Auditory communication devices and related methods

1. An auditory communication device, comprising:

a microphone configured to collect acoustic energy and convert the collected acoustic energy into an audio signal;

a processor operably coupled to the microphone; and

a memory operably coupled to the processor, the memory having computer-executable instructions stored thereon that, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:

receive the audio signal from the microphone,

create a time-frequency (T-F) representation of the audio signal, wherein the T-F representation of the audio signal comprises a plurality of T-F units,

classify each of the T-F units into one of N discrete categories, wherein N is an integer greater than 2,

attenuate the T-F representation of the audio signal, wherein a respective level of attenuation for each of the T-F units is determined by its respective classification, and

create a synthesized signal from the attenuated T-F representation of the audio signal, wherein:

each of the T-F units is classified into one of N discrete categories using a machine-learning algorithm,

wherein the machine-learning algorithm is a neural network, and

the neural network is a deep neural network (DNN), a recurrent neural network (RNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), a perceptron, a long-short term memory (LSTM), a gated recurrent unit (GRU), a Hopfield network (HN), a Boltzmann machine, a deep belief network, an autoencoder, a generative adversarial network (GAN), a bitwise neural network, or a binarized neural network.

2. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein N is greater than or equal to 4.

3. The auditory communication device of claim 2 , wherein N is less than or equal to 8.

4. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein each of the N discrete categories is associated with a different level of attenuation.

5. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein each of the T-F units is classified into one of N discrete categories based on its signal-to-noise ratio (SNR).

6. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein the N discrete categories are created based on an ideal ratio mask (IRM) function.

7. The auditory communication device of claim 6 , wherein the respective levels of attenuation corresponding to each of the N discrete categories are based on the IRM function.

8. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , further comprising a receiver operably coupled to the processor, wherein the receiver is configured to convert the synthesized signal into acoustic energy.

9. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein the auditory communication device comprises a single microphone.

10. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein the audio signal comprises a target signal and noise.

11. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein the synthesized signal improves detection or understandability of the audio signal.

12. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the synthesized signal is greater than a SNR of the audio signal.

13. The auditory communication device of claim 1 , wherein the auditory communication device is a hearing aid, cochlear implant, telephone, public address system, headset communication device, vehicle communication device, military communication device, aviation communication device, two-way radio, or walkie-talkie.

14. A monaural auditory processing method, comprising:

using a microphone, receiving acoustic energy and converting the acoustic energy into an audio signal;

using a computing device, receiving the audio signal from the microphone;

using the computing device, creating a time-frequency (T-F) representation of the audio signal, wherein the T-F representation of the audio signal comprises a plurality of T-F units;

using the computing device, classifying each of the T-F units into one of N discrete categories, wherein N is an integer greater than 2;

using the computing device, attenuating the T-F representation of the audio signal, wherein a respective level of attenuation for each of the T-F units is determined by its respective classification; and

using the computing device, creating a synthesized signal from the attenuated T-F representation of the audio signal, wherein:

each of the T-F units is classified into one of N discrete categories using a machine-learning algorithm,

wherein the machine-learning algorithm is a neural network, and

the neural network is a deep neural network (DNN), a recurrent neural network (RNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), a perceptron, a long-short term memory (LSTM), a gated recurrent unit (GRU), a Hopfield network (HN), a Boltzmann machine, a deep belief network, an autoencoder, a generative adversarial network (GAN), a bitwise neural network, or a binarized neural network.

15. A computer-implemented auditory processing method, comprising:

receiving an audio signal;

creating a time-frequency (T-F) representation of the audio signal, wherein the T-F representation of the audio signal comprises a plurality of T-F units;

classifying each of the T-F units into one of N discrete categories, wherein N is an integer greater than 2;

attenuating the T-F representation of the audio signal, wherein a respective level of attenuation for each of the T-F units is determined by its respective classification; and

creating a synthesized signal from the attenuated T-F representation of the audio signal, wherein:

each of the T-F units is classified into one of N discrete categories using a machine-learning algorithm,

wherein the machine-learning algorithm is a neural network, and

the neural network is a deep neural network (DNN), a recurrent neural network (RNN), a convolutional neural network (CNN), a perceptron, a long-short term memory (LSTM), a gated recurrent unit (GRU), a Hopfield network (HN), a Boltzmann machine, a deep belief network, an autoencoder, a generative adversarial network (GAN), a bitwise neural network, or a binarized neural network.