Signal Processing for the Profoundly Deaf

Profound deafness, defined here as a hearing loss in excess of 90 dB, is characterized by high thresholds, reduced hearing range in the intensity and frequency domains, and poor resolution in the frequency and time domains. The high thresholds call for hearing aids with unusually high gains or remote microphones that can be placed close to the signal source. The former option creates acoustic feedback problems for which digital signal processing may yet offer solutions. The latter option calls for carrier wave technology that is already available. The reduced frequency and intensity ranges would appear to call for frequency and/or amplitude compression. It might also be argued, however, that any attempts to compress the acoustic signal into the limited hearing range of the profoundly deaf will be counterproductive because of poor frequency and time resolution, especially when the signal is present in noise. In experiments with a 2-channel compression system, only 1 of 9 subjects showed an improvement of perception with the introduction of fast-release (20 ms) compression. The other 8 experienced no benefit or a slight deterioration of performance. These results support the concept of providing the profoundly deaf with simpler, rather than more complex, patterns, perhaps through the use of feature extraction hearing aids. Data from users of cochlear implants already employing feature extraction techniques also support this concept.