SBIR-STTR Award

The ultimate goal of this research is to produce a high-fidelity hearing aid as perceived by the hearing-impaired user. This is the final phase of a research program started in the 1970s in an attempt to determine the design requirements for a high-fidelity hearing aid for what should be the simplest case: individuals with a hearing loss characterized by a mild to moderate loss of sensitivity for quiet sounds but normal or nearnormal hearing for loud sounds. Available evidence indicates that these individuals may constitute a large proportion of the hearing impaired who do not now wear hearing aids: thus the market for a successful design appears to be conceivably greater than the entire present hearing aid market. To determine the proportion of nonwearers who might purchase a hearing aid if it involved no auditory disadvantages, a hearing aid without the current electroacoustic limitations should be made available. The only remaining component needed to make such a hearing aid is a low distortion, four-stage compression amplifier with level dependent high-frequency emphasis. Such an amplifier, to be made available to the hearing aid industry, is the direct goal of the present application.National Institute on Aging (NIA)

The ultimate goal of this research is to produce a "high fidelity" hearing aid as perceived by the hearing impaired user. This is the final phase of a research program started by the writer in the 1970's in an attempt to determine the design requirements for a high fidelity hearing aid for what should be the simplest case: individuals with a hearing loss characterize by a mild to moderate loss of sensitivity for quiet sounds but normal or near-normal hearing for loud sounds. Available evidence indicates that such individuals may constitute a large proportion of the hearing impaired who do not now wear hearing aids, and thus the market for a successful design appears conceivably greater than the entire present hearing aid market. In order to determine what proportion of these non-wearers might purchase a hearing aid if it involved no auditory disadvantages, a hearing aid without the current electroacoustic limitations needs to be made available. In the writer's judgement, the only remaining component needed to make such a hearing aid is a low distortion four-stage compression amplifier with level dependent high frequency emphasis. Such an amplifier to be made available to the hearing aid industry, is the direct goal of th present application.

Thesaurus Terms:
Biomedical Engineering, Instrumentation Clinically Oriented Ear Disorders, Hearing Aids Psychophysics, PsychoacousticsNational Institute on Aging (NIA)