• 음성과학
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• 제12권4호
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• pp.197-202
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• 2005

The cochlear implantation(CI) as an useful tool for aural rehabilitation in bilateral severe to profound hearing impairment. However, CI prefer to usually one ear in spite of bilateral hearing impaired. because of the various characteristics of hearing loss, the hearing conservation for the future possibility, and socioeconomic condition of hearing impaired person and their families. The unilateral CI has limitations such as a directional loss, a difficult speech understanding in noise and a neural plasticity. These limitations will be overcome by hearing aid(HA) which is familiar with hearing impairer. but HA fitting for bimodal-binaural hearing are difficult because the difference output characteristic of HA and CI. This study will be confirm realities of use of HA in unilateral cochlear implantee. For this goal, 25(m:f=10:15) child participated who are used to HA for 1 to 17 months. We had telephone interviews with their mother about use of HA, change of auditory performance and own voice. As the results, hearing threshold levels of unimplanted ear, the use of a appropriate HA, implanted and aided hearing threshold level(HTL) are must be considered for successful biomodal-binaural hearing. Especially, implanted and aided HTL should be very useful parameter for a prediction of HA effect and a criterion of selection for bilateral cochlear implantation.

• 대한의용생체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한의용생체공학회 1995년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.121-123
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• 1995

This paper presents a new method which compensates loss of loudness for digital hearing aids. Loudness grows more rapidly in frequency domain with substantial shifts of hearing threshold, so that loud sounds reach the uncomfortable sound level (UCL) at about the same physical stimulus level as with normal hearing. The result is a compression of the available dynamic range of hearing. Many techniques have been developed to compensate for hearing losses. In this paper, we propose a digital hearing aid which uses a single digital filter for reducing distortion and the fuzzy function to calculate gain factors. This function describes how much gain is needed for every frequency to restore loudness perception of a normal ear.

• Korean Journal of Otorhinolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery
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• 제61권12호
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• pp.705-709
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• 2018

It is challenging to achieve sufficient hearing gain in patients with mixed hearing loss. In chronic middle ear diseases, conventional passive reconstructive surgeries often result in suboptimal hearing gain and additional hearing aids may have limitations due to insufficient sound amplification, occlusion effect, acoustic feedback, and skin irritation. Middle ear implantation (MEI) using Vibrant Soundbridge (VSB) is another option for auditory rehabilitation in mixed hearing loss as well as sensorineural hearing loss. The floating mass transducer of VSB can be placed on various middle ear structures either directly or using different types of couplers in order to deliver vibratory mechanical energy to the cochlea. We report a patient who presented with bilateral mixed hearing loss due to chronic otitis media and had limitations using conventional hearing aids in the worse hearing ear. The patient was successfully treated with MEI using the Bell coupler together with middle ear surgery in a single step.

• 대한의용생체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 대한의용생체공학회 1998년도 추계학술대회
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• pp.171-172
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• 1998

Recent development of digital technology has offered new possibilities for noticeable advances of hearing aids. Using the digital technology, it is possible to equip hearing aids with powerful features such as multi-channel nonlinear compression amplification and the feedback cancellation, these are often difficult to implement with analog circuits. Still, speech in noise is one of the major complaints of not only hearing impaired persons but also normal listeners. This paper describes speech intelligibility in background noise for both normal and hearing impaired listeners. Speech enhancement algorithms were implemented and compared for normal and sensorineural hearing impairment listeners.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제13권4호
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• pp.275-284
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• 1992

Development of Integrated Speech Training Aids for Hearing Impaired In this study, a spepch lralnlng aids that can do real-time display of vocal tract shape and other speech parameters together in a single system is implemenLed and self-training program for this system is developed. To estimate vocal tract shape, speech production process is assumed to be AR model. Through LPC analysis, vocal tract shape, intensity, and log spcclrum are calculated. And, fundamental frequency and nasality are measured using vibration sensors.

• 센서학회지
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• 제22권2호
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• pp.150-155
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• 2013

Recently, various hearing aids are developed to overcome hearing loss. There are available hearing aids, such as air conduction hearing aid, implantable middle ear hearing aid and so on. But air conduction hearing aid is inconvenience caused by howling, and ossicle chain driving type implantable middle ear hearing aid has some week point due to problem of possible nercobiosis of coupling spot along incus long process. In recent years, in order to improve these shortcomings round window (RW) driving hearing aid has been paying attention. In this paper, the physical cochlear model is proposed for a performance evaluation of the RW driving hearing aids of a transducer. In order to verify an experiment proposed on a performance of physical cochlear model, the transducer which has ossicles characteristics is used. By measuring and comparing the frequency characteristics of transducer with ossicles and human temporal bone, performance of physical cochlear model was verified. As from the result of experiment, it is expected that an implemented cochlear model is useful for evaluating characteristics of RW transducer.

• 대한청각학회지
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.80-88
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: Non-linear frequency compression (NLFC) technology compresses and shifts higher frequencies into a lower frequency area that has better residual hearing. Because consonants are uttered in the high-frequency area, NLFC could provide better speech understanding. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical effectiveness of NLFC technology on the perception of speech and music in patients with high-frequency hearing loss. Subjects and Methods: Twelve participants with high-frequency hearing loss were tested in a counter-balanced order, and had two weeks of daily experience with NLFC set on/off prior to testing. Performance was repeatedly evaluated with consonant tests in quiet and noise environments, speech perception in noise, music perception and acceptableness of sound quality rating tasks. Additionally, two questionnaires (the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit and the Korean version of the International Outcome Inventory-Hearing Aids) were administered. Results: Consonant and speech perception improved with hearing aids (NLFC on/off conditions), but there was no significant difference between NLFC on and off states. Music perception performances revealed no notable difference among unaided and NLFC on and off states. The benefits and satisfaction ratings between NLFC on and off conditions were also not significantly different, based on questionnaires, however great individual variability preferences were noted. Conclusions: Speech perception as well as music perception both in quiet and noise environments was similar between NLFC on and off states, indicating that real world benefits from NLFC technology may be limited in Korean adult hearing aid users.

• Journal of Audiology & Otology
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• 제25권2호
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• pp.80-88
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• 2021

Background and Objectives: Non-linear frequency compression (NLFC) technology compresses and shifts higher frequencies into a lower frequency area that has better residual hearing. Because consonants are uttered in the high-frequency area, NLFC could provide better speech understanding. The aim of this study was to investigate the clinical effectiveness of NLFC technology on the perception of speech and music in patients with high-frequency hearing loss. Subjects and Methods: Twelve participants with high-frequency hearing loss were tested in a counter-balanced order, and had two weeks of daily experience with NLFC set on/off prior to testing. Performance was repeatedly evaluated with consonant tests in quiet and noise environments, speech perception in noise, music perception and acceptableness of sound quality rating tasks. Additionally, two questionnaires (the Abbreviated Profile of Hearing Aid Benefit and the Korean version of the International Outcome Inventory-Hearing Aids) were administered. Results: Consonant and speech perception improved with hearing aids (NLFC on/off conditions), but there was no significant difference between NLFC on and off states. Music perception performances revealed no notable difference among unaided and NLFC on and off states. The benefits and satisfaction ratings between NLFC on and off conditions were also not significantly different, based on questionnaires, however great individual variability preferences were noted. Conclusions: Speech perception as well as music perception both in quiet and noise environments was similar between NLFC on and off states, indicating that real world benefits from NLFC technology may be limited in Korean adult hearing aid users.

• 대한의용생체공학회:의공학회지
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• 제31권4호
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• pp.321-327
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• 2010

Most of the ear shells of hearing aids are manufactured manually, and it is one of the reasons that the cost of the custom-made hearing aids can be increased. Thus it is required to manufacture the ready-made ear shell for the purpose of easy manufacturing and decrease in cost. In this study, we extract parameters in order to manufacture the ready-made ear shell for CIC type hearing aids and simulate to reconstruct the ear shell using the extracted parameters. To parameter extraction, we set up the eleven parameters for the ready-made ear shell based on anatomical characteristics of the ear canal, and we found values of the parameters from twenty-one impressions in their 20s and twelve impressions in their 60s using aperture detection and feature detection algorithms. Classifying the parameters by size, we also determine the parameters of ready-made ear shell into three types for people in their 20s and two types for people in their 60s. Each ready-made ear shell was simulated to reconstruct using figured parameters, and evaluated the rate of agreement with unused impressions for setting parameters. To evaluate the ready-made ear shell, we calculate the volume ratio and intersection between of the each impression and ready-made ear shell, and the intersection ratio using the intersection volume and ready-made ear shell volume. As a result, the volume ratio was about 70%, and volume match ratio was also up to 70%. It means that the ready-made ear shell we simulated is the significantly matched to impression.

• 재활복지공학회논문지
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• 제7권1호
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• pp.67-72
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• 2013

청각장애인 근로자를 대상으로 보청기 사용유무에 따른 직무만족도와 일상생활만족도 차이를 알아보기 위해 장애인고용패널조사(Panel Survey of Employment for the Disabled) 4차년도 자료에서 근로자 187명을 대상으로 분석하였다. 분석결과 보청기 사용 유무에 따라 직무만족도와 일상생활만족도 모두 유의미한 차이를 보이지 않는 것으로 나타났으며, 보청기사용 청각장애인의 직무만족도는 일상생활만족도에 긍정적인 역할을 하는 것으로 나타났다. 이러한 결과는 청각장애인에게 보청기는 중요한 역할을 하는 보조기구이지만, 본 연구에서 사용한 패널자료의 특성상 정보화기기 사용증가와 의사소통지원서비스 확대에 따른 영향요인을 반영하지 못한 결과라고 생각된다. 이러한 내용을 바탕으로 연구의 제한점과 함의를 결론에서 제시하였다.