Download PDF
CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 · Semin Hear 2021; 42(03): 237-247
DOI: 10.1055/s-0041-1735132
Review Article

Motion Sensors in Automatic Steering of Hearing Aids

Eric Branda
1   WS Audiology, Piscataway, New Jersey
,
Tobias Wurzbacher
2   WS Audiology, Erlangen, Germany
› Author Affiliations
› Further Information
   Permissions and Reprints

Abstract

A requirement for modern hearing aids is to evaluate a listening environment for the user and automatically apply appropriate gain and feature settings for optimal hearing in that listening environment. This has been predominantly achieved by the hearing aids' acoustic sensors, which measure acoustic characteristics such as the amplitude and modulation of the incoming sound sources. However, acoustic information alone is not always sufficient for providing a clear indication of the soundscape and user's listening needs. User activity such as being stationary or being in motion can drastically change these listening needs. Recently, hearing aids have begun utilizing integrated motion sensors to provide further information to the hearing aid's decision-making process when determining the listening environment. Specifically, accelerometer technology has proven to be an appropriate solution for motion sensor integration in hearing aids. Recent investigations have shown benefits with integrated motion sensors for both laboratory and real-world ecological momentary assessment measurements. The combination of acoustic and motion sensors provides the hearing aids with data to better optimize the hearing aid features in anticipation of the hearing aid user's listening needs.

Keywords

hearing aids - motion sensors - classification


Publication History

Article published online:
24 September 2021

© 2021. The Author(s). This is an open access article published by Thieme under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonDerivative-NonCommercial License, permitting copying and reproduction so long as the original work is given appropriate credit. Contents may not be used for commercial purposes, or adapted, remixed, transformed or built upon. (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)

Thieme Medical Publishers, Inc.
333 Seventh Avenue, 18th Floor, New York, NY 10001, USA

 

  • References

  • 1 Picou EM. MarkeTrak 10 (MT10) survey results demonstrate high satisfaction with and benefits from hearing aids. Semin Hear 2020; 41 (01) 021-036
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 2 Picou EM, Ricketts TA. An evaluation of hearing aid beamforming microphone arrays in a noisy laboratory setting. J Am Acad Audiol 2019; 30 (02) 131-144
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 3 Powers T, Froehlich M. Clinical results with a new wireless binaural directional hearing system. Hearing Review 2014; 21 (11) 32-34
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 4 Wu Y-H, Stangl E, Bentler RA, Stanziola RW. The effect of hearing aid technologies on listening in an automobile. J Am Acad Audiol 2013; 24 (06) 474-485
    Article in Thieme ConnectPubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 5 Froehlich M, Branda E, Freels K. New dimensions in automatic steering for hearing aids: clinical and real-world findings. Hearing Review 2019; 26 (11) 32-36
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 6 Hagerman B, Olofsson Å. A method to measure the effect of noise reduction algorithms using simultaneous speech and noise. Acta Acust United Acust 2004; 90 (02) 356-361
    PubMedGoogle Scholar
  • 7 Aubreville M, Petrausch S. Directionality assessment of adaptive binaural beamforming with noise suppression in hearing aids. In: 2015 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP). IEEE; 2015: 211-215
    PubMedGoogle Scholar