A WIRELESS SELF-CONTAINED TACTILE AID

描述（由申请人提供）：这项工作旨在为聋人开发两种新的触觉辅助设备。触觉辅助设备将声音信号转换为振动模式在皮肤上显示，对于一些无法从人工耳蜗或助听器中获益的聋人来说，这是一种合适的辅助设备。触觉辅助设备为口头交流者提供补充唇读的语音信号，并为所有使用者提供与环境声音和音乐相关的有用信号。目前，市面上还没有能让聋人受益的触觉辅助设备。在这个项目中开发的一种新的触觉辅助设备是专门为婴儿设计的。该设备采用手臂佩戴的表带形式，具有防水、小巧、轻便的特点。对于等待人工耳蜗植入的年幼失聪儿童来说，这种触觉辅助设备可能是助听器的替代品，它更舒适、更方便，而且声音更丰富。正在开发的第二种触觉辅助设备是一种适合年龄较大的儿童和成人的手表式设备。婴儿和成人助听器都将配备无线麦克风和信号处理系统，可以提取低频和高频信号，并在两个振动器上显示。第一阶段的工作生产了一个触觉辅助的原型，可以舒适地戴在婴儿或蹒跚学步的孩子的手臂上。该原型符合重量、耐水性、电池寿命、物理坚固性和刺激水平的规定标准。第二阶段的前15个月将致力于完善婴儿辅助器的设计，完成成人辅助器的设计。这些改进原型的复制品将在婴儿和成人用户中进行为期六个月的实地试验。三家临床机构已同意合作确定候选人并开展婴儿试验。试验的目的是确定可用性问题，并评估辅助工具对两组用户的功效。对于婴儿/儿童受试者，将通过向父母和听力学家发送问卷来评估效果，问卷内容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（适当时）和环境声音识别能力；他们还将被问及对该设备的反应。本研究的目标是更新和扩大触觉辅助在听力康复中的作用，为婴儿和成人设计更好、更容易使用的设备。

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.