COMBINING ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY NOISE CONTROL SOLUTIONS

ABSTRACT

Sensorineural hearing loss imposes many difficulties for the hearing aid user. Directional microphones and FM signal transmission help to significantly minimize one of the most serious effects: the ability to hear and understand speech in noisy environments. However, the other signal processing effects of sensorineural hearing loss continue to exist for these patients: reduced dynamic range, poor frequency and temporal resolution, and poor audibility for softer inputs. The benefit of multi-channel, wide dynamic range signal processing as a solution for sensorineural hearing loss is significant and works in addition to the benefits provided by technologies designed to improve the signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Specific design and selection considerations are essential in order to maximize the benefit provided by each of the separate technologies.

KEYWORD

Hearing loss - hearing aids - directionality - speech understanding