PURPOSE To verify the speech recognition processes in a monoaural task and in a binaural integration task with dichotic listening, and to compare them to the cognitive processing in elderly subjects pre and post hearing aid acclimatization. METHODS Participants were 60 elderly subjects of both genders, ranging in age from 61 to 85 years. They were evaluated for cognitive aspects by means of t...

The goal of this study was to investigate whether adaptive microphone directionality could enhance cochlear implant performance. Speech stimuli were created by fitting a digital hearing aid with programmable omnidirectional (OM), fixed directional (FDM), or adaptive directional (ADM) microphones to KEMAR, and recording the hearing aid output in three noise conditions. The first condition simula...

An elderly patient with a relatively severe problem in speech understanding tried out, and rejected, use of a conventional hearing aid. She has accepted, however, and successfully used an assistive listening device (ALD). Her experience highlights the importance of considering trial use of an ALD in the elderly patient who rejects use of a conventional aid.

SYNFACE is a telephone aid for hearing-impaired people that shows the lip movements of the speaker at the other telephone synchronised with the speech. The SYNFACE system consists of a speech recogniser that recognises the incoming speech and a synthetic talking head. The output from the recogniser is used to control the articulatory movements of the synthetic head. SYNFACE prototype systems ex...

This paper proposes speaking-aid systems based on one-to-many eigenvoice conversion (EVC) for enhancing three types of alaryngeal speech: esophageal speech; electrolaryngeal speech; and body-conducted silent electrolaryngeal speech. Although alaryngeal speech allows laryngectomees to utter speech sounds, it suffers from lack of naturalness and speaker individuality. To improve the sound quality...

When comparing music to speech, there are four essential physical differences that warrant consideration during a hearing aid (or cochlear implant) fitting. Understanding these differences and selecting appropriate hearing aid circuitry will help to optimize the enjoyment of music for the hard-of-hearing listener. This applies equally to those who are musicians as to those who like to listen to...

The Guidelines for Hearing Aid Fitting for Adults were developed by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA) Ad Hoc Committee on Hearing Aid Selection and Fitting. Members of the committee are Michael Valente, chair; Ruth Bentler; Holly S. Kaplan, ex officio; Richard Seewald; Timothy Trine; Dennis Van Vliet; and Lawrence W. Higdon, Vice President for Professional Practices in Aud...

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the consistency and reliability of user adjustments to hearing aid gain and the resulting effects on speech understanding. Sixteen bilaterally aided individuals with hearing loss adjusted their hearing aid gain to optimize listening comfort and speech clarity while listening to speech in quiet and noisy backgrounds. Following these adjustments, p...

UNLABELLED Alterations in gait mechanics and mobility aid (MA) use have been observed in persons with visual impairment (VI) in response to environmental changes, yet the influence of these modifications on the accuracy of an adaptive pedometer has not been documented. PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to establish validity evidence for the Centrios talking pedometer relative to environme...

The 'SpeechViewer' system, developed by IBM for using with their PS/2 microcomputers or compatibles, is meant as an aid for speech therapists while working with their clients. This paper reports about its speech training and analyzing facilities that are tested in practice to some extent. Using a hardware vowel generator, the accuracy of the detection of the speech features is tested as well. F...