Modeling binaural auditory scene analysis by a temporal fuzzy cluster analysis approach

The psychophysical based modeling approach of computational auditory scene analysis helps to understand the human auditory system and contributes to the improvement of technical acoustical systems, e.g. hearing aids and hands free telephony. In the present paper the primitive auditory scene analysis (Bregman 1990) is characterized as a cluster analysis problem. This leads to a system based on a temporal fuzzy cluster analysis capable of reproducing psychoacoustical streaming experiments. Moreover, it is possible to effectively combine monaural and binaural features to produce a robust segmentation of auditory scenes. This also facilitates the separation of the original sound source signals.