISO, ANSI, or other standardization body). Pure-tone audiometry only measures audibility thresholds, rather than other aspects of hearing such as sound localization and speech recognition. However, there are benefits to using pure-tone audiometry over other forms of hearing test, such as click auditory brainst ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tinnitus Masker
Tinnitus maskers are a range of devices based on simple white noise machines used to add natural or artificial sound into a tinnitus sufferer's environment in order to mask or cover up the ringing. The noise is supplied by a sound generator, which may reside in or above the ear or be placed on a table or elsewhere in the environment. The noise is usually white noise or music, but in some cases, it may be patterned sound or specially tailored sound based on the characteristics of the person's tinnitus. The perceived loudness of tinnitus, called sensation level (SL), is how much louder the tinnitus is above the ambient noise of the environment. By raising the ambient level of noise (playing white noise into the ear), the apparent loudness of tinnitus is reduced. The noise level is close to and usually somewhat louder than the perceived loudness of the tinnitus. The generated noise is designed to be a calming, less intrusive sound than the ringing or hissing of tinnitus. Depending o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sinusoidal
A sine wave, sinusoidal wave, or sinusoid (symbol: ∿) is a periodic wave whose waveform (shape) is the trigonometric sine function. In mechanics, as a linear motion over time, this is '' simple harmonic motion''; as rotation, it corresponds to '' uniform circular motion''. Sine waves occur often in physics, including wind waves, sound waves, and light waves, such as monochromatic radiation. In engineering, signal processing, and mathematics, Fourier analysis decomposes general functions into a sum of sine waves of various frequencies, relative phases, and magnitudes. When any two sine waves of the same frequency (but arbitrary phase) are linearly combined, the result is another sine wave of the same frequency; this property is unique among periodic waves. Conversely, if some phase is chosen as a zero reference, a sine wave of arbitrary phase can be written as the linear combination of two sine waves with phases of zero and a quarter cycle, the ''sine'' and ''cosine'' co ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Acoustic Reflex
The acoustic reflex (also known as the stapedius reflex, stapedial reflex, auditory reflex, middle-ear-muscle reflex (MEM reflex, MEMR), attenuation reflex, cochleostapedial reflex or intra-aural reflex) is an involuntary muscle contraction that occurs in the middle ear in response to loud sound Stimulus (physiology), stimuli or when the person starts to vocalize. When presented with an intense sound stimulus, the stapedius and tensor tympani muscles of the ossicles contract. The stapedius stiffens the ossicular chain by pulling the stapes (stirrup) of the middle ear away from the oval window of the cochlea and the tensor tympani muscle stiffens the ossicular chain by loading the tympanic membrane when it pulls the malleus (hammer) in toward the middle ear. The reflex decreases the transmission of vibrational energy to the cochlea, where it is converted into electrical impulses to be processed by the brain. Acoustic reflex threshold The acoustic reflex threshold (ART) is the soun ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fundamental Frequency
The fundamental frequency, often referred to simply as the ''fundamental'' (abbreviated as 0 or 1 ), is defined as the lowest frequency of a Periodic signal, periodic waveform. In music, the fundamental is the musical pitch (music), pitch of a note that is perceived as the lowest Harmonic series (music)#Partial, partial present. In terms of a superposition of Sine wave, sinusoids, the fundamental frequency is the lowest frequency sinusoidal in the sum of harmonically related frequencies, or the frequency of the difference between adjacent frequencies. In some contexts, the fundamental is usually abbreviated as 0, indicating the lowest frequency Zero-based numbering, counting from zero. In other contexts, it is more common to abbreviate it as 1, the first harmonic. (The second harmonic is then 2 = 2⋅1, etc.) According to Benward and Saker's ''Music: In Theory and Practice'': Explanation All sinusoidal and many non-sinusoidal waveforms repeat exactly over time – they are per ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Backward Masking
The concept of backward masking originated in psychoacoustics, referring to temporal masking of quiet sounds that occur moments before a louder sound. In cognitive psychology, visual backward masking involves presenting one visual Stimulus (physiology), stimulus (a "mask" or "masking stimulus") immediately after a brief (usually 30 ms) "target" visual stimulus resulting in a failure to consciously perceive the first stimulus.Breitmeyer, B.G. and Ogmen, H. (2007''Visual masking'' Scholarpedia, 2(7):3330. It is widely used in Psychophysiology, psychophysiological studies on fear and phobias that investigate the preattentive nonconscious reactions to fear-relevant stimuli. It is unknown how a later stimulus is able to block an earlier one. However, one theory for this phenomenon, known as the ''dual channel interaction'' theory, proposes that a fast signal created by the second stimulus is able to catch up to and overcome a slower signal sent from the first impulse. A similar phenome ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
