Prewhitening for intelligibility gain in hearing aid arrays

In this article, prewhitening multimicrophone data prior to use in an optimum spatial-filter preprocessor for a monaural hearing aid is considered. Considering preprocessor capabilities, interference signal spectral content and intelligibility, it is argued that prewhitening is advantageous. This advantage is illustrated via simulation of a head worn array. Also, an effective procedure for the design of (prewhitening) digital filters is presented. The effectiveness of this filter design technique is shown by presenting several prewhitening filter design examples.