Field Evaluation of an Asymmetric Directional Microphone Fitting

Cord, Mary T.; Walden, Brian E.; Surr, Rauna K.; Dittberner, Andrew

doi:10.3766/jaaa.18.3.6

Cited by 17 publications

(20 citation statements)

References 11 publications

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“…EMA has been implemented using “low-tech” paper-and-pencil journals in previous hearing aid outcome research (Preminger and Cunningham, 2003; Walden et al, 2004; Cord et al, 2007; Wu and Bentler, 2010b, 2012). For example, to compare two hearing aid gain settings, Preminger and Cunningham (2003) asked participants to report the degree of listening difficulty and sound clarity of hearing aids in journals three times each day.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construct Validity of the Ecological Momentary Assessment in Audiology Research

Wu¹,

Stangl²,

Zhang³

et al. 2015

J Am Acad Audiol

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Background Ecological momentary assessment (EMA) is a methodology involving repeated assessments/surveys to collect data describing respondents’ current or very recent experiences and related contexts in their natural environments. The use of EMA in audiology research is growing. Purpose This study examined the construct validity (i.e., the degree to which a measurement reflects what it is intended to measure) of EMA in terms of measuring speech understanding and related listening context. Experiment 1 investigated the extent to which individuals can accurately report their speech recognition performance and characterize the listening context in controlled environments. Experiment 2 investigated whether the data aggregated across multiple EMA surveys conducted in uncontrolled, real-world environments would reveal a valid pattern that was consistent with the established relationships between speech understanding, hearing aid use, listening context, and lifestyle. Research Design This is an observational study. Study Sample Twelve and twenty-seven adults with hearing impairment participated in Experiments 1 and 2, respectively. Data Collection and Analysis In the laboratory testing of Experiment 1, participants estimated their speech recognition performance in settings wherein the signal-to-noise ratio was fixed or constantly varied across sentences. In the field testing the participants reported the listening context (e.g., noisiness level) of several semicontrolled real-world conversations. Their reports were compared to (1) the context described by normal-hearing observers and (2) the background noise level measured using a sound level meter. In Experiment 2, participants repeatedly reported the degree of speech understanding, hearing aid use, and listening context using paper-and-pencil journals in their natural environments for 1 week. They also carried noise dosimeters to measure the sound level. The associations between (1) speech understanding, hearing aid use, and listening context, (2) dosimeter sound level and self-reported noisiness level, and (3) dosimeter data and lifestyle quantified using the journals were examined. Results For Experiment 1, the reported and measured speech recognition scores were highly correlated across all test conditions (r = 0.94 to 0.97). The field testing results revealed that most listening context properties reported by the participants were highly consistent with those described by the observers (74–95% consistency), except for noisiness rating (58%). Nevertheless, higher noisiness rating was associated with higher background noise level. For Experiment 2, the EMA results revealed several associations: better speech understanding was associated with the use of hearing aids, front-located speech, and lower dosimeter sound level; higher noisiness rating was associated with higher dosimeter sound level; listeners with more diverse lifestyles tended to have higher dosimeter sound levels. Conclusions Adults with hearing impairment were able to report their listeni...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Construct Validity of the Ecological Momentary Assessment in Audiology Research

Wu¹,

Stangl²,

Zhang³

et al. 2015

J Am Acad Audiol

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Thus, it is suggested that, in elderly individuals with complaints of difficulty in understanding speech in noise, noise reduction is used as the default setting of programming. However, regarding the directional microphone, in order to find more than satisfactory results and, in this research, it has been shown as essential when the source of the noise came from behind the individual, their adjusted activation is not recommended as it may interfere in speech understanding in quiet environments and lower awareness of environmental sounds (29) . Thus, it is advised to combine directional and omnidirectional microphones.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…Thus, it is advised to combine directional and omnidirectional microphones. A possible combination would be to adjust one ear with directional microphone and the other with omnidirectional microphone, which has proven performance in speech understanding, close to or comparable to performance with the use of directional microphones in both hearing aids (21,29) . Other options would be the directional microphone added to another program, or even the use of adaptive directional microphone, which switches automatically between omnidirectional or directional microphone, if the noise is detected.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Percepção de fala no ruído em idosos usuários de próteses auditivas com diferentes microfones e algoritmo de redução de ruído

Santos

Costa

2016

Audiol., Commun. Res.

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Purpose: To evaluate speech recognition in noise on elderly, new users of hearing aids with directional microphones and noise reduction, and check which feature provides better speech intelligibility. Methods: The participants were 36 individuals between 60 and 87 years old with sensorineural hearing loss from mild to moderately severe. The Sentence List test in Brazilian Portuguese was applied, in sound field, obtaining the Sentence Recognition in Noise Percentage Rates (SRNPR) with hearing aids, with four different settings: omnidirectional microphone (OM); noise reduction and omnidirectional microphone (NR + OM); directional microphone (DM); and the noise reduction and directional microphone (NR + DM). Results: When speech and noise focused at 0°/0° azimuth, SRNPR median scores were 76.74% with the use of OM; 84.95% with NR + OM; 84.40% with DM and 86.63% with NR + DM. When comparing results, there were differences between OM x DM; OM x NR + DM; NR + OM and DM; NR+ OM and NR+ DM. When noise focused at 0°/180° azimuth, the SRNPR median were 77.4% with the use of OM; 83.79% with NR + OM; 89.46% with DM and 91.9 with NR + DM. When comparing results, there were differences between the performances with OM e DM; OM and NR + DM; NR + OM and DM; and NR + OM and NR + DM. Conclusion: Better results were found with the use of NR and DM in both situations of assessment, however, in the situation with noise at 0°/180° azimuth the DM provided a more satisfactory performance. Keywords

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“…In monaurally HI persons, who have hearing loss in only one ear, the ear with normal hearing can be used for the detection of such informative ambient sounds; however, in binaurally HI persons who use independently operated, forward‐focusing HS devices in both ears, most ambient sounds not in front of the person may be attenuated. Therefore, in order to provide a more natural ambient sound to binaurally HI persons without increasing the interference of ambient noises, several groups have suggested the concept of an asymmetric directional microphone (DM) algorithm, which applies the forward‐focusing beamformer to one ear and an omnidirectional microphone (OM) algorithm to the other ear simultaneously . However, in most conventional bilateral asymmetric DM algorithms, two HS devices are operated independently, and therefore, several limitations exist: (i) the direction of the most dominant noise source (DN) around the listener cannot be determined because comparison between the two devices is not available; and (ii) when the DN moves near the OM‐mode device, the roles of the DM‐mode and OM‐mode devices cannot be switched automatically to minimize the interference of the DN.…”

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confidence: 99%

A New Asymmetric Directional Microphone Algorithm With Automatic Mode‐Switching Ability for Binaural Hearing Support Devices

et al. 2015

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For hearing support devices, it is important to minimize the negative effect of ambient noises for speech recognition but also, at the same time, supply natural ambient sounds to the hearing-impaired person. However, conventional fixed bilateral asymmetric directional microphone (DM) algorithms cannot perform in such a way when the DM-mode device and a dominant noise (DN) source are placed on the same lateral hemisphere. In this study, a new binaural asymmetric DM algorithm that can overcome the defects of conventional algorithms is proposed. The proposed algorithm can estimate the position of a specific DN in the 90°-270° range and switch directional- and omnidirectional-mode devices automatically if the DM-mode device and the DN are placed in opposite lateral hemispheres. Computer simulation and KEMAR mannequin recording tests demonstrated that the performance of the conventional algorithm deteriorated when the DM-mode device and the DN were placed in the opposite hemisphere; in contrast, the performance of the proposed algorithm was consistently maintained regardless of directional variations in the DN. Based on these experimental results, the proposed algorithm may be able to improve speech quality and intelligibility for hearing-impaired persons who have similar degrees of hearing impairment in both ears.

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Field Evaluation of an Asymmetric Directional Microphone Fitting

Cited by 17 publications

References 11 publications

Construct Validity of the Ecological Momentary Assessment in Audiology Research

Construct Validity of the Ecological Momentary Assessment in Audiology Research

Percepção de fala no ruído em idosos usuários de próteses auditivas com diferentes microfones e algoritmo de redução de ruído

A New Asymmetric Directional Microphone Algorithm With Automatic Mode‐Switching Ability for Binaural Hearing Support Devices

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