A WIRELESS SELF-CONTAINED TACTILE AID

无线独立触觉辅助设备

• 批准号: 7999124
• 负责人: Patrick M. Zurek
• 金额: $ 44.06万
• 依托单位: SENSIMETRICS CORPORATION
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2006
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2006-09-01 至 2012-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/7999124
• 关键词: Acoustics; Address; Adult; Algorithms; Appearance; Charge; Child; Clinical; Cochlear Implants; Code; Collaborations; Communication; Cosmetics; Device Designs; Devices; Electronics; Encapsulated; Equilibrium; Event; Frequencies; Goals; Habilitation; Hearing Aids; Hearing Impaired Persons; Independent Living; Infant; Infant Development; Life; Lipreading; Methods; Music; Oral; Output; Parents; Pattern; Performance; Persons; Phase; Population; Population Sizes; Property; Questionnaires; Reaction; Reading; Rehabilitation therapy; Resistance; Role; Self-Help Devices; Signal Transduction; Silicones; Site; Skin; Specific qualifier value; Speech; Tactile; Testing; Toddler; Transducers; Update; Water; Weight; Wireless Technology; Work; Wrist; arm; base; clinical research site; computerized data processing; deaf aid; design; improved; innovation; meetings; operation; prototype; public health relevance; sound; usability; vocalization

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): This work is aimed at developing two new tactile aids for the deaf. Tactile aids transduce acoustic signals for display as vibratory patterns on the skin and can be appropriate assistive devices for some deaf persons who receive no benefit from cochlear implants or hearing aids. Tactile aids provide oral communicators with a speech signal that supplements lipreading, and all users with useful signals associated with environmental sounds and music. Currently, no tactile aids are commercially available for those deaf persons who can benefit from them. One of the new tactile aids to be developed in this project is specifically designed for use by infants. This device, which has the form of an arm-worn strap, is designed to be waterproof, small, and lightweight. For young deaf children awaiting a cochlear implant, this tactile aid may be an alternative to hearing aids that is more comfortable and convenient, as well as acoustically richer. The second tactile aid being developed is a wristwatch-type device for older children and adults. Both the infant and adult aids will have wireless microphones and signal processing that extracts low- and high-frequency envelopes for display on two vibrators. Work in Phase I produced a prototype tactile aid that can be comfortably worn on the arm by an infant or toddler. This prototype meets specified criteria for weight, water resistance, battery life, physical ruggedness, and stimulation level. Work in the first 15 months of Phase II will be devoted to refining the design of the infant aid and completing the design of the adult aid. Copies of these refined prototypes will be produced for six-month field trials with infant and adult users. Three clinical sites have agreed to cooperate in identifying candidates and in conducting the infant trial. The aims of the trials will be to identify usability issues and to assess efficacy of the aids for both groups of users. For infant/child subjects, efficacy will be assessed with questionnaires addressed to the parents and audiologist covering such issues as responsiveness to sound and change in frequency and quality of vocalization. Adult users will be given tests to assess lipreading ability (when appropriate) and environmental sound recognition; they will also be questioned on their reactions to the device. It is the goal of the present work to update and expand the role of tactile aids in aural rehabilitation with improved, easier-to-use devices designed specifically for infants and adults. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project to develop new tactile aids will fill a void in the array of devices that can be provided to assist speech communication, environmental-sound recognition, and music appreciation for some deaf persons. Although the size of the population of deaf persons who can benefit from tactile aids is small, it is a population for whom innovative technological assistance is greatly needed to support habilitation and independent living.

描述(申请人提供)：这项工作的目的是为聋人开发两种新的触觉辅助工具。触觉辅助设备将声音信号转换为皮肤上的振动模式，可以作为一些聋人的适当辅助设备，这些人从人工耳蜗或助听器中得不到任何好处。触觉辅助工具为口头沟通者提供补充唇读的语音信号，并为所有用户提供与环境声音和音乐相关的有用信号。目前，对于那些可以从中受益的聋人来说，还没有商业化的触觉辅助设备。该项目将开发的一种新的触觉辅助设备是专门为婴儿设计的。这种设备具有手臂佩戴的表带形式，设计为防水、小巧和轻便。对于等待人工耳蜗植入的年幼聋童来说，这种触觉助听器可能是助听器的替代方案，更舒适、更方便，而且在听觉上更丰富。正在开发的第二种触觉辅助设备是一种腕表式设备，适用于年龄较大的儿童和成年人。婴儿和成人辅助设备都将配备无线麦克风和信号处理功能，可以提取低频和高频信封，并在两个振动器上显示。第一阶段的工作是生产一种原型触觉辅助设备，婴儿或蹒跚学步的孩子可以舒适地戴在手臂上。该样机满足重量、耐水性、电池寿命、物理坚固性和刺激水平的特定标准。第二阶段头15个月的工作将致力于完善婴儿援助的设计，并完成成人援助的设计。这些改进的原型将被生产出来，供婴儿和成人用户进行为期六个月的现场试验。三个临床站点已经同意在确定候选对象和进行婴儿试验方面进行合作。试验的目的将是确定可用性问题，并评估辅助设备对这两类用户的有效性。对于婴幼儿受试者，将通过向家长和听觉学家发放问卷来评估疗效，调查范围包括对声音的反应以及发声频率和质量的变化等问题。成年用户将接受测试，以评估唇读能力(在适当的时候)和环境声音识别；他们还将被问及对该设备的反应。本工作的目标是通过专门为婴儿和成人设计的改进的、更易于使用的设备来更新和扩大触觉辅助设备在听力康复中的作用。 与公共健康相关：这个开发新触觉辅助设备的项目将填补一系列设备的空白，这些设备可以帮助一些聋人进行语音交流、环境声音识别和音乐欣赏。尽管能够受益于触觉助听器的聋人人数很少，但这一群体非常需要创新的技术援助，以支持康复和独立生活。