• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• 1994.06a
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• pp.919-924
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• 1994

The use of adaptive feedback cancellation to prevent howling requires a reference signal that is correlated with the feedback signal by is not correlated with the input signal. Such a signal is hard to obtain in hearing aids. In this paper, the use fo frequency compression to decorrelate the output signal with input signal for use as reference is presented. Performance evaluation results indicate that with the proper choice of system parameters, the use of this system can provide a significant increase in howling margin with minimal deterioration in output signal quality.

• 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.

• Journal of Biomedical Engineering Research
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• v.34 no.1
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• pp.24-33
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• 2013

To enhance the speech perception of hearing aid users in noisy environment, most hearing aid devices adopt various beamforming algorithms such as the first-order differential microphone (DM1) and the two-stage directional microphone (DM2) algorithms that maintain sounds from the direction of the interlocutor and reduce the ambient sounds from the other directions. However, these conventional algorithms represent poor directionality ability in low frequency area. Therefore, to enhance the speech perception of hearing aid uses in low frequency range, our group had suggested a fractional delay subtraction and integration (FDSI) algorithm and estimated its theoretical performance using computer simulation in previous article. In this study, we performed a KEMAR test in non-reverberant room that compares the performance of DM1, DM2, broadband beamforming (BBF), and proposed FDSI algorithms using several objective indices such as a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement, a segmental SNR (seg-SNR) improvement, a perceptual evaluation of speech quality (PESQ), and an Itakura-Saito measure (IS). Experimental results showed that the performance of the FDSI algorithm was -3.26-7.16 dB in SNR improvement, -1.94-5.41 dB in segSNR improvement, 1.49-2.79 in PESQ, and 0.79-3.59 in IS, which demonstrated that the FDSI algorithm showed the highest improvement of SNR and segSNR, and the lowest IS. We believe that the proposed FDSI algorithm has a potential as a beamformer for digital hearing aid devices.

• The Journal of the Korea institute of electronic communication sciences
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• v.14 no.6
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• pp.1249-1256
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• 2019

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to remove acoustic feedback and noise in hearing aids. Instead of using the conventional FIR structure, this algorithm is a deep learning algorithm using neural network adaptive prediction filter to improve the feedback and noise reduction performance. The feedback canceller first removes the feedback signal from the microphone signal and then removes the noise using the Wiener filter technique. Noise elimination is to estimate the speech from the speech signal containing noise using the linear prediction model according to the periodicity of the speech signal. In order to ensure stable convergence of two adaptive systems in a loop, coefficient updates of the feedback canceller and noise canceller are separated and converged using the residual error signal generated after the cancellation. In order to verify the performance of the feedback and noise canceller proposed in this study, a simulation program was written and simulated. Experimental results show that the proposed deep learning algorithm improves the signal to feedback ratio(: SFR) of about 10 dB in the feedback canceller and the signal to noise ratio enhancement(: SNRE) of about 3 dB in the noise canceller than the conventional FIR structure.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.17 no.11
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• pp.3064-3082
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• 2023

During the last decade, several Electronic Orientation Aids devices have been proposed to solve the autonomy problems of visually impaired people. When hearing is considered the primary sense for Visually Impaired people (VI) and it is generally loaded with the environment, the use of tactile sense can be considered a solution to transmit directional information. This paper presents a new wearable haptic system based on four motors implemented in shoes, while six directions can be played. This study aims to introduce an interface design and investigate an appropriate means of spatial information delivery through haptic sense. The first experiment of the proposed system was performed with 15 users in an indoor environment. The results showed that the users were able to recognize, with high accuracy, the directions displayed on their feet. The second experiment was conducted in an outdoor environment with five blindfolded users who were guided along 120 meters. The users, guided only by the haptic system, successfully reached their destinations. The potential of tactile-foot stimulation to help VI understand Electronic Orientation Aids (EOA) instructions was discussed, and future challenges were defined.

• Proceedings of the Acoustical Society of Korea Conference
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• autumn
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• pp.175-178
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• 2004

각각 2개의 마이크로폰을 내장한 귓속형 보청기를 양쪽귀에 착용한 상태에서 소리의 지향성을 시뮬레이션하고 전기음향실험으로 비교하였다. 지향성 보청기의 신호 대 잡음 비율 향상을 고려하였다. 시뮬레이션을 위해 경계요소기법을 사용하였으며 본 논문에 의해 밝혀진 주파수 대역에서의 시간 지연을 DSP칩을 내장한 디지털 보청기의 지향성 조절 파라미터로 사용하고자 한다. 마이크로폰 사이의 간격을 10mm로 하였다. 가장 최적한 지향성이 출력 되기 위한 위상을 계산하였다.

• Proceedings of the IEEK Conference
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• 2003.07e
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• pp.2459-2462
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• 2003

In this paper, we Propose a wavelet based adaptive algorithm which improves the convergence speed and reduces computational complexity using the fast running FIR filtering efficiently. We compared the performance of the proposed algorithm with time and frequence domain adaptive algorithm using computer simulation of adaptive noise canceler based on synthesis speech.

• Journal of Korea Entertainment Industry Association
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• v.15 no.7
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• pp.169-180
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• 2021

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of the activity constraints due to disability on subjective health status and daily life satisfaction among disabled, and mediating effects of subjective health status on the relationship between activity constraints due to disability and daily life satisfaction. For this purpose, the response data of 3,809 people who participated in the 5th year of the 2nd Wave of the Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled (PSED) were used and analyzed. As a result, all sub-factors except for the degree of difficulties in hearing even when using hearing aids among activity constraints due to disability has a statistically significant negative effect on subjective health status, and all sub-factors has a significant negative effect on daily life satisfaction. And, subjective health status has a significant partial mediating effect on the relationship between all sub-factors except for the degree of difficulties in hearing even when using hearing aids among activity constraints due to disability and daily life satisfaction. Therefore, the level of activity constraint for the disabled should be reduced by providing systematic and differentiated customized rehabilitation programs that take into account the disability characteristics of the disabled, thereby improving the health level and social independence ability of the disabled. Furthermore, in order to improve the daily life satisfaction of the disabled, it is necessary to provide policy support such as the establishment of a community-based integrated support system for the disabled by linked rehabilitation program and health promotion program.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.41 no.1
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• pp.76-86
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• 2022

Personal hearing devices, such as hearing aids, may be fine-tuned by allowing the users to conduct self-adjustment. Two self-adjustment procedures were developed to collect the listener preferred gains in six octave-frequency bands from 0.25 kHz to 8 kHz. These procedures were designed to allow rapid exploration of a multi-dimensional parameter space using a simple, one-dimensional user control interface (i.e., a programmable knob). The two procedures differ in whether the user interface controls the gains in all frequency bands simultaneously (Procedure A) or only the gain in one frequency band (Procedure B) on a given trial. Monte-Carlo simulations suggested that for both procedures the gain preference identified by simulated listeners rapidly converged to the ground-truth preferred gain profile over the first 20 trials. Initial behavioral evaluations of the self-adjustment procedures, in terms of test-retest reliability, were conducted using 20 young, normal-hearing listeners. Each estimate of the preferred gain profile took less than 20 minutes. The deviation between two separate estimates of the preferred gain profile, conducted at least a week apart, was about 10 dB ~ 15 dB.

• The Journal of the Acoustical Society of Korea
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.127-132
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• 2005

Transducers for implantable hearing aids need to be small and to have good performance in frequency responses and vibration properties. From this viewpoint, we Proposed a multi-layer actuator with the piezoelectric single crystal, PMN-PT. for the implantable hearing aid. and verified its adequacy through finite element analyses and experiments. PMN-PT multi-layer actuator samples were fabricated by stacking fourteen layers of the PMN-PT crystal. Each layer were $0.2{\cal}mm$ thick and the actuator sample was $2.8{\cal}mm$ thick in total. We evaluated the performance of the PMN-PT actuator through impedance analyses and vibration displacement measurements, and compared the result with that of a PZT actuator. Results of all the process confirmed the feasibility of the PMN-PT actuator as a good transducer for an implantable hearing aid.