Towards implementation of the smart hearing aid for selective listening by using brain signals

2015 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 25560292
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Rehabilitation science/Welfare engineering
• Research Institution: Kanazawa Institute of Technology
• Principal Investigator: Higuchi Masanori 金沢工業大学, 先端電子技術応用研究所, 教授 (50288271)
• Co-Investigator(Renkei-kenkyūsha): KAWAI JUN 金沢工業大学, 先端電子技術応用研究所, 教授 (10468978) ; OYAMA DAISUKE 金沢工業大学, 先端電子技術応用研究所, 准教授 (60569888) ; SUZUKA YUKO 金沢医科大学, 医学部, 教授 (30148530)
• Project Period (FY): 2013-04-01 – 2016-03-31
• Keywords: 医療・福祉 / 脳・神経 / 計測工学 / 情報工学 / アルゴリズム

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In this study, we aim to develop the smart hearing aid for selective listening by using brain signals such as MEG and EEG. For this purpose, we investigated the neural mechanism of the selective listening with the coherence function between a sound envelope and MEG signals. As some of obtained knowledge, we found that the coherence values of the noticed sound became higher than the unnoticed sound and the voice sound showed comparatively high conference values in the left hemisphere regardless of the sound source direction. For practical use, we tested the possibility of wearable EEG devices.

Free Research Field

生体磁気計測