Ear modeling and sound signal processing
Ka‐Sing Lau, Zhouping Xin, Shing‐Tung Yau · AMS/IP studies in advanced mathematics · 2008
Ear modeling can significantly improve sound signal processing and the design of hearing devices. Ear models based on mechanics and neu-ral phenomenology of the inner ear (cochlea) form a class of nonlinear nonlocal dispersive partial differential equations (PDEs). These PDEs capture the essential nonlinear phenomena in hearing, such as combi-nation frequency generation, compression, and suppression, in agree-ment with experimental data. The PDEs help to generate linear and nonlinear auditory transforms, including a class of orthogonal discrete auditory transforms with broader sprectrum than that of the discrete Fourier transform, consistent with human audition. The PDEs also facilitates an alternative sound amplification method for hearing aid design.