Focus Detection Using Spatial Release From Masking

Individuals are often subjected to environments where multiple conversations occur simultaneously. In these situations, most hearing-abled individuals are able to focus on the auditory stimulus of their choice by filtering out other present auditory stimuli. This ability is also referred to as `The Cocktail Party Effect'. Unfortunately, this ability is not yet applicable for people who use assistive listening devices or digital communications devices to communicate with more than one individual [1]. In this study, Spatial Release from Masking techniques are used within the context of its influence on Speech Intelligibility. A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) system was used to take electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, through noninvasive methods, for machine learning classification training. The goal of using EEG signals to train a machine learning classifier is to find a model that can accurately predict if a subject is listening to a particular auditory stimulus in the presence of multiple auditory stimuli. A similar study has been conducted before but without the use of machine learning for data processing [2].