Evaluation of an Adaptive Directional System in a DSP Hearing Aid.

Autor: Bentler, Ruth A., Tubbs, Jill L., Egge, Jessica L. M., Flamme, Gregory A., Dittberner, Andrew B.
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Zdroj: American Journal of Audiology; Jun2004, Vol. 13 Issue 1, p73-79, 7p, 1 Diagram, 6 Charts
Abstrakt: The effectiveness of an adaptive directional microphone design, as implemented in the Phonak Claro behind-the-ear hearing aid, is evaluated. Participants were fit bilaterally and tested in 2 environments, an anechoic chamber and a moderately reverberant classroom, with the microphones in the fixed (cardioid) setting and the adaptive setting. Five speakers were placed between 110° and 250° azimuth around the listener. Speech-weighted noise was presented from those speakers at an overall level (OAL) of 65 dB (A). Noise was increased by 8 dB from 1 speaker at a time, using 2-s modulation and random assignment, while the output from the other speakers was reduced to maintain the constant OAL. Results of 2 speech perception tasks used as outcome measures indicated that the adaptive system was not able to follow the dominant noise source in the presence of lower level noise sources. Self-report measures obtained after blinded home trials were consistent with laboratory findings that the participants did not perceive this adaptive microphone design to be more effective than the default fixed-microphone option. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
Databáze: Complementary Index