JPH05115096A - Hearing aid fitting device - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To facilitate the fitting adjustment by providing an indication screen used to indicate an estimated value of a level for each noise frequency amplified by the hearing aid in addition to a minimum audible level, an unpleasant value of the user and a frequency characteristic of the hearing aid. CONSTITUTION:A minimum audible level K11 of the user with respect to frequency, an estimated level K14 of noise in a conversation sound amplified by a hearing aid 9 with respect to frequency, and an unpleasant level K12 of the user with respect to frequency are indicated on a display screen 20 of a hearing aid fitting device 1 in addition to a frequency characteristic K13 of the hearing aid 9. Thus, a conversation sound level K15, the noise level K14 and the user minimum audible level K11 at the fitting adjustment are compared to facilitate the fitting adjustment.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a hearing aid fitting device, and is particularly suitable for use in adjusting the fitting of a digital hearing aid.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Many hearing aids are designed so that their amplification characteristics, that is, frequency characteristics and input / output characteristics can be adjusted, and the hearing aids are individually adapted so as to be adapted to the hearing ability of the user and the usage environment before use. It is designed to adjust the input / output characteristics of the.

In practice, the fitting adjustment amplifies the conversation sound to a volume level at which the user can hear it stably, and at the same time does not disturb the user when an environmental sound such as noise with a large volume level is generated. Adjustment work for suppressing the level is executed by using a fitting device composed of a personal computer and dedicated software.

Thus, as indicated by the curve K1 in FIG. 6, the minimum sound pressure representing the input sound of a low volume level which the user can hear is set as "minimum audible value", for example, using an audiometer. Measure and curve K2
As shown by, the sound pressure (100 to 130d) represents a high volume level at which the user feels discomfort such as pain.
BSPL) is measured as the "discomfort threshold" and displayed on the display screen, for example, and the area between the "minimum audible value" curve K1 and the "discomfort threshold" curve K2 is set as the audible range. The hearing aid is fitted and adjusted so that the maximum output sound pressure level characteristic K3 of the hearing aid used appears in the audible range.

The area K4 shows the speech spectrum reproduced from the hearing aid in the coupler, and the shaded area indicates the level considered to be the audible range at this time.

[0006]

However, in general, a hearing aid user tends to be noisy about the environmental noise in the surroundings. Therefore, when adjusting the fitting of the hearing aid, the conversational voice component is small and the noise component is large in the low frequency band. It has been devised to keep the amplification level of.

However, in the conventional hearing aid fitting device, it is possible to display the input / output characteristics of the hearing aid that change with adjustment, and it is not possible to know how much noise is being amplified by the adjustment. I had an inconvenient problem. The present invention has been made in consideration of the above points, and proposes a fitting device capable of appropriately displaying the noise level in addition to the display of the frequency characteristic of the hearing aid, the uncomfortable range value, the minimum audible value, and the like. Is what you are trying to do.

[0008]

In order to solve such a problem, in the present invention, the fitting processing section 3 calculates the amplification characteristic of the hearing aid 9 to be fitted on the basis of the inputted data, and the fitting characteristic is calculated. In the hearing aid fitting device 1 having a presentation means capable of displaying the result together with the inputted minimum audible value K11 of the user,
The presenting means displays the minimum audible value K11 for each frequency of the user on the same display surface 20 as the frequency characteristic K13 of the hearing aid 9.
Then, the estimated value K15 of the level of each frequency of the conversation sound amplified by the hearing aid 9 and the estimated value K14 of each frequency of the noise amplified by the hearing aid 9 can be displayed.

The above-mentioned display means further includes the display surface 20.
The discomfort threshold value K12 for each frequency of the user is presented above.

[0010]

In the hearing aid fitting device 1, the minimum audible value K11 for each frequency of the user and the level estimation value for each frequency of the conversation sound amplified by the hearing aid 9 are displayed on the same display surface 20 as the frequency characteristic K13 of the hearing aid 9. K15 and the level estimation value K14 for each frequency of the noise amplified by the hearing aid 9
And further, the discomfort range value K12 for each frequency of the user.
By making it possible to present, it is possible to compare the conversation sound level K15 and the noise level K14 at the time of the fitting adjustment with the minimum audible value K11 of the user, and thus it is possible to effectively carry out the fitting adjustment.

[0011]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS An embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the drawings. In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 indicates a fitting device as a whole, and user data such as a user's name, date of birth, environment of use of a hearing aid, etc. at various levels input in an operation unit 2 having a keyboard, a mouse, etc. The user data signal S1 is input to the fitting processing unit 3 which is constructed by a microcomputer. on the other hand,
The minimum audible value of the user measured by the audiometer 7 and the discomfort threshold value data signal S6 are the fitting processing section 3
Entered in.

From the fitting data storage device 4, fitting data S2 including the hearing aid basic characteristic data, noise level data and conversation sound level data is input to the fitting processing unit 3. Based on these data, the fitting processing unit 3 calculates the amplification characteristics of the hearing aid that are considered to be most suitable for the user, the noise level and the conversation sound level suppressed according to the amplification characteristics, and calculates the user's hearing level in the audible frequency range. The display signal S3 is supplied to the display 5 and displayed together with the minimum audible value and the discomfort range value.

In the case of this embodiment, the display contents of the display 5 can be printed out by the printer 6 in accordance with the print signal S5.
Further, the fitting processing unit 3 supplies the characteristic data S8 for the user obtained by the calculation to the digital hearing aid 9 via the hearing aid interface 8, thereby adjusting the characteristics of the digital hearing aid 9 by fitting.

That is, in the case of this embodiment, the characteristic data S8 input to the digital hearing aid is stored in the non-volatile memory in the hearing aid, and the input sound signal taken from the microphone is subjected to the hearing aid processing based on the stored characteristic data.
Thus, the digital hearing aid 9 is adapted to operate as a hearing aid having an amplification characteristic designated by the characteristic data S8. After the fitting is completed, the fitting result storage signal S4 is sent from the fitting processing unit 3 to the fitting data storage device 4 and stored therein for later reference.

Here, in the case of this embodiment, the digital hearing aid 9 is constructed in the three-channel system of the low tone range, the middle tone range and the high tone range, and the adjuster accordingly displays on the display screen 20 as shown in FIG. While visually confirming, the amplification characteristic suitable for the user can be set in the digital hearing aid 9. The display screen 20 includes a frequency characteristic display section 21, an input / output characteristic display section 22, an audiogram display section 23, and a user I.
D number display unit 24, user name display unit 25, user birth date display unit 26, user first visit date display unit 27, hearing aid name display unit 28, characteristic data number display unit 29, volume position display unit 30, It comprises a wearing ear display section 31, a characteristic data creation date display section 32, and an optimum volume position display section 33.

The audiogram display section 23 shows the frequency on the horizontal axis and the hearing loss value on the vertical axis.
The difference from the average minimum audible value at each frequency by inputting the minimum audible value at each frequency of the user,
That is, the hearing loss value is displayed. When the assumed usage environment of the hearing aid is designated, amplification characteristic data considered to be optimum is calculated and displayed for each of the three channels divided by the frequency band.

In the input / output characteristic display unit 22 described above, the horizontal axis represents the input sound pressure to the hearing aid and the vertical axis represents the output sound pressure from the hearing aid. The calculated output for each input sound pressure is shown. The sound pressure is displayed so that the adjuster can easily visually confirm the acoustic gain at each input sound pressure. The frequency characteristic display unit 21
The horizontal axis represents frequency and the vertical axis represents sound pressure. The input minimum audible value K11 and discomfort range value K12 of the user are displayed, and at the same time, the frequency based on the above amplification characteristic data is displayed. The characteristic K13, the noise level K14 at this time, and the conversation sound level K15 are displayed.

In the case of this embodiment, the frequency characteristic K13 is displayed as four solid line graphs of the input sound pressures 60, 70, 80 and 90 [dBSPL], where the vertical axis represents the output sound pressure from the digital hearing aid 9. By doing so, the adjusting member can easily visually grasp the frequency characteristic of the digital hearing aid 9 based on the calculated amplification characteristic data.

As the noise level K14, an estimated value for each frequency of the noise amplified by the hearing aid 9 is used, and a long-term effective value spectrum of typical noise such as HOTH noise is calculated as the frequency of the hearing aid 9. It is displayed as an increased level according to the characteristics. Further, the conversation sound level K15 is represented by the frequency of the conversation sound amplified by the hearing aid and the estimated value of the level.

That is, the speech sound of the speech sound clarity inspection tape is analyzed in advance, and the result of calculating the acoustic component characterizing each phoneme, that is, the frequency and sound pressure level of the so-called phoneme formant, is used as the conversation sound level data for fitting. The level is raised according to the frequency characteristics of the digital hearing aid 9 based on the one stored in the data storage device 4 for the phone, and in the case of FIG.
("A"), "i"("I"), and "u"("U")
And "s"("su") are displayed. The phoneme analysis is performed by the fitting processing unit 3 by executing the processing procedure shown in FIG.

That is, in block 40, the original signal S
FFT (Fast Fourier Transform) analysis of 30 is performed, and the frequency f at which the phoneme discrimination is performed in the subsequent block 41 from the result.
Determine one.

In block 42, the original signal S30 is processed by the octave band filter centered on the frequency f1 to obtain a band signal S31.
31 is subjected to full-wave rectification at block 43 to obtain a rectified signal S32, and at block 44 lowpass filter processing is performed to calculate an amplitude envelope signal S33 with a time constant of 35 [ms]. Find the maximum level L1.

According to the method of FIG. 3, it is possible to estimate the hearing ability of a hearing-impaired person even for non-stationary sounds such as explosive consonants. Here, the frequencies used for phoneme discrimination are set to the first and second formant frequencies in the case of vowels and to the frequencies having strong components in consonants.

In the above configuration, when the minimum audible value K11 and the uncomfortable range value K12 of the user are measured by the audiometer 7 and the assumed usage environment of the hearing aid is input to the fitting device 1 which stores the measured values. The characteristic data is calculated, and the frequency characteristic K13, the conversation sound level K15, and the noise level K of the hearing aid are calculated based on the calculated characteristic data.
14, input / output characteristic 22, and minimum audible value K1 of the user
1, discomfort range value K12 and the like are displayed on the display.

According to the above configuration, the hearing aid fitting device estimates the assumed typical noise level which is amplified from the frequency characteristics of the hearing aid 9 selected and adjusted together with the frequency characteristics and the conversation sound level of the hearing aid 9. However, by displaying it on the display, it is possible to easily grasp all the items to be considered in the fitting adjustment of the digital hearing aid, and it is possible to reduce the burden on the coordinator who performs the fitting adjustment work and to the user. However, it can increase the persuasive power and increase the reliability of using the hearing aid.

Further, as shown in FIG. 4, it is possible to display when the characteristic data is changed to suppress noise in the above-described embodiment, and thus the effect of noise suppression can be visually grasped.
In the above embodiment, the case where the conversational sound level K15 is displayed by the phoneme formants “a”, “i”, “u”, and “s” has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this.
As shown in FIG. 5, the conversation sound level K15X is ± 5d from the average level of the long-term spectrum of the typical conversation sound described above.
You may make it display by the conversational sound spectrum band having a width of about B.

In the above embodiment, the case of the three-channel type hearing aid has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and can be applied to any channel type hearing aid.
Further, in the above embodiment, the frequency characteristic display unit 2
1, the input sound pressure is 60, 70, 80 and 90 [dBSP
Although the input / output frequency characteristic of [L] is displayed, the present invention is not limited to this, and the display may be whatever the input sound pressure is, and the point is that the fitting is adjusted based on the characteristic data. It suffices if the frequency characteristics of the hearing aid are displayed.

Furthermore, in the above-mentioned embodiment, the case where the noise level is displayed as an average is described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and the upper limit of the noise level is displayed as a curve connecting the maximum values of the noise level at each frequency. It may be done. Further, in the above-described embodiment, the case of applying to a digital hearing aid has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and may be applied to a hearing aid other than a digital hearing aid, that is, a noise level by fitting adjustment is displayed. Just go.

Further, in the above embodiment, the input / output characteristic 22 of the hearing aid, the noise level K14 and the conversation sound level K15 suppressed according to the input / output characteristic 22, the minimum audible value K11 of the user, and the uncomfortable region. The case where the value K12 or the like is displayed or printed out has been described, but the present invention is not limited to this, and it may be other than the display display or printout, and the point is that the state of the noise level by the fitting adjustment may be presented. ..

[0030]

As described above, according to the present invention, in addition to the minimum audible value and uncomfortable range value of the user and the frequency characteristic of the hearing aid, the estimated value of the level of the noise amplified by the hearing aid for each frequency can be obtained. By doing so, it is possible to easily realize a hearing aid fitting device that allows the fitting adjustment work to be performed more easily and effectively.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of a hearing aid fitting device according to the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a front view showing a screen display and screen in the display 5 of FIG.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a procedure for calculating a frequency and a level that are characteristics of a phoneme of a conversational sound.

FIG. 4 is a front view showing a modified example of the embodiment in FIG.

5 is a front view showing a modified example of the embodiment in FIG.

FIG. 6 is a front view of a graph displayed on a screen in a conventional fitting device.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 ... Hearing aid fitting device, 5 ... Display, 7 ... Audiometer, 21 ... Frequency characteristic display section, K11 ... Minimum audible value, K12 ... Discomfort range value, K1
3 ... Frequency characteristics, K14 ... Noise level, K15 ...
Conversation sound level, 22 ... Input / output characteristic display section, 23 ... Audiogram display section.

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A presenting means capable of calculating an amplification characteristic of a hearing aid whose fitting is to be adjusted based on input data by a fitting processing unit and presenting the calculated result together with a minimum audible value of an input user. In the hearing aid fitting device having, the presenting means comprises a minimum audible value for each frequency of the user on the same display surface as the frequency characteristic of the hearing aid, and a level estimation value for each frequency of the conversation sound amplified by the hearing aid. A hearing aid fitting device characterized in that a level estimation value for each frequency of the noise amplified by the hearing aid can be displayed. 2. The hearing aid fitting device according to claim 1, wherein the display means further presents an uncomfortable threshold value for each frequency of the user on the display surface.