Posted on 06/13/2011 10:58:23 AM PDT by Red Badger
New software 'hearing dummies' are part of cutting-edge research that promises to revolutionise the diagnosis and treatment of hearing impairments.
The work could also be used in the long-term to develop a radical new type of hearing aid that can be customised using the hearing dummy to meet the different needs of individual patients. If the procedures gain clinical acceptance, a device could reach the market within 4 years.
The research is being carried out by a team at the University of Essex with funding from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).
The aim has been to enable hearing aids to be carefully calibrated so that they address the particular underlying hearing condition affecting each individual patient; and to ensure that they tackle the most common problem affecting hearing-impaired people -- sound interference, which leads to an inability to follow conversations in noisy environments.
People also differ in how much they are affected by noisy environments, which is why developing a tailor-made approach represents such a significant breakthrough.
"Today's hearing aids don't help to separate sounds -- they just amplify them," says Professor Ray Meddis, of the University's Department of Psychology, who has led the work. "So they often make everything too noisy for the wearer, especially in social situations like parties, and some wearers still can't make out what people are saying to them. They find the whole experience so uncomfortable that they end up taking their hearing aids out! This discourages them from going to social occasions or busy environments and may result in them withdrawing from society."
The first key advance has been the development of unique computer models (or 'hearing dummies') that can use the information collected during the tests to simulate the precise details of an individual patient's hearing.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
The failure to pick out speech with a noisy background is very real. And after all, is not hearing speech why you wear the damn things?
Change your ringtone............
From Wiki:
A voice frequency (VF) or voice band is one of the frequencies, within part of the audio range, that is used for the transmission of speech.
In telephony, the usable voice frequency band ranges from approximately 300 Hz to 3400 Hz. It is for this reason that the ultra low frequency band of the electromagnetic spectrum between 300 and 3000 Hz is also referred to as voice frequency, being the electromagnetic energy that represents acoustic energy at baseband. The bandwidth allocated for a single voice-frequency transmission channel is usually 4 kHz, including guard bands, allowing a sampling rate of 8 kHz to be used as the basis of the pulse code modulation system used for the digital PSTN.
[edit] Fundamental frequency
The voiced speech of a typical adult male will have a fundamental frequency from 85 to 180 Hz, and that of a typical adult female from 165 to 255 Hz.[1][2] Thus, the fundamental frequency of most speech falls below the bottom of the “voice frequency” band as defined above. However, enough of the harmonic series will be present for the missing fundamental to create the impression of hearing the fundamental tone.
I use a really cheap hearing aid that has this as it basic freq response. It works for me.
Looks like something that may grow into something good!
I got rotary dial so I can hear and it works when the power is out.
They still make those things?????....................
Would you mind telling me what name brand etc that you use/recommend?
I’ve needed them for 20 years, but I just keep putting them off. I’m 62 and I now know how much I’m missing in life without hearing.
I needs hearing aids, but that sure looks larger than I would want to wear. grrrrrr
I need hearing aids, but that sure looks larger than I would want to wear. grrrrrr
Ping to Joya;
They still make those things?????....................
I don’t know if they still make them but it still works and I got spare parts. I can hear great with it.
My tinnitus is so loud, with so many varying sounds, that I can’t hear people talk, much less understand what they’re saying! I’ve pretty much given up.
I have age related nerve deafness. Okay, I looked up to see if the place I go is a chain,and it is. Advanced Hearing Centers. I have one small inside the ear aid;. He set it to my needs on the computer with it in my ear. He calibrated it over a couple of weeks until I was happy with the sound I was getting. I hear just fine with the one, although he keeps trying to sell me another one. Mel is a good guy and goes out of his way to keep me happy...free batteries, monthly terms, etc. I don’t know if all of the centers are as good as he is. The brand of the one I bought for $1,750 is called ReSound. You might look them up online too.
Based on my Dad’s experience and the experience of all the people I’ve known who bought them, I cannot recommend
Bell Tone. Very expensive too.
I love mine so much, I sleep with it in. Can’t stand the silence.
Did I read some place that Zinc is good for Tinnitis?
There is nothing wrong with my hearing (had it tested a couple of months ago.) You people just slur and speak too softly!
That was helpful. Thank you very much.
That would be a godsend.
Thanks for the ping!
This sounds like me. My kids are always telling me I’m yelling, but it’s because I’m trying to talk over the cicaidas in my ears and loosing the hearing isn’t helping.
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