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Measuring the effect of adaptive directionality and split processing on noise acceptance at multiple input levels.

Francis Kuk¹, Christopher Slugocki¹, Neal Davis-Ruperto¹

¹WS Audiology, Office of Research in Clinical Amplification (ORCA-USA), Lisle, IL, USA.

International Journal of Audiology

|January 11, 2022

Summary

Augmented Focus (AF) hearing technology significantly improved noise tolerance compared to non-AF systems. AF reduced the time to adapt to noise, enhancing speech understanding in challenging listening environments.

Keywords:

Augmented Focus (AF)Tracking of Noise Tolerance test (TNT)split processing

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Area of Science:

Audiology
Hearing aid technology
Signal processing

Background:

Hearing loss affects millions, impacting communication and quality of life.
Advanced hearing aid features aim to improve speech intelligibility in noise.
Augmented Focus (AF) and adaptive directionality are key technologies for noise reduction.

Purpose of the Study:

To compare the effectiveness of Augmented Focus (AF) versus non-AF processing with adaptive directionality (non-AF-dirm) and omnidirectional microphones (non-AF-omni).
To evaluate the impact of these technologies on tolerable noise levels (TNL) in individuals with mild-to-moderate hearing loss.

Main Methods:

A single-blind, within-subject repeated measures design was employed.
Nineteen participants with hearing loss completed the multi-level Tracking of Noise Tolerance (TNT) test.
Tolerable noise levels (TNL) were measured across various speech and noise conditions, both unaided and aided.

Main Results:

Augmented Focus (AF) improved TNL by 2.9 dB over non-AF-dirm.
Adaptive directionality improved TNL by 4.7 dB compared to the non-AF-omni condition.
AF demonstrated faster stable TNL achievement (<15s) versus non-AF-dirm (20-30s).

Conclusions:

AF provides a significant signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) improvement of 2.9 dB over non-AF-dirm.
AF offers a substantial 7.6 dB SNR improvement over the aided non-AF-omni condition.
AF enhances noise tolerance and reduces listening effort, improving hearing aid performance.