• 대한전자공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한전자공학회 2005년도 추계종합학술대회
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• pp.411-414
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• 2005

The most recent trend on digital hearing aid is to increase the ratio of signal to noise by directivity or to develop noise reduction algorithm inside DSP IC chip. This paper designed, fabricated and tested a digital hearing aid directivity testing device in which a micro-mouse-like the stepping motor with a speaker rotates around an examinant. Both ears of the examinant were fixed with ITE hearing aids in order to response to receiving sound. The diameter of the directivity testing device was 2 [m] and the micro-mouse was precisely controlled by PICBASIC micro processor.

• 대한전자공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한전자공학회 2005년도 추계종합학술대회
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• pp.415-418
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• 2005

DSP chip parameters of a digital hearing aid (HA) should be optimally selected or fitted for hearing impaired persons. The more precise parameter fitting guarantees the better compensation of the hearing loss (HL). Digital HAs adopt DSP chips for more precise fitting of various HL threshold curve patterns. A specific DSP chip such as Gennum GB3211 was designed and manufactured in order to match up to about 4.7 billion different possible HL cases with combination of 7 limited parameters. This paper deals with a digital HA fitting program which is developed for optimal fitting of GB3211 DSP chip parameters. The fitting program has completed feature from audiogram input to DSP chip interface. The compensation effects of the microphone and the receiver are also included. The paper shows some application examples.

• 음성과학
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• 제12권3호
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• pp.79-89
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• 2005

Acoustic feedback between microphone and receiver can be effectively cancelled adaptive feedback cancellation algorithm. Although many speech sounds have non-Gaussian distribution, most algorithms were tested with speech like sounds whose distribution were Guassian type. In this paper, we proposed an adaptive feedback cancellation algorithm based on independent component analysis (ICA) for digital hearing aid. The algorithm was tested with not only Gaussian distribution but also Laplacian distribution. We verified that the proposed algorithm has better acoustic feedback cancelling performance than conventional normalized root mean square (NLMS) algorithm, especially speech like sounds with Laplacian distribution.

• 대한의용생체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한의용생체공학회 1997년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.79-82
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• 1997

In this paper, a body-worn type digital hearing aid (DHA) based on a dedicated DSP chip is developed. A fitting software running on a PC supported by the Win95 OS is also developed. The fitting protocol is based on the NAL-R procedure applied to eight frequency bands, but it is designed to support a curvilinear fitting to cope with the nonlinear perception of hearing-impaired listeners. Preliminary subjective tests regarding the speech intelligibility and perceived quality revealed that the new DHA could be of benefit to hearing aid users.

• 제어로봇시스템학회논문지
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• 제12권6호
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• pp.530-538
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• 2006

DSP chip parameters of a digital hearing aid (HA) should be optimally selected or fitted for hearing impaired persons. The more precise parameter fitting guarantees the better compensation of the hearing loss (HL). Digital HAs adopt DSP chips for more precise fitting of various HL threshold curve patterns. A specific DSP chip such as Gennum GB3211 was designed and manufactured in order to match up to about 4.7 billion different possible HL cases with combination of 7 limited parameters. This paper deals with a digital HA fitting program which is developed for optimal fitting of GB3211 DSP chip parameters. The fitting program has completed features from audiogram input to DSP chip interface. The compensation effects of the microphone and the receiver are also included. The paper shows some application examples.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제30권2호
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• pp.169-178
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• 2009

In this study, we suggest Korean nonlinear fitting formula (KNFF) to maximize speech intelligibility for digital hearing aids based on NAL-NL1 (NAL-nonlinear, version 1). KNFF was derived from the same procedure which is used for deriving NAL-NL1. KNFF consider the long-term average speech spectrum of Korean instead of English because the frequency characteristic of Korean is different from that of English. New insertion gains of KNFF were derived using the SII (speech intelligibility index) program provided by ANSI. In addition, the insertion gains were modified to maximize the intelligibility of high frequency words. To verify effect of the new fitting gain, we performed speech discrimination test (SDT) and preference test using the hearing loss simulator from NOISH. In the SDT, a word set as test material consists of 50 1-syllable word generally used in hearing clinic. As a result of the test, in case of moderate hearing loss with severe loss on high frequency, the SDT scores of KNFF was more improved about 3.2% than NAL-NLl and about 6% in case of the sever hearing loss. Finally we have obtained the result that it was the effective way to increase gain of mid-high frequency bands and to decrease gain of low frequency bands in order to maximize speech intelligibility of Korean.

• 전자공학회논문지
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• 제50권4호
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• pp.43-51
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• 2013

디지털 보청기에 적합한 저전력 3차 델타-시그마 모듈레이터를 설계하였다. 적분기의 출력 스윙을 최소화 하도록 모듈레이터 구조의 계수를 최적화하고, AB급 출력단을 갖는 2단 연산증폭기와 switched-capacitor 구조를 사용하여 전력소모를 최소화 하였다. 본 모듈레이터는 130nm CMOS 공정을 이용하여 제작되었으며, 샘플링 주파수가 3.2MHz일 때 100Hz-10kHz의 신호대역에서 79dB의 SNR(Signal-to-Noise Ratio)이 측정되었다. 전력소모는 1.2V 전원전압에서 $60{\mu}W$에 불과하며 A/D 변환기 코어의 크기는 $0.53mm{\times}0.53mm$ 이다.

• 전기학회논문지
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• 제58권4호
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• pp.857-866
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• 2009

In this paper, a noise cancellation-method using microphone array for digital hearing aids is proposed. The microphone array is located around the ear of a dummy. Speech sound is generated from the forward speaker positioned in the front of the dummy and noise sound is generated from the backward speaker. The speech and noise are mixed in the air space and entered into the microphones. VAD(voice activity detector) and ANC(adaptive noise cancellation) methods were used to eliminate noise in the sound of the microphones. 10 two-syllable words and 4 sentences were used for speech signals. Babble and car interior noise were used for noise signals. The performance of the proposed algorithm was evaluated by SNR(signal-to-noise ratio) and PESQ-MOS(perceptual evaluation of speech quality-mean opinion score). In babble noise condition, SNR was improved as much as $7.963{\pm}1.3620dB\;and\;3.968{\pm}0.6659dB$ for words and sentences respectively. In the case of car interior noise, SNR was improved as $10.512{\pm}2.0665dB\;and\;6.000{\pm}1.7642dB$ for words and sentences respectively. PESQ-MOS of the babble noise was improved as much as $0.1722{\pm}0.0861$ score for words and $0.083{\pm}0.0417$ score for sentences. And PESQ-MOS of the car interior noise was improved as $0.2661{\pm}0.0335$ score and $0.040{\pm}0.0201$ score for words and sentences respectively. It is verified that the proposed algorithm has a good performance in noise cancellation of microphone array for digital hearing aids.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제32권3호
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• pp.218-229
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• 2011

Companding algorithms have been used to enhance speech recognition in noise for cochlea implant users. The efficiency of using companding for digital hearing aid users is not yet validated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the performance of the companding for digital hearing aid users in the various hearing loss cases. Using HeLPS, a hearing loss simulator, two different sensorinerual hearing loss conditions were simulated; mild gently sloping hearing loss(HL1) and moderate to steeply sloping hearing loss(HL2). In addition, a non-linear compression was simulated to compensate for hearing loss using national acoustic laboratories-non-linear version 1(NAL-NL1) in HeLPS. In companding, the following four different companding strategies were used changing Q values(q1, q2) of pre-filter(F filter) and post filter(G filter). Firstly, five IEEE sentences which were presented with speech-shaped noise at different SNRs(0, 5, 10, 15 dB) were processed by the companding. Secondly, the processed signals were applied to HeLPS. For comparison, signals which were not processed by companding were also applied to HeLPS. For the processed signals, log-likelihood ratio(LLR) and cepstral distance(CEP) were measured for evaluation of speech quality. Also, fourteen normal hearing listeners performed speech reception threshold(SRT) test for evaluation of speech intelligibility. As a result of this study, the processed signals with the companding and NAL-NL1 have performed better than that with only NAL-NL1 in the sensorineural hearing loss conditions. Moreover, the higher ratio of Q values showed better scores in LLR and CEP. In the SRT test, the processed signals with companding(SRT = -13.33 dB SPL) showed significantly better speech perception in noise than those processed using only NAL-NL1(SRT = -11.56 dB SPL).

• 재활복지
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• 제22권3호
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• pp.225-257
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• 2018

본 연구의 목적은 청각장애인이 경험하는 위험상황과 청각 대체기술로 사용하는 보조기기 사용실태를 조사하여 청각증강 기술 개발의 적용점을 모색하는 데 있다. 이를 위해 청각장애 등급을 판정받은 청각장애인을 대상으로 설문조사하여 총 355명의 자료를 분석에 사용하였다. 연구결과 첫째, 소리 및 진동을 인지한 경험이 없는 상황으로 교통수단, 사물, 자연 영역 순으로 높게 나타났다. 이 중 교통수단의 소리와 진동을 인지하지 못한 비율이 높아 일상생활에서 청각장애인이 경험하는 위험 가능성이 높은 것으로 조사되었다. 둘째, 청각장애인이 경험한 위험상황은 교통사고, 보행사고, 가정에서의 일상생활 순으로 높게 조사되었다. 셋째, 위험상황 인식과 알림을 위한 보조기기로 2G폰/스마트폰, 진동디지털알람시계, 경광등, 진동손목시계의 인지도가 높았으며, 2G폰/스마트폰의 만족도가 가장 높았다. 넷째, 의사소통을 위한 보조기기로 보청기, 스마트폰, 영상전화기, 인공와우, 2G폰 순으로 인지도가 높았으며, 스마트폰을 사용하였을 경우 만족도와 의사소통 개선정도가 가장 높게 조사되었다. 마지막으로 청각증강 기술 개발을 위해 고려할 점으로 휴대/착용 편의성, 가격, 동작 정확도 순으로 선호하였으며, 알림 전달 방식은 시각(문자와 빛)을 활용한 알림방식을 선호하였다. 연구결과에 근거하여 위험상황에서 청각장애인의 청각증강 기술 개발을 위한 정책적, 실천적 방안을 제시하였다.