Development of a pre-processing/simulation Framework for Multi-Channel Audio Signals

The goal of this thesis is to develop a framework that simulates multi-channel audio signals in a 2D/3D environment for hearing aids. For this purpose, existing head related transfer functions (HRTFs) will be used to simulate direction and hearing aid microphone characteristics. Furthermore, source movement as well as microphone movement and rotation will be implemented. The latter is mandatory for hearing aids, since especially head rotation might change the relative direction of the different sources significantly. The framework will be able to simulate multiple speakers as well as multiple noise sources. To calculate a clean speech target, a provided reference beamformer will be used on the target speech only, neglecting noise and non target speakers. Optionally, an opening angle that defines the target directions can be used to extract the clean speech targets. As a second optional aspect, room environment including absorption and reverberation will be simulated. Therefore, a reference implementation can be used.