# Removing background talker noise for cochlear implant users

> **NIH NIH R44** · YORK SOUND INC · 2020 · $787,577

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT
 When hearing-impaired listeners are properly aided with a hearing aid (HA) or cochlear implant (CI),
they are often able to comfortably maintain a conversation in quiet environments. However, in group
environments, such as a large family dinner, restaurant, or other environment where multiple people are talking
simultaneously, hearing-impaired listeners have great difficulty participating in conversations and frequently
withdraw or avoid the situation. As such, it would be highly beneficial to implement an algorithm into HAs or CIs
to remove background talkers (“babble”) from the signal to reduce listening effort for the hearing-impaired
listener and allow them to converse as if they were in a quiet environment. Although HAs and CIs frequently
incorporate noise reduction algorithms, these algorithms are not effective when the background is babble. The
problem of removing babble involves segregating speech from speech. Hence, the spectral properties of the
signal and noise are extremely similar.
 Despite these challenges, we developed an extremely effective algorithm named SEDA to remove
background babble. A prototype of SEDA was implemented on an iPhone and evaluated on 10 CI users.
SEDA improved understanding of speech with background talkers at all signal-to-noise ratios (SNRs) tested;
on average, word understanding in babble improved by 31 percentage points. By contrast, the state-of-the-art
noise reduction systems for CIs provide little to no benefit for understanding speech with babble noise.
 CI manufacturers have shown great enthusiasm about our successful proof-of-concept of our algorithm.
Nevertheless, before commercialization, CI manufacturers want reductions in the computational power
required for the algorithm. As CI processors minimize computational processing in order to maximize battery
life, it is important to minimize the additional computations required by SEDA. When using SEDA as a front-
end for a CI processing strategy (as is the case with our iPhone prototype), redundancy in the required
calculations result in increased computations and latency. Specifically, SEDA decomposes the input signal into
multiple channels, removes the background babble, and then reassembles them into a single waveform. This
waveform is then fed into a CI which again decomposes the signal into multiple channels. Integrating SEDA
into the signal processing chain will save computational processing as the signal would only need to be
decomposed once and would not need to be reassembled. Additionally, although SEDA is highly successful in
typical speech in noise tests, CI manufacturers emphasized the importance of evaluating SEDA in more
realistic environments.
 Two specific aims will address the requirements for commercialization by the CI manufactures:
reducing the computational requirements by integrating SEDA into a sound processing algorithm and
evaluating SEDA in realistic environments.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10009945
- **Project number:** 1R44DC018761-01
- **Recipient organization:** YORK SOUND INC
- **Principal Investigator:** David M Landsberger
- **Activity code:** R44 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $787,577
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2020-04-25 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10009945

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10009945, Removing background talker noise for cochlear implant users (1R44DC018761-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10009945. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*