Development of binaural hearing aid using a new sound transmission route (cartilage conduction)

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 24791799
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Otorhinolaryngology
• Research Institution: Shimane University (2014-2015); Nara Medical University (2012-2013)
• Principal Investigator: Shimokura Ryota 島根大学, 総合理工学研究科(研究院), 助教 (90455428)
• Project Period (FY): 2012-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 実験系心理学 / 解析・評価 / 電子デバイス・機器 / 医療・福祉

Outline of Final Research Achievements

An aim of this study is to evaluate binaural hearing effects (sound localization and improved speech intelligibility under noisy condition) and improve an existing cartilage hearing aid for a practical use of the binaural cartilage conduction hearing aid. The sound localization examination showed that cartilage conduction sound could make users known the sound arrival direction as accurate as the air conduction sound. And the speech intelligibility examination in noisy condition showed that the cartilage conducted speech was harder to be caught due to a shortage of sound energy in a low frequency range (< 300 Hz). So we replaced a previous piezo-electric transducer with an electromagnetic one for the sake of more amplified output in the same range. Owing to the improvement, some hearing-impaired participants using the new cartilage conduction hearing aid could hear speech even in the crowd.

Free Research Field

音響学