CONVERSATION ASSISTANT FOR NOISY ENVIRONMENTS

描述（由申请人提供）：所提出的工作旨在开发新的设备，以帮助在嘈杂的环境中进行多路面对面交谈。这些设备的开发是由经验，特别是老年人，有很大的困难，在嘈杂的环境，如餐馆交谈的动机。当前用于这种情况的无线辅助听音设备使得一个人（通常假设为听力受损并且可能使用助听器）能够从多个讲话者接收增强的信号。这样的系统不向组中的多于一个人提供帮助，也不允许用户容易地和选择性地收听组中的特定讲话者。建议的CANE系统利用一种新颖的信号调制和传输技术的组合，以实现多路语音拾取，放大和交付的耳机中的每个人在一组。每个发言者的讲话都被一个领夹式或头臂式麦克风拾取，并传送给该组的所有成员。通过头部指向，每个使用接收器的组成员能够选择要被听到的讲话者。CANE技术将用于为需要在噪声中听力辅助的人开发产品，无论是否使用助听器。CANE设备的预期操作简便性和低成本建议在嘈杂的工作场所中应用。CANE可以轻松集成到防护耳机中，以便在高噪音工作场所实现自然和私密的面对面交流。第一阶段的工作将开发三个原型系统--两个版本用于社交对话场景，一个集成到一个耳罩式听力保护器中。工作将集中在三个方面：1）电路设计，以最小的尺寸、成本和功耗最大化音频性能; 2）人体工程学设计，优化产品可用性，考虑到各种使用场景和隐私以及对自然头部运动的容忍度等问题; 3）一组语音接收实验，以展示和量化设备对收听者的益处，并发现待解决的潜在问题。公共卫生相关性：该项目旨在开发听力设备，以帮助在嘈杂环境中进行面对面的交谈。这些设备的设计将使用户能够通过指向头部来选择要收听的讲话者。这些设备将对那些在背景噪音中听力有困难的人有用，无论他们是否使用助听器。它们也将有助于在嘈杂的工作场所进行沟通。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The proposed work is aimed at developing new devices to assist multi-way face-to-face conversation in noisy environments. The development of these devices was motivated by the experience, especially common for older persons, of having great difficulty conversing in noisy settings such as restaurants. Current wireless assistive listening devices for this situation enable one person (usually assumed to be hearing-impaired and possibly using a hearing aid) to receive enhanced signals from multiple talkers. Such systems do not provide assistance to more than one person in a group, nor do they allow the user to listen easily and selectively to a particular talker in a group. The proposed CANE systems make use of a novel combination of signal modulation and transmission techniques to achieve multi-way speech pick-up, amplification and delivery by earphone for each person in a group. Each talker's speech is picked up with either a lavaliere or a head-boom microphone and transmitted to all members of the group. Through head pointing, each group member using a receiver is able to select the talker to be heard. CANE technology will be used in the development of products for persons, hearing aid users or not, who need listening assistance in noise. The expected ease of operation and low cost of CANE devices suggest an application in noisy workplaces. CANE can be easily integrated into protective headsets to enable natural and private face-to-face communication in high- noise workplaces. Work in Phase 1 will develop three prototype systems - two versions for the social-conversation scenario and one integrated into a muff-type hearing protector. The work will focus on three areas: 1) circuit design to maximize audio performance with minimal size, cost, and power drain; 2) ergonomic design to optimize product usability, taking into account the variety of use scenarios and issues such as privacy and tolerance to natural head movements; 3) a set of speech reception experiments to demonstrate and quantify the benefit of the device to the listener and uncover potential problems to be solved. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: This project is aimed at developing listening devices to assist face-to-face conversation in noisy surroundings. The design of the devices will enable users to select a talker to be listened to by head-pointing. Such devices will be useful for people who have difficulty hearing in background noise, whether they use hearing aids or not. They will also be useful for assisting communication in noisy workplaces.