PhD thesis: Methodology for testing the quality and intelligibility

Doktorarbeiten PhD thesis: Methodology for testing the quality and intelligibility PhD thesis: Methodology for testing the quality and intelligibility Research Field Protection technologies, security, situational awareness Context The use of hearing protection devices makes difficult the interpersonal communication in the noise (industrialist and/or smilitary) and numerous technologies exits protecting the ear, while allowing to communicate effectively in high noise levels. Among these techniques, those getting the voice via an intraauricular microphone (placed under the protector) seems of the most promising: the system is very compact and the signal has a good signal-to-noise ratio, because it benefits from the mitigation offered by the protector/ambient noises. Of more the quality and the intelligibility of this signal can be improved via the use of various digital signal processings. However the objective evaluation of these algorithms of signal processing remains difficult, because the tests of the quality and intelligibility of the speech are currently based on subjective tests, involving wide panels of subjects, what makes them expensive to realize. The proposed project aims to address this difficulty of assessing the quality and intelligibility of speech transmitted by tactical and/ or industrial communication systems by new methods as quick and objective as possible. To do this, three research phases are proposed: Phase 1: Evaluation of existing subjective tests of intelligibility and adaptation to Tactical Systems. Phase 2: Evaluation of Objective Tests of Existing Sound Quality and Adaptation to Tactical Systems. Phase 3: Assessing the realism of the proposed test paradigms. Send your application for this PhD position