Head Tracking Hearing Aid for Automatic Source Switching

用于自动源切换的头部跟踪助听器

• 批准号: 8454314
• 负责人: PAUL L GIBSON
• 金额: $ 18.63万
• 依托单位: ADVANCED MEDICAL ELECTRONICS CORPORATION
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2013
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2013-01-01 至 2013-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/8454314
• 关键词: Adoption; Algorithms; Back; Companions; Computer software; Consult; Development; Devices; Digital Signal Processing; Doctor of Philosophy; Electronics; Engineering; Ensure; Environment; Equilibrium; Friends; Goals; Head; Head Movements; Hearing; Hearing Aids; Human; Hybrids; Immune; Industry; Interruption; Language; Life; Link; Location; Manufacturer Name; Measures; Medical Device; Medical Electronics; Methods; Minnesota; Modeling; Motion; Noise; Performance; Persons; Phase; Plastics; Positioning Attribute; Principal Investigator; Process; Recording of previous events; Reporting; Research Personnel; Restaurants; Science; Series; Simulate; Solutions; Source; Speech; Stream; Surveys; System; Technology; Telephone; Testing; Training; Universities; Wireless Technology; Writing; base; binaural hearing; commercialization; computerized data processing; design; digital; experience; forgetting; hearing impairment; improved; operation; professor; programs; prototype; public health relevance; satisfaction; software development; sound; speech recognition; tv watching; usability; Adoption; Algorithms; Back; Companions; Computer software; Consult; Development; Devices; Digital Signal Processing; Doctor of Philosophy; Electronics; Engineering; Ensure; Environment; Equilibrium; Friends; Goals; Head; Head Movements; Hearing; Hearing Aids; Human; Hybrids; Immune; Industry; Interruption; Language; Life; Link; Location; Manufacturer Name; Measures; Medical Device; Medical Electronics; Methods; Minnesota; Modeling; Motion; Noise; Performance; Persons; Phase; Plastics; Positioning Attribute; Principal Investigator; Process; Recording of previous events; Reporting; Research Personnel; Restaurants; Science; Series; Simulate; Solutions; Source; Speech; Stream; Surveys; System; Technology; Telephone; Testing; Training; Universities; Wireless Technology; Writing; base; binaural hearing; commercialization; computerized data processing; design; digital; experience; forgetting; hearing impairment; improved; operation; professor; programs; prototype; public health relevance; satisfaction; software development; sound; speech recognition; tv watching; usability

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Advanced Medical Electronics proposes to develop an advanced wireless hearing aid that tracks user head movements and provides automatic audio source switching based on user focus. The proposed advanced hearing aid will enable users to utilize hearing aids in more diversified conversational situations. Hearing aids perform poorly in noisy environments due to a limited ability to filter out background sounds. Wireless companion microphones and consumer electronics adapters stream audio directly to the user's hearing aid and are more immune to background noise. While these devices have been proven to improve speech recognition in noisy environments, they create a source selection control issue that is burdensome and limits their utility when there is more than one source. The proposed enhancement will allow for automatic source switching by the user simply turning their head much like a person with normal binaural hearing would do. The hearing aid industry needs more advanced features such as this to encourage the more than 75% of people with known hearing loss who would benefit from hearing aids to utilize them. The proposed enhanced hearing aid will enable the user to use their hearing aid more effectively in common situations. The head tracking will be done using a very low power magnetometer integrated into the hearing aid similar to the ones found in modern smart phones. The system will automatically adjust the audio volumes from available sources including the hearing aids internal microphones based on which way was the head is facing. The additional power required by the magnetometer will be less than 10% of the normal operation and will only be consumed while streaming audio from a remote source. Battery life will not be significantly impacted. In phase I, AME will develop and evaluate a prototype system.

描述（由申请人提供）：高级医学电子产品建议开发高级无线助听器，该助听器跟踪用户头部移动并根据用户重点提供自动音频源切换。拟议的高级助听器将使用户能够在更多样化的对话情况下利用助听器。助听器在嘈杂的环境中的表现较差，因为有限的过滤背景声音的能力有限。无线伴侣麦克风和消费电子适配器直接将音频流向用户的助听器，并且更容易受到背景噪声的影响。尽管这些设备已被证明可以在嘈杂的环境中改善语音识别，但它们创建了一个源选择控制问题，该问题是繁重的，并且在有多个来源时限制了其实用性。拟议的增强功能将允许用户自动切换，就像一个正常双耳听力的人一样。助听器行业需要更高级的功能，以鼓励超过75％的已知听力损失的人从助听器中受益，以利用它们。拟议的增强助听器将使用户能够在常见情况下更有效地使用助听器。头部跟踪将使用非常低的功率磁力计集成到助听器中，类似于现代智能手机中的助听器。该系统将根据头部面对的方式自动调整可用来源（包括助听器内部麦克风）的音量。磁力计要求的额外功率将不到正常操作的10％，并且只会在从远程源流动音频时消耗。电池寿命不会受到重大影响。在第一阶段，AME将开发和评估原型系统。