Effectiveness of Hearing-aid Based Wind-noise Algorithm

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Total Enrollment

60 participants

Study Classification

OBSERVATIONAL

Study Start Date

2007-11-30

Study Completion Date

2009-11-30

Brief Summary

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Wind-noise is highly disturbing to hearing impaired individuals wearing hearing aids who wish to participate in outdoor conversations where wind is present or during activities such as walking or running. In these situations, wind noise significantly reduces signal-to-noise ratio and, consequently, the intelligibility of speech and sounds may be significantly impaired. This negative effect is exacerbated with the use of directional microphone schemes in the hearing iads. The objective of this project is to determine the efficacy of the MH Acoustics' multi-microphone wind-noise reduction invention for the digital hearing aids market. MH Acoustics' wind noise reduction technology is unique since it provides instantaneous convergence while maintaining directionality of the microphone array. Current commercial technologies do not provide this feature. We are hypothesizing that, due to the design of the algorithm, speech perception ability and sound quality perception will be better than that available with traditional directional and/or omnidirectional microphone schemes in windy environments.

Detailed Description

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Two groups of subjects will be recruited to participate: Normal hearing adults and adults with mild to moderately severe hearing loss, ages 18-65. Pure tone audiometrics (re ANSI, 1996) will be done to ascertain the hearing sensitivity through 6ooo Hz. Normal hearing will be defined as thresholds at or better than 20 dB HL (re ANSI, 1996). The only exclusion criterion for the group exhibiting hearing loss is that no thresholds up to and including 3000 Hz will exceed 75 dB, so as to minimize the inclusion of subjects with "dead regions" in the cochlea.

Subjects will be seen for four visits to the laboratory. The first visit will involve documentation of informed consent, and measurement of hearing thresholds. The second, third and fourth visits will consist of testing with the following measures (in random order for each subject) to determine if the various implementations of the wind noise reduction algorithm 1) impact speech perception ability, and/or 2) impact sound quality perception. Each session will take approximately 1.5 hours, with a maximum of six hours over all the sessions. The two speech perception tests that will be utilized include : 1) Connected Speech Test and Hearing in Noise Test, 2) The Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) (Nilsson, Soli, \& Sullivan, 1994; Koch, Nilsson \& Soli, 1995. Overall Impression of Sound Quality and Ratings of Annoyance will be used as subjective, or self-reported, measures of preference. Overall Impression will be influenced by the audibility and masking effect of the noise bursts, whereas Annoyance ratings are significantly correlated to the high frequency emphasis of the stimulus, a potential impact of the extreme suppression conditions (e.g., -18 dB) (Warner \& Bentler, 2002; Miedema \& Vos, 2003). Both measures will be analyzed as a function of the different time constants, gain reduction levels, and level of presentation.

Conditions

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Hearing Impairment

Study Design

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Observational Model Type

CASE_CROSSOVER

Study Time Perspective

PROSPECTIVE

Study Groups

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1

Normal hearing listeners

No interventions assigned to this group

2

Listeners with mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss

No interventions assigned to this group

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Ages 18-75
* Normal or mild-to-moderate sensorineural hearing loss

Exclusion Criteria

* Thresholds in excess of 75 dB HL

Minimum Eligible Age

18 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

75 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Responsible Party

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Ruth Ann Bentler

Professor

Responsibility Role PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

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Ruth A Bentler, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

University of Iowa

Locations

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Wendell Johnson Center, University of Iowa

Iowa City, Iowa, United States

Site Status

Countries

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United States

Other Identifiers

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R44DC007246

Identifier Type: NIH

Identifier Source: secondary_id

View Link

2R44DC007246-02A2