Age-related changes in permissible delay times of hearing aids and its application for hearing aids for presbycusis

2018 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 17K18165
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering; Applied health science
• Research Institution: Meiji University
• Principal Investigator: Murakami Takahiro 明治大学, 理工学部, 専任講師 (50409463)
• Research Collaborator: AOKI Soichiro ; YONEGUCHI Ryoichi ; OHASHI Saki ; TODA Yuki ; OCHIAI Yuki ; SHIGEMATSU Hayato
• Project Period (FY): 2017-04-01 – 2019-03-31
• Keywords: 老人性難聴 / 補聴器 / 聴覚フィードバック / 骨導音 / phase vocoder / ノンパラメトリックベイズモデル / マイクロホンアレー校正 / ブラインドシステム同定

Outline of Final Research Achievements

Due to the limitation about delay times between input and output, it is quite difficult to improve performance of hearing aids. Previous research, however, suggested that permissible delay times of hearing aids for presbycusis (or age-related hearing loss) could be extended to a certain degree.
In this KAKENHI project, the age-related changes in permissible delay times of hearing aids have been investigated in detail. By this investigation, it has also been revealed that some compensation is necessary for acoustic signals to investigate efficiently. In relation to the compensation of acoustic signals, several algorithms for estimating parameters of acoustic systems have been developed. In addition, a phase vocoder, which can be available for the compensation, has been improved by removing the well-known phase unwrapping problem.

Free Research Field

複合領域

Academic Significance and Societal Importance of the Research Achievements

近年，老人性難聴に起因するコミュニケーションの問題や認知症リスクの上昇が指摘されている．一方，老人性難聴を補助するための補聴器は，普及率が１５％を下回っている．補聴器の低普及率の主な原因は，利用者の期待に対して性能が不十分であるためと考えられる．
本研究課題は，老人性難聴用補聴器の性能改善への試みの１つである．従来は，補聴器内部で行う音声処理方法の改善が多く試みられてきた．一方，本研究課題では，老人性難聴の特徴の積極的な利用による性能改善の可能性を探った．本研究課題によって得られた実験方法や集まったデータ等の成果を今後もより洗練させることで，補聴器の性能の大幅な改善が期待できる．