People with normal hearing use tiny timing and level differences between the ears ("binaural" cues) to separate a talker of interest from background sound. In hearing impairment, the ability to use these cues can range from near normal to near zero, and therefore some people may benefit more than others from future hearing-aid strategies that preserve binaural information. This project is a collaboration between the Acoustics Research Institute, the Eriksholm Research Centre, Interacoustics Research Unit and the Technical University of Denmark. Together, we aim to develop simple tests that measure an individual's capacity to benefit from binaural cues in complex, realistic communication settings, helping to guide better-personalized hearing-aid fitting and processing.

The project consists of two complementary streams of research. The first stream will use experiments to quantify the maximum benefit that normal-hearing and hearing-impaired users can expect from binaural cues and to develop a headphone-based diagnostic test that can help to stratify hearing aid users into those that can or cannot benefit from those cues. The second stream, located at the Technical University of Denmark, will use simulations and physical measurements to investigate how hearing aids processing may interfere with binaural acoustic cues and to develop alternative hearing aid processing strategies to prevent these interferences.