• Korean Journal of Audiology
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• v.24 no.1
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• pp.29-34
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• 2020

Background and Objectives: Bilateral microphones with contralateral routing of signal (BiCROS) hearing aid is an option for hearing rehabilitation in individuals with asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss (ASNHL). The clinical factors influencing the trial and purchase of BiCROS were investigated. Subjects and Methods: We reviewed the medical records of 78 patients with ASNHL who were recommended to use BiCROS and analyzed the demographic and audiological factors influencing the trial and purchase of BiCROS. Results: Among the 78 patients, 52 (66.7%) availed of the free BiCROS trial and 21 (26.9%) purchased BiCROS. The mean pure tone audiometry (PTA) air conduction (AC) threshold of the better- and worse-hearing ears were 44.2±12.8 dB and 90.7±22.5 dB HL, respectively. The decision for trial or purchase of BiCROS was not influenced by age, sex, duration of hearing loss of the worse-hearing ear, or PTA AC threshold or speech discrimination score of both ears. The first and third quartiles of the PTA AC thresholds for the better-hearing ear of BiCROS buyers were 38.75 dB and 53.75 dB HL, respectively. The counterpart values for the worse-hearing ear were 72.50 dB and 118.75 dB HL, respectively. Conclusions: The clinical factors analyzed in this study were found to be irrelevant to the trial and purchase of BiCROS in patients with ASNHL. Nevertheless, the distribution range of the auditory thresholds of the subjects using BiCROS can be a useful basis for the counseling of patients with ASNHL and selection of candidates for BiCROS use.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.37 no.6
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• pp.209-214
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• 2016

Binaural hearing aids with a voice transmitter have been widely used to enhance sound quality in noisy environment. However, this system has a limitation on sound-source localization. In this study, we investigated automatic directional-gain control method using geomagnetic sensors to provide directional information to binaural hearing aid user. The loudness gains of two hearing aids were differently controlled based on the directional information between a speaker position and a viewing direction of hearing aids user. This relative directional information was measured by two geomagnetic sensors on hearing aids user and a speaker. The results showed that the loudness gains were accurately controlled and could provide directional information based on the cue of interaural level differences.

• Phonetics and Speech Sciences
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.117-123
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• 2011

Most individuals with hearing impairment have difficulty in understanding speech in noisy situations. This study was conducted to investigate sentence recognition ability using the Korean Standard-Sentence Lists for Preschoolers (KS-SL-P2) in pre-school age children with cochlear implants and hearing aids. The subjects of this study were 10 pre-school age children with hearing aids, 12 pre-school age children with cochlear implants, and 10 pre-school age children with normal hearing. Three kinds of signal-to-noise (SNR) conditions (+10 dB, +5 dB, 0 dB) were applied. The results for all pre-school age children with cochlear implants and hearing aids presented a significant increase in the score for sentence recognition as SNR increased. The sentence recognition score in speech noise were obtained with the SNR +10 dB. Significant differences existed between groups in terms of their sentence recognition ability, with the cochlear implant group performing better than the hearing aid group. These findings suggest the presence of a sentence recognition test using speech noise is useful for evaluating pre-school age children's listening skill.

• The Transactions of The Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers
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• v.60 no.5
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• pp.1055-1061
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• 2011

In this study, main parameters: aperture, first bend and second bend which express a structure of ear canal are extracted in order to modeling and manufacture the ready-made ear shells of hearing aids. The proposed parameter extraction method consists of 2 important algorithms, aperture detection and feature detection. In the aperture detection algorithm, aperture of 3-D scanned virtual ear impression and parameters relating to ear shell of hearing aid are determined. The feature detection algorithm detects first bend, second bend, and related parameters. Through these two algorithms, parameters for aperture, first bend, and second bend are extracted to model the ready-made ear shell of hearing aid. The values of these extracted parameters from 36 people's right ear impression are analyzed and measured statistically. As a result of the analysis, it has been found that it is possible to classify ready-made ear shell parameters by age and size. The ready-made ear shell parameters are classified 3-size for 20 years old and 2-size for 60 years olde. Using 3D rhino program, virtual ready-made ear shell is reconstructed by parameters of every type, and simulated to model it. A final product was produced by transferring simulation result with rapid prototyping system. The modeled ready-made ear shell is evaluated with the objective and subjective method. Objective method is the comparison volume ratio and overlapped volume ratio of ear impression from randomly chosen 18 people and ready-made ear shell. And subjective method is that the final product of ready-made ear shell is used by users and the satisfaction number drawn from well fitting and comfortable testing was evaluated. In the result of the evaluation, it has been found that volume ration is 70%, big and middle size ready-made ear shell products are possible, and the satisfaction number is high.

• The Journal of Korean Institute of Communications and Information Sciences
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• v.36 no.7C
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• pp.413-420
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• 2011

This paper proposes a new adaptive algorithm to cancel the acoustic feedback and noise signals in the binaural hearing aids. The convergence performances of the proposed algorithm are improved by updating coefficients of the feedback canceller after the speech signal is cancelled from the residual signal with dual microphones. The feedback canceller firstly cancels the feedback signal from the microphone signal, and then the noise canceller reduces the noise by the beamforming method. To assure that binaural hearing aids converge stably, the left-sided hearing aid only is converged firstly, next the right-sided hearing aid only is converged. To verify performances of the proposed algorithm, simulations were carried out for a speech. As the results of simulations, it was proved that we can advance 14.43dB SFR(Signal to Feedback Ratio) on the average for the feedback canceller, 10.19dB SNR(Signal to Noise Ratio) improvement on the average for the noise canceller, in case that this algorithm is used.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.31 no.1
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• pp.20-26
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• 2010

The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of a wireless transceiver that can be inserted into the ear canal. The wireless technology could minimize the cosmetic problems of patients, and it can be applied to binaural hearing aids for improving speech perception. In order to implement the ear canal insertable transceiver, simple finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) simulations were carried out to determine the feasibility, and the hardware of the transceiver was implemented within the ear shell. The size of the implemented transceiver was only $7{\times}7mm$, and it could successfully transmit signals to external devices. In order to measure the radiation pattern, a simple RF phantom was used, and the maximum attenuation from the phantom was observed to be 23 dB when the reference antenna was placed at a distance of 2 m from the transmitter.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.909-912
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• 2005

According to miniaturization trend of rehabilitation medical equipment such as hearing aid, study to replace previous complex system with semiconductor SOC (System-on-Chip) chip becomes lively. In this study, after investigating of existent hearing aid performance in circuit design approach, low electric power consuming, single power supply (1.4V battery) CMOSS OP AMP was designed. Analog circuit design tools such as Hspice and Cadence were used for circuit simulation and implementing layout design. This study shows technical methods particularly for layout design. The work is done in pmos and nmos active element layout design in addition to passive element design such as resister, capacitor and inductor.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.25 no.1E
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• pp.25-31
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• 2006

Two twin microphones may produce particular patterns of binaural directivity by time delays between the twin microphones. The boundary element method (BEM) was used for the simulation of the sound pressure field around the KEMAR head model in order to quantify the acoustic head effect. The sound pressure onto the microphone was calculated by the BEM to an incident sound pressure. Then a planar directivity pattern was formed by four sound pressure signals from four microphones. The optimal binaural directivity pattern may be achieved by adjusting time delays at each frequency while maintaining the forward beam pattern is relatively bigger than the backward beam pattern. The simulation results were verified by the experimental measurement.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers D
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• v.53 no.9
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• pp.657-662
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• 2004

The low-power design of the digital hearing aid is indispensable to achieve the compact portable device with long battery duration. In this paper, new low-power adaptive filter structure is proposed based on distributed arithmetic(DA). By modifying the DA technique, the proposed decimation filter structure can significantly reduce the power consumption and implementation area. Through Verilog-HDL coding, cell occupation of the proposed structure is reduced to 33.49% in comparison with that of the conventional multiplier structure. Since Verilog-HDL simulation processing time of the two structures are same, it is assumed that the power consumption or implementation area is proportional to the cell occupation in the simulation.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3E
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• pp.115-122
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• 2005

Two twin microphones may produce particular patterns of binaural directivity by time delays between twin microphones. The boundary element method (BEM) was used for the simulation of the sound pressure field around the head model in order to quantify the acoustic head effect. The sound pressure onto the microphone was calculated by the BEM to an incident sound pressure. Then a planar directivity pattern was formed by four sound pressure signals from four microphones. The optimal binaural directivity pattern may be achieved by adjusting time delays at each frequency while maintaining the forward beam pattern is relatively bigger than the backward beam pattern.