Wide-bandwidth open canal hearing aid for better multitalker speech understanding

描述（由申请人提供）：项目摘要/摘要：我们的目标是设计和构建一个新的助听器系统，减轻助听器用户最常见的投诉。这些包括在多人说话的情况下的听力，音质差，反馈导致的不必要的口哨声，以及不喜欢自己的声音。目前的努力，有限的成功，使用信号处理方法，而不是更密切地恢复正常的听觉功能。我们计划通过将3个关键使能概念付诸实践来实现我们的目标。第一种是用直接致动鼓膜的非声学机械输出换能器代替当前的声学换能器。这种换能器称为耳透镜，以类似于隐形透镜浮在眼睛上的方式浮在鼓膜上。第二个关键概念是增加助听器的输出带宽。第三个关键概念是在耳道中放置一个宽带麦克风，以捕获耳廓衍射线索，类似于正常耳朵的功能。我们的中心假设是，当背景中存在竞争性谈话者时，在开放通道配置中传递放大的宽带机械刺激、方向依赖性线索的助听器将比传统助听器表现得更好。在第一阶段的SBIR应用中，我们追求两个具体目标。在具体目标#1中，在存在来自两侧的干扰语音的情况下，将表征正常和听力受损受试者的语音接收阈值作为带宽的函数。这将使用类似于在虚拟听觉空间条件下为噪声中听力测试（HINT）开发的技术来完成。在特定目标#2中，将测试在高频下增加EarLens换能器有效增益的方法。这将通过将当前的单个磁体从EarLens平台的中心分布到其外部的较小磁体来实现，这减少了高频下质量惯性的限制效应。将比较轻度至中度听力损失受试者在不同EarLens配置下的听力图。项目叙述：美国600万助听器拥有者中的大多数都报告了各种问题。我们的目标是设计一种高保真开放式耳道助听器，它与正常的听觉功能更密切相关，从而为大脑提供关键信息，以便能够分离来自不同方向的声音，从而允许听者选择性地听到并能够从干扰语音中理解所需的语音。作为这种方法的结果，预计所提出的助听器的使用将比目前市场上的助听器更令人满意。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Project Summary/Abstract: Our goal is to design and build a new hearing aid system, which mitigates the most common complaints that hearing aid users have. These include hearing in multi-talker situations, poor sound quality, unwanted whistling resulting from feedback, and a dislike of the sound of their own voice. Current efforts, with limited success, use signal processing methods rather than restoring more closely the normal auditory function. We plan to achieve our goal by reducing to practice 3 key enabling concepts. The first is to replace the current acoustic transducer with a non-acoustic mechanical output transducer that directly actuates the tympanic membrane. This transducer, called the EarLens, floats on the tympanic membrane in a manner similar to the way a contact lens floats on the eye. The second key concept is to increase the output bandwidth of the hearing aid. The third key concept is to place a wide-bandwidth microphone in the ear canal to capture the pinna diffraction cues similar to the way the normal ear functions. Our central hypothesis is that a hearing aid that delivers amplified wide- bandwidth mechanical stimuli, directionally dependent cues, in an open canal configuration will perform better than conventional hearing aids when there are competing talkers in the background. In this phase I SBIR application, we pursue 2 specific aims. In Specific Aim #1 the speech reception threshold as a function of bandwidth, in the presence of interfering speech from the sides, on normal and hearing-impaired subjects will be characterized. This will be done using techniques similar to those developed for the Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) under virtual auditory space conditions. In Specific Aim #2 methods of increasing the effective gain of the EarLens transducer at high frequencies will be tested. This will be achieved by distributing the current single magnet from the center of the EarLens platform to smaller magnets on its outer portions, which reduces the limiting effects of mass inertia at high frequencies. The audiograms, from subjects with mild to moderate hearing loss, driven with different EarLens configurations will be compared. Project Narrative: Most of the 6 million hearing aid owners in the US, report various problems. Our goal is to design a high fidelity open canal hearing aid that more closely relates to normal auditory function thereby providing the brain with critical information so that it is able to segregate sounds originating from different directions and thus allow the listener to hear selectively and be able to understand desired speech from interfering speech. As an outcome of this approach, it is expected that there will be greater satisfaction with usage of the proposed hearing aid than those currently on the market.