Improving music listening for those with hearing impairment (Cadenza-2023)
8th December 2023
We are now pleased to announce the 1st Cadenza Workshop for Machine Learning Challenges to Improve Music Listening for People with a Hearing Impairment. This will be a four-hour online event taking place on the 8th of December, starting at 12:00 GMT (07:00 US East / 20:00 Taipei Time). The registration is free.
About
Hearing loss causes problems when listening to music. It can make picking out lyrics more difficult, with music becoming duller as high frequencies disappear. This reduces the enjoyment of music and can lead to disengagement from listening and music-making, reducing the health and well-being effects people otherwise get from music.
What do we mean by audio quality? Imagine listening to the same music track in two different ways. First listening via a low quality mp3 played on a cheap cell phone, and then via a high quality wav heard over studio-grade loudspeaker monitors. The underlying music is the same in both cases, but the audio quality is very different - this is what we are interested in.
The Cadenza workshops are designed to stimulate the development of systems to improve music for people with a hearing loss. The aim of this virtual workshop is to report on the First Cadenza Challenge, the first ever machine learning challenge targeted to improve music for those with a hearing impairment. The challenge was launched on March 2023, presenting two tracks: listening to music using headphones and, listening to music in a car.
Our current live challenge is Cadenza ICASSP SP 2024.
Organisers
- Michael Akeroyd
University of Nottingham, UK - Scott Bannister
University of Leeds, UK - Jon Barker
University of Sheffield, UK - Trevor Cox
University of Salford, UK - Bruno Fazenda
University of Salford, UK - Jennifer Firth
University of Nottingham, UK - Simone Graetzer
University of Salford, UK - Alinka Greasley
University of Leeds, UK - Gerardo Roa Dabike
University of Salford, UK - Rebecca Vos
University of Salford, UK - William Whitmer
University of Nottingham, UK - More info