Hearing Aid Preset Navigation Using Perceptual Models
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Solution Overview
Problem
The existing hearing assistance devices require multiple iterations of fitting sessions with audiologists to achieve satisfactory sound quality, leading to inefficiency and the presence of 'dead zones' in navigation spaces where no sound variation is audible, limiting the fine-tuning potential for individual listeners.
Innovation Solution
A hearing assistance system utilizing a perceptual model to automatically organize presets in an N-dimensional space, predicting audible differences and maximizing navigation space, allowing listeners to intuitively adjust parameters through a graphical interface, thereby eliminating 'dead zones' and optimizing sound processing for each user's hearing loss profile.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional fitting methods with multiple iterations are used, then sound quality can be optimized for the wearer, but the process requires multiple visits to an audiologist's office and is time-consuming
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary organization of the navigation space using a perceptual model before the listener arrives. Presets are pre-distributed in the navigation space based on predicted audible differences, eliminating the need for multiple iterative fitting sessions. The listener can then directly navigate through the pre-organized space to find their preferred settings.
Solution Approach 2:
The listener is empowered to independently navigate and adjust settings using the graphical user interface and N-dimensional space representation. The system provides tools for the listener to self-adjust parameters without requiring repeated audiologist visits, making the fitting process self-service oriented while maintaining optimization quality.
2Adaptability or versatility
If traditional navigation space is used, then device settings can be adjusted, but dead zones appear where no sound variation is audible, limiting fine-tuning potential
Solution Approach 1:
The system transforms the traditional one-dimensional or two-dimensional navigation space into an N-dimensional space where each dimension corresponds to a perceptual attribute. This dimensional expansion allows presets to be distributed more effectively, eliminating dead zones by ensuring adequate coverage across all perceptual dimensions simultaneously.
Solution Approach 2:
The system changes the parameters used to organize navigation space from arbitrary technical parameters to perceptually-relevant parameters derived from the perceptual model. By organizing presets based on predicted audible differences in perceptual space rather than technical parameter space, the system eliminates regions where no audible variation occurs, maximizing fine-tuning potential across the entire navigation space.
Data Source
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AI summary
A hearing assistance system for delivering sounds to a listener provides for subjective, listener-driven programming of a hearing assistance device, such as a hearing aid, using a perceptual model. The system produces a distribution of presets using a perceptual model selected for the listener and allows the listener to navigate through the distribution to adjust parameters of a signal processing algorithm for processing the sounds. The use of the perceptual model increases the potential of fine tuning of the hearing assistance device available to the listener.