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、廉价的辅助收听设备，该设备包括一个专利定向麦克风(Exloid)，该麦克风包含在一个小徽章状的封装中，其中包括添加蓝牙、FM和红外线等无线附件模块的能力。该设备将面向三个不同的群体：(1)普通人群，他们中的许多人在餐馆等嘈杂环境中听力困难，(2)助听器用户，以及(3)人工耳蜗用户。通过设计该设备以支持广泛的耦合机制，特别是通过面向普通人群，预计该产品的市场规模将大于典型的辅助收听设备，并且使用诸如消费电子行业所使用的更常见的分发方法将显著降低终端用户的成本。Exloid麦克风是一种独特的二阶设计，它使用机身作为相移元件。在真实世界的环境中，例如嘈杂的餐厅，通过该技术进行降噪通常会产生比10分贝更好的SNR改善。蓝牙收发机的结合将使用户能够通过诸如计算机、移动电话和个人数字助理(PDA)的任何现在无处不在的配备蓝牙的设备进行通信。虽然最初的产品将专门设计为支持蓝牙收发器，但如果未来的工作需要增加功能，附件端口也将支持传统的无线接收器，如调频和红外线。该项目第一阶段的工作将具体集中在与目标用户耦合的方法上，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这一表现。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.