Rion Company Ltd.

Waseda University

Keisuke Watanuki

Shinichi Sakamoto

Takeshi Nakaichi

Yoshinori Takahashi

Mikio Tohyama

Michiko Kazama

Kiyoaki Terada

A behind-the-ear type hearing aid which can improve a fit to a user includes a hearing aid main body and a tube for introducing sound output from the hearing aid main body to an external auditory meatus. The tube is comprised of a connector portion, and a tube portion having one end which connects to the connector portion and an opposite end which to an earplug. The tube portion is constructed so as to be freely transformed, into a desired shape and a metal wire for maintaining the transformed shape is embedded in the tube portion. Also, the shape of the hearing aid main body to be in contact with a user's body can be formed corresponding to the shape of a user's body.

Behind-the-ear type hearing aid

A hearing aid device for processing an input sound signal via a microphone so as to output a sound signal from an earphone comprises a signal processing element, a couple of acoustic nerve excitation pattern calculation elements, a couple of acoustic filter shape memory elements, a comparison element, a correction processing element, etc. The couple of acoustic nerve excitation pattern calculation elements calculate acoustic nerve excitation patterns of a normal hearing person and a hearing impaired person based on an output signal of the signal processing element and acoustic filter shapes of the normal hearing person and the hearing impaired person which are stored in the couple of acoustic filter shape memory elements. Each of the acoustic nerve excitation patterns is compared via the comparison element. Then, the correction processing element corrects the input sound signal such that the acoustic nerve excitation pattern of the hearing impaired person is identical with the acoustic nerve excitation pattern of the normal hearing person, so as to generate an output sound signal.

Hearing processing method and hearing aid using the same

A method for estimating the shape of an auditory filter by finding a coefficient p of a roex (p, r) filter which is used as a model for the shape of the auditory filter is provided, which comprises the steps of: generating a tone S'; generating a masker of a notch width g and level N&#x2032; including in a notch the frequency f in which frequency characteristics of the external and middle ears of the subject are considered; transmitting to the subject a sound which superposes the masker on the tone S&#x2032;; measuring the minimum notch width gof the subject while varying the notch width g; calculating the coefficient p from an upper limit value gof the notch width g suitable for the subject and estimating the shape of the auditory filter from the coefficient p calculated above and the value x corresponding to the coefficient r.

Method and apparatus for estimating auditory filter shape

A method of estimating the shape of an auditory filter by finding a coefficient p of a roex (p, r) filter used as a model of the shape of the auditory filter, comprises the steps of determining the threshold masking level N based on a tone S which adds the given value x to the threshold of hearing T of a subject in a frequency f, generating a tone S&prime; which deducts the given value a from the tone S, generating a masker M of a center frequency f of a notch, notch width g and level N , transmitting to the subject an inspection sound which superposes the masker M on the tone S&prime; by selsctively varying the notch width g, determining the notch width g at which the subject can perceive the tone S&prime; to be the minimum notch width g of the subject, calculating the coefficient p from the minimum notch width g and the given value a, and estimating the shape of the auditory filter from the coefficient p and the given value x corresponding to the coefficient r.

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Tokyo, Japan

Keisuke Watanuki