A Flexible Device for Listening in Noise

描述（由申请人提供）：这项工作的长期目标是开发和部署一种灵活、廉价的辅助听力设备，该设备由一个专利定向麦克风（Excloid）组成，该麦克风包含在一个小奖章状的包中，该包包括添加无线附件模块的能力，如蓝牙、FM和红外线。该设备将针对三个不同的群体：(1)普通人群，他们中的许多人在嘈杂的环境中听力有困难，比如餐馆；(2)助听器使用者；(3)人工耳蜗使用者。通过设计该设备以支持广泛的耦合机制，特别是针对普通人群，预计该产品的市场规模将大于典型的辅助听力设备，并且使用更常见的分销方法，例如消费电子行业使用的方法，将显着降低最终用户的成本。Excloid麦克风是一种独特的二阶设计，使用机身作为移相元件。在现实环境中，例如嘈杂的餐厅，这种技术的降噪效果通常优于10 dB的信噪比。蓝牙收发器的结合将使用户能够通过任何现在无处不在的配备蓝牙的设备进行通信，例如计算机、移动电话和个人数字助理（PDA）。虽然最初的产品将被设计为专门支持蓝牙收发器，但附件端口也将支持传统的无线接收器，如FM和红外线，如果未来的工作需要额外的功能。项目第一阶段的工作将特别关注与预期用户耦合的方法，评估这些方法的有效性和外观可接受性，并对设备在嘈杂环境中的性能进行详细研究。我们将使用听力受损和听力正常的受试者来评估他们的表现。在项目的第二阶段，我们将建造和部署足够数量的设备，以确保我们的设计满足消费者的需求。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The long term goal of this work is to develop and deploy a flexible, inexpensive, assistive listening device consisting of a patented directional microphone (Excloid) contained in a small medallion-like package that includes the capability of adding wireless accessory modules such as Bluetooth, FM, and infra-red. The device will be addressed to three different groups: (1) The general population, many of whom have difficulty hearing in noisy environments, such as restaurants, (2) Hearing aid users, and (3) Cochlear Implant users. By designing the device to support a wide array of coupling mechanisms, and in particular by targeting the general population, it is expected that the market size for the product will be larger than that of typical assistive listening devices, and the use of more common distribution methods, such as those used by the consumer electronics industry, will significantly reduce the cost to the end user. The Excloid microphone is a unique second order design that uses the body as a phase shifting element. Noise reduction from this technique typically results in better than a 10 dB SNR improvement in real world settings, such as a noisy restaurant. Incorporation of the Bluetooth transceiver will enable a user to communicate via any of the now ubiquitous Bluetooth equipped devices such as computers, mobile telephones, and personal digital assistants (PDA). While the initial product will be designed to specifically support the Bluetooth transceiver, the accessory port will also support legacy wireless receivers such as FM and infra-red, should future work warrant that additional functionality. The work during the Phase I portion of the project will focus specifically on methods for coupling to intended users, evaluating those methods for effectiveness and cosmetic acceptability, and performing a detailed study of the device's performance in a noisy environment. We will use hearing impaired and normally hearing subjects to assess that performance. During the Phase II portion of the project we will build and deploy sufficient numbers of the device to assure our design meets the consumer's needs.