JP2008116586A - Hearing aid device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a hearing aid device which raises discrimination power for human voice including the voice of the high tone region only by wearing a simple tool, for a person whose hearing ability in a high tone region is lowered by aging. <P>SOLUTION: The hearing aid device 1 comprises: right and left sound collecting tools 2 and 2' of a bowl shape; and a head band 4 composed of a looped elastic line body for connecting the both. Since a projecting piece 24 is attached to the front edge of the sound collecting tool 2, a small gap is made between the temple and the sound collecting tool 2. When hearing human speaking voice in this state, noise of a low frequency region is cut, and thereby, the person can hear even voice of the high tone region which is comparatively hard to hear. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2008,JPO&INPIT

Description

  The present invention relates to an auditory corrector for reinforcing the hearing ability of a person who is hard of hearing, particularly an auditory corrector for reinforcing the hearing ability of a person whose hearing ability with respect to high-frequency sounds has decreased due to aging and making it easier to hear a person's speaking voice. About.

  In general, hearing is said to decrease as people get older. In particular, the hearing ability with respect to medium and high frequencies of 2 kHz or more is lowered, and further, it is remarkably lowered in a high sound range of 4 kHz to 8 kHz.

  Lowering of hearing in the mid-high range makes it difficult to hear radio and television sounds.If you increase the volume to listen to high frequencies, the mid-low range becomes too loud and annoying the surroundings. It becomes difficult to hear. For those who have low hearing in the mid-high range, the voices of others can only be heard indistinctly, and music cannot be enjoyed because it sounds like it has fallen out of the high range. In addition, the voice of insects and the roar of birds are not heard so much, and it can be said that it is a disabled person.

  People who have hearing loss over the whole range are forced to use hearing aids, but they can almost hear the low-frequency sounds and do not interfere with their lives, but they feel inconvenience due to the low-frequency hearing loss. There are surprisingly many people.

17 and 18 are graphs of the measurement data obtained by the inventor himself measuring his / her hearing ability at PL Health Center Tokyo for 30 years.
The horizontal axis represents test frequency (Hz) and the vertical axis represents hearing decibel (dB).
As can be seen from this graph, at 49 years old, 20 dB of auditory level sound was heard in the range from 125 Hz to 8 kHz, but at the age of 78 years, some hearing loss was seen in the low range below 500 Hz, and the middle and high range Then, a significant decrease in hearing appears.
As is apparent from this graph, it is understood that the hearing ability with respect to the high-band sound of 1 kHz or more is remarkably lowered with aging.

This tendency is not a characteristic of the individual of the inventor himself, but is a general hearing loss due to the aging of a normal hearing person. The paper C-10 published by the Information Electronics Department of the Osaka Prefectural Industrial Technology Research Institute “Towards an ageless society” Design model development research: Simulation of hearing loss due to aging: As shown in FIG.
Paper C-10 published by the Information Technology Department, Osaka Prefecture National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology “Design Model Development for Ageless Society: Simulation of Hearing Loss due to Aging”: Mako Katagiri, 1 person [searched July 21, 2006 ] Internet <URL: http: //tri-osaka.jp/9roup/infoele/life/acoustic/kenkyu/description/Publication/P-ggm.htm>. (For reference, Figure 1 of this paper is shown in Figure 21.)

  On the other hand, in the field of electronic hearing aids, there is one that adjusts the sound gain of middle and high sounds according to the patient's situation, but the cost is high at 30,000 to 400,000 yen per piece, and the battery life becomes shorter as the size becomes smaller Moreover, using these materials often involves troublesome cleaning such as clogging due to earwax and battery replacement.

As an electronic hearing aid, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-261894, a hearing aid that is easy to hear by providing noise suppression means to compensate for hearing loss that has declined due to aging is also proposed. Has been.
JP 2000-261894 A

  In the invention disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-261894, sounds input from left and right microphones are added by an adder to output a sum signal, and a low-frequency component of the sum signal is attenuated by a filter to suppress noise. In a noisy environment, if you turn the direction you want to hear, the sound in that direction will be emphasized, and it will be easy to hear even for people whose hearing has declined due to aging.

  However, such electronic hearing aids have the disadvantage that they are expensive products because complex electronic circuits and components must be incorporated into extremely small devices.

  In addition, electronic hearing aids are typically embedded in a shell for insertion into the user's ear canal. This shell is manufactured according to the shape of the user's external auditory canal, but it is difficult to make it completely hit, and there is a drawback that it will cause howling if there are any gaps or distortions, making it difficult to hear. In addition, when eating or talking with an elaborate shell, the shape of the external auditory canal changes, creating a gap between the shell and the external auditory canal, which also causes howling.

  People who have decreased hearing due to aging still have the ability to hear sufficiently, but the ability to listen to high-frequency sounds has decreased, especially for women who have high-frequency sounds such as women. Because it is only difficult to hear the story, it is cumbersome to use an electronic hearing aid, and because hearing is still sufficient, it reacts sensitively to even a small amount of feedback and avoids the use of a hearing aid It is the cause.

  The present invention provides, at low cost, an auditory compensator that increases discrimination power for human voices including high-sound sounds by simply wearing a simple instrument for a person whose high-frequency hearing is reduced by aging. This is the first purpose.

  It is a first object of the present invention to provide an auditory compensator that enhances discrimination power for human voices including high-frequency voices of people whose high-frequency hearing has deteriorated due to aging without using expensive electronic circuits or the like. The purpose of 2.

  A third object of the present invention is to provide an extremely light auditory compensator that can be easily worn and does not give a feeling of wearing, pressure or weight when worn.

  The auditory compensator according to the present invention comprises a headband comprising a pair of bowl-shaped sound collectors covering the ears of a human body and looped elastic filaments each having one end fixed to the bottom surface of each sound collector. And a protruding piece is provided at the front end of the sound collector so that an appropriate gap is formed between the sound collector and the temple when the sound collector is attached to both ears.

  The sound collector comprises a circular or elliptical opening, a cylindrical or elliptical cylindrical side wall that follows the opening, and a bottom surface that curves slightly outward to form a bottom surface that follows the side wall, The protruding piece is formed by extending a part of the side wall.

  The protruding piece can also be configured such that its length can be freely changed. For example, if a pair of guides having a slide groove that fits both sides of the protruding piece is provided at the front end of the sound collector, and the protruding piece is firmly fitted in the slide groove, the protrusion length of the protruding piece is increased by friction. It can be set freely. Further, if a small protrusion is provided on the back surface of the protruding piece and a concave groove for receiving the small protrusion of the protruding piece is provided on the surface of the guide at a constant interval, the length of the protruding piece can be fixed reliably.

  The sound collector is made of any one lightweight material selected from the group consisting of cardboard, kraft paper, synthetic paper, plastic material, and lightweight metal. In the case of paper, the paper is cut into the shape of each part, for example, the side wall and the bottom, and molded by bonding with an adhesive. Also, if synthetic paper pulp is poured into a sound collector mold and integrally molded, a sound collector having a curved shape can be easily manufactured. In particular, synthetic paper is suitable because it is lightweight, has little sound reflection, and does not cause howling.

  In the case of a plastic material, for example, if a vacuum molding is performed using polystyrene paper or polypropylene filler (polypropylene mixed with calcium carbonate), a product having a high strength curve can be mass-produced at low cost.

  As the elastic band for the headband, it is preferable to use any one of a piano wire, a spring steel wire, and an elastic synthetic resin wire. By using a loop-shaped elastic linear body, tension is applied in a direction in which a pair of sound collectors approach, and the sound collector is fixed to both ears by its elasticity. Since this auditory corrector does not give a feeling of wearing in particular and is intended to be lightweight, a piano wire can be most preferably used.

(1) When the auditory compensator of the present invention is worn, the sound frequency in the high frequency range is amplified, and in particular, the hearing ability of a person whose hearing ability with respect to the sound in the high frequency range has decreased due to aging and the human voice is heard. It can be made easier.

(2) The auditory compensator of the present invention has a protruding piece on the front end of a pair of bowl-shaped sound collectors covering the ears of the human body. When this auditory corrector is attached, the temple and the sound collector A slight gap is created between the front ends of the tools, shielding the noise from the side and making it easier to hear the voice of the speaker who has met.

(3) The auditory compensator of the present invention can be used without any feeling of wearing because both the sound collector and the headband are made of extremely lightweight materials.

  The best mode for carrying out the invention is illustrated by the following examples.

(Example 1)
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the auditory compensator of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is a plan view thereof. The auditory compensator 1 includes left and right sound collectors 2 and 2 ′ and a headband 4 formed of a loop-like elastic striatum connecting the two. As shown in FIGS. 3 to 5, the sound collector 2 (2 ′) has a paper-like main body 21 that covers the ears, a protruding piece 24 provided at the front end 22 thereof, and a bottom surface 33 thereof. The mounting bracket 26 is attached. The mounting bracket 26 has two legs 27. The mounting bracket 26 is fixed to the main body bottom surface portion 33 by inserting and bending the legs 27 into two holes 28 provided in the bottom surface portion 33. One end of the elastic linear body that becomes the headband 4 is welded and fixed to the mounting bracket 26 of the sound collector 2 and the other end is welded to the mounting bracket 26 ′ of the sound collector 2 ′.

  The main body 21 of the sound collector 2 has a circular or elliptical opening 31, a cylindrical or elliptical cylindrical side wall 32 following the opening 31, and a bottom surface 33 curved slightly outward after the side wall 32. The protruding piece 24 is configured by extending a part of the front end 22 of the side wall portion 32.

(Example 2)
The protruding piece 24 can also be configured such that its length can be freely changed. As shown in FIGS. 6 to 8 as the second embodiment, a guide piece 35 is attached to the inside of the side wall portion 32 of the plastic main body. A guide groove 36 is cut in the guide piece 35, and a protruding piece 24 made of an elastic material such as plastic is inserted into the guide groove 36. If the size of the guide groove 36 is set so that the protruding piece 24 can be inserted slightly tightly, the guide groove 36 can be fixed at any position without providing a stopper.

  Examples of the stopper include a small protrusion 37 provided on the surface of the protruding piece 24 as shown in FIG. 7 and a large number of concave grooves 38 provided inside the side wall 32 as shown in FIG.

  The length of the protruding piece 24 can be fixed by setting the length of the protruding piece 24 to the most preferable length and fitting the small protrusion 37 in the concave groove 38 at that position. In order to facilitate this operation, the knob 39 may be attached by bending the upper end of the protruding piece 24 inward.

(Example 3)
FIG. 9 is a plan view showing the sound collector of Example 3, FIG. 10 is a partial longitudinal sectional view thereof, FIG. 11 is a side view thereof, and FIG. 12 is a longitudinal sectional view taken along line BB of FIG.

  In this embodiment, the headband fixing method and the protruding piece fixing method are mainly different from those of the first embodiment. The main body 21 'of the sound collector is a polypropylene filler sheet formed into an arm shape by a vacuum forming method. An elliptical bulge 34 is provided on the bottom 33 '.

  The bulging portion 34 is formed with an oblong through hole 28 '. A piano wire for the headband 4 is inserted into the through hole 28 ', and inserted into a hole formed in the wire end 41 where a thick wire is cut as shown in FIG.

  Next, a wire end holder 42 made of adhesive paper is attached from above the wire end 41 and fixed to the back surface of the bulging portion 34. The wire end 41 is held by the wire end holder 42 and the back surface of the bulging portion 34. Since the wire end 41 has a cylindrical shape, the wire end 41 can rotate with respect to the main body 21 'of the sound collector. Further, since the through hole 28 ′ has an oblong shape, the headband 4 can be reciprocated in the long axis direction of the through hole 28 ′ according to the rotation of the wire end 41. With such a mechanism, the most preferable mounting angle of the headband 4 with respect to the main body 21 'of the sound collector can be adjusted according to the size and shape of the user's head. Reference numeral 24 'denotes a protruding piece, which is fixed to the front end portion of the side wall of the sound collector main body 21' with an adhesive.

  As shown in FIG. 14, the method of using the auditory compensator of the present invention is to hang the headband 4 on the head and place the left and right sound collectors 2 and 2 'on the left and right ears 53 as shown in FIGS. . The left and right sound collectors 2 and 2 ′ are pressed in the temple direction by the elasticity of the headband 4, so that they do not fall off the ears. As shown in FIG. 15, the sound collector 2 has a protruding piece 24 at its front end, so that a slight gap 52 is formed between the temple 51 and the sound collectors 2 and 2 '.

  In the case of an auditory compensator in which the length of the protruding piece 24 can be adjusted, the length when it is most audible is obtained empirically, and the length may be fixed with a stopper. In this state, listening to the voice of a human question cuts low-frequency noise, so that even high-frequency speech that is relatively difficult to hear can be heard.

In order to confirm the effect of the auditory corrector of the present invention, the following frequency characteristic test was performed.
<Frequency characteristics test of auditory corrector>
1. Examination organization Tokyo Metropolitan Industrial Technology Research Center Exam acceptance number and date of implementation (date of report creation)
18 Yokomitsu No. 184, measured on July 21, 2006, (reported on August 3, 2006)
3. 3. Auditory corrector to be tested Auditory corrector including the sound collector main body 21 ′ shown in the third embodiment. Main test equipment used for frequency characteristic test (1) Head torso simulator (Type 4128, manufactured by Brüel & Kjær)
(2) Acoustic analysis device (Bruelcare, Pulse 3560)

5. Test method for frequency characteristic test A sound source speaker and a head torso simulator (a model of a human upper body) were housed in an anechoic chamber, and a head torso simulator was placed in front of the sound source speaker. A microphone was attached to the position of the eardrum of the left ear of the head torso simulator, and the positional relationship was adjusted so that the distance between the microphone and the sound source speaker was 2 m. An amplifier and a sound source were connected to the sound source speaker, and an acoustic analysis device was connected to the microphone. Note that the amplifier, sound source, and acoustic analysis device were placed outside the anechoic room. Prior to the test, the auditory corrector (test sample) of the present invention was mounted in advance on the head of the head torso simulator, and a sound of 74 dB was output from the sound source speaker during the test.
In addition, the frequency characteristic of the head torso simulator alone was measured, and the gain frequency characteristic was obtained from the sound pressure ratio of both.

  The sound output from the sound source speaker was guided into the ear hole by the auditory corrector and transmitted to the microphone in the head torso simulator. Then, the sound was captured by a microphone and converted into an electrical signal, and the electrical signal was sent to an acoustic analysis device, where it was converted to sound pressure level (sound intensity) data. In this way, the sound pressure level was measured by continuously changing the frequency of the sound of 74 dB from the sound source speaker from 100 Hz to 30 kHz, and the frequency characteristic curve shown in FIG. 19 was obtained.

6). In FIG. 19 showing the result of the frequency characteristic test, only data in the frequency band of 200 Hz to 8 kHz is extracted. This figure shows the sound pressure level of the sound captured by the microphone at these frequencies. The horizontal axis indicates the frequency (Hz) and is logarithmic. The vertical axis represents the sound pressure level (dB).

  As a result of this test, when the auditory corrector of the present invention was mounted on the head torso simulator, the sound pressure level of the sound captured by the microphone did not increase so much up to a frequency of about 200 Hz to 2 kHz, but it was an area of about 2 kHz or more. Was significantly increased. Therefore, it was found that the sound pressure level was not much amplified up to a frequency of about 200 Hz to 2 kHz, and was greatly amplified in the region of the frequency of about 2 kHz or higher.

  From the above test results, it was found that using the auditory compensator of the present invention has the effect of increasing the sound pressure level in the mid-high range, but it is doubtful whether this will immediately increase the discrimination effect of spoken voice. Therefore, the following ability to distinguish spoken voice was tested.

Judgment of the ability to distinguish spoken voice was based on the following method.
Normally, this type of test is performed using a binaural earphone connected to a reference sound wave generator. However, when the auditory compensator of the present invention is used, the sound collector 2 is covered outside the earphone. Therefore, measurement is impossible.

  Therefore, using the “CD for speech and sound hearing test” certified by the Japan Audiological Society used for the reference measuring instrument, the 57-S word table is reproduced on a CD player. At that time, a volume meter is brought into close contact with the speaker of the CD player, and the volume is adjusted to 45 db. From the speaker, 36 numbers in the “numeric word syllabary” shown in FIG. 20 and 50-character kana in the “word word syllabary-1” are sequentially read out. The distance from the speaker to the center of the ear canal was written on a monitor located about 30 cm.

  The monitors that received this test were elderly people aged 78 to 83 who did not use hearing aids. As a result, as shown in the following table, the average fraud rate decreased from 26.6% to 20.2% in the “numeric phonetic table”, and from 58.8% to 50.6% in the “word speech table”. Clearly, a significant difference was observed.

[Numeric Word Phonetic]
Monitor Gender Age When not in use When in use
Incorrect answer rate of Incorrect answer rate A Male 78 26 15
B man 78 28 23
C man 83 39 30
D man 81 24 18
E (inventor) Male 79 16 15
Average 26.2 20.2

[Speech table for words-Table 1]
Monitor Gender Age When not in use When in use
Incorrect answer rate of Incorrect answer rate A Male 78 62 40
B man 78 62 55
C man 83 69 62
D man 81 53 53
E (inventor) Male 79 48 43
Average 58.8 50.6

The use of the auditory compensator of the present invention does not make it possible to hear all of the misunderstandings and inaudible rates, but the five monitors wearing the prototypes said that they “sounded well” in their mouths. Add the fact that you had a smile.
Moreover, it is extremely effective to put only one of the sound collectors 2 in the palm of the hand and put it on one ear. The size almost fits in the palm of the hand, so it is not easily noticeable and can be used as a portable device.

  As can be seen from this result, when the auditory corrector of the present invention is worn on a human head, the intensity of sound with a frequency of about 2 kHz or higher is not amplified much, and the intensity of sound with a frequency of about 200 Hz to 2 kHz is not so amplified. Can be greatly amplified. Because of this, among the sounds transmitted to the ears for people with symptoms such as age-related deafness, the low frequency band (frequency band lower than 2 kHz) is not greatly increased, and the high frequency band ( It can be estimated that the sound of 2 kHz or higher can be made louder and the sound can be easily heard from the high frequency band to the low frequency band.

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the auditory corrector according to the first embodiment. The top view of FIG. The top view of a sound collector. FIG. 4 is a front view of FIG. 3. The longitudinal cross-sectional view by the AA line of FIG. FIG. 4 is a partially enlarged cross-sectional view of the sound collector of Example 2. The slope figure of a protrusion piece. Sectional drawing of a guide piece. FIG. 6 is a plan view of a sound collector of Example 3. FIG. 10 is a partial longitudinal sectional view of FIG. 9. The side view of FIG. The longitudinal cross-sectional view by the BB line of FIG. FIG. 10 is a partially enlarged slope view of FIG. 9. Explanatory drawing which shows the use condition of the auditory corrector of this invention. Explanatory drawing which shows the use condition of the auditory corrector of this invention. The side view which shows the use condition of the auditory corrector of this invention. Graph of hearing loss due to aging (left ear). Graph of hearing loss due to aging (right ear). The graph which shows a frequency characteristic test result. 57-S word table for speech sound test The graph which shows the frequency characteristic test result as reference data.

Explanation of symbols

DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Auditory corrector 2 Sound collector 21 Main body 24 Projection piece 26 Mounting bracket 4 Headband

Claims (5)

  A pair of bowl-shaped sound collectors covering the ears of a human body, and a headband made of a loop-shaped elastic filament having one end fixed to the bottom surface of each sound collector; An auditory compensator, characterized in that a protruding piece is provided at the front end so that an appropriate gap is formed between the sound collector and the temple when the sound collector is attached to both ears.   The sound collector comprises a circular or elliptical opening, a cylindrical or elliptical cylindrical side wall that follows the opening, and a bottom surface that curves slightly outward after the side wall. The auditory compensator according to claim 1, wherein the side wall portion is extended.   The auditory compensator according to claim 1 or 2, wherein the length of the projecting piece can be freely changed.   The said sound collector is formed from any one kind of lightweight material chosen from the group which consists of a cardboard, a kraft paper, a synthetic paper, a plastic material, and a lightweight metal, The Claim 1 thru | or 3 characterized by the above-mentioned. The auditory corrector described in any one of the above.   2. The headband according to claim 1, wherein the headband is composed of any one kind of elastic filaments selected from the group consisting of a piano wire, a spring steel wire, and an elastic synthetic resin filament. Hearing corrector.