A WIRELESS SELF-CONTAINED TACTILE AID

描述（由申请人提供）：这项工作的目的是为聋人开发两种新的触觉辅助工具。触觉辅助器将声学信号转换为振动模式显示在皮肤上，对于一些没有从耳蜗植入物或助听器中受益的聋人来说，触觉辅助器可以是适当的辅助设备。触觉辅助器为口头交流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，市场上没有可供聋人使用的触觉辅助设备。 该项目将开发的一种新的触觉辅助工具是专门为婴儿设计的。该设备具有臂戴式表带的形式，设计为防水，小巧，轻便。对于等待人工耳蜗植入的年轻聋哑儿童来说，这种触觉辅助器可能是助听器的替代品，更舒适，更方便，声学更丰富。正在开发的第二种触觉辅助设备是一种手表式设备，适用于年龄较大的儿童和成人。婴儿和成人辅助设备都将配备无线麦克风和信号处理设备，可以提取低频和高频包络，并显示在两个振动器上。 第一阶段的工作产生了一个原型触觉援助，可以舒适地戴在手臂上的婴儿或幼儿。该原型符合重量、防水性、电池寿命、物理耐用性和刺激水平的规定标准。第二阶段的头15个月的工作将致力于完善婴儿辅助设备的设计和完成成人辅助设备的设计。这些改进的原型的副本将与婴儿和成人用户进行为期六个月的现场试验。三个临床研究中心已同意合作确定候选人和进行婴儿试验。试验的目的将是确定可用性问题，并评估两组用户的辅助工具的功效。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疗效，问卷内容包括对声音的反应以及发声频率和质量的变化。成人用户将接受测试，以评估唇读能力（适当时）和环境声音识别;他们还将被问及对设备的反应。 本工作的目标是更新和扩大触觉辅助设备在听力康复中的作用，改进专门为婴儿和成人设计的即用型设备。 公共卫生相关性：这一开发新的触觉辅助设备的项目将填补一系列设备的空白，这些设备可用于帮助一些聋人进行语言交流、环境声音识别和音乐欣赏。虽然能够受益于触觉辅助设备的聋人人数不多，但这一人群非常需要创新技术援助，以支持他们的障碍和独立生活。

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.