TV viewers with impaired hearing get especially irritated when background
sounds drown out dialogue—especially crowd noise during sports
commentaries. Now that we have digital television broadcasting, says the Hearing
Enhancement Company of Virginia, adjusting the relative level of dialogue to
background noise should be easier (WO 01/65888). HEC points out that in a system
in which the signal is always digitally compressed for transmission, and
reconstituted in the receiver, background and dialogue sounds can be processed
separately. Your receiver could then have a knob to vary the ratio of voice to
background sound.
More from New Scientist
Explore the latest news, articles and features
Technology
Quantum computers are starting to become useful as scientific tools
News
Technology
OpenAI’s hacking agent went rogue. Should we be worried?
News
Technology
China is trying to regulate relationships with AI – can it work?
News
Technology
The ancient Silk Road city that has a lesson for Silicon Valley
Comment
Popular articles
Trending New Scientist articles