TACTILE AIDS AND DIRECTIONAL MICROPHONES

很明显，触觉辅助的效用下降得更快。 在有噪音的情况下，比助听器的情况更好。这是 在视觉和触觉线索的整合中尤其明显，如 例如在朗读演讲稿时。其中一个原因可能是因为 许多来自触觉输入的提示相当粗糙，这取决于 更多关于缺乏精细光谱特征的时间特性，而不是 即使对于有缺陷的听觉通道也是如此。这样做的一个后果是 在背景中发生的短暂的瞬时噪音会引起 无法区分的触觉刺激 瞬时语音波形。虽然大多数现有的触觉辅助设备都包含 某种形式的噪声抑制，所获得的改善在 最好的，特别是对于最常见的瞬时噪声 有害的。这个项目的长期目标是发展一种近期的 将高方向性麦克风开发为适合使用的格式 使用触觉辅助设备，以改善其在嘈杂条件下的使用。 目前，麦克风的一大缺点是外壳过大 噪音。此第一阶段研究的目标是确定设计是否可以 使用小型助听器麦克风元件进行复制，以获得 小巧的外壳，隔音包装，佩戴方便。如果 如果成功，该设计将很有可能用于人工耳蜗术 还有助听器。

It is clear that the utility of tactile aids degrades even more rapidly in the presence of noise than is the case for hearing aids. This is particularly apparent in the integration of visual and tactile cues as for example in speechreading. One reason for this is probably because many of the cues derived from tactile inputs are quite crude, depending more on temporal properties devoid of fine spectral features, than is true even for a defective auditory channel. One consequence of this is that short transient noises occurring in the background give rise to tactile stimuli that are indistinguishable from those derived from transient speech waveforms. While most existing tactile aids incorporate some form of noise suppression, the improvements obtained are modest at best, particularly as regards the transient noises which are the most deleterious. The long range goal of this project is to evolve a recently developed highly directional microphone into a format suitable for use with tactile aids in order to improve their use under noisy conditions. At present the microphone has as a major shortcoming excessive case noise. The goal of this Phase I study is to determine if the design can be replicated using small hearing aid microphone elements to obtain a small case-noise resistant package that can be conveniently worn. If successful, the design would most likely be useful for cochlear implants and hearing aids as well.