KR20100085466A - Apparatus and methods for personalized listening training - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE: An apparatus and a method for customized listening training are provided to enable a user to easily take customized listening training. CONSTITUTION: A user profile storage unit stores multiple listening training profiles. The listening training profiles comprise multiple training lessons. A listening training processor(210) outputs filtered sounds based on a present training lesson among training lessons included in the selected listening training profile.

Description

Apparatus and Methods for Personalized Listening Training

The present invention relates to a hearing perception training device and a hearing perception training method, and more particularly, to a personalized hearing perception training device and a hearing perception training method for improving hearing function.

Auditory perception training was first developed by Alfred Tomatis, a French otolaryngologist, in a way that allows users to listen to modified music through a device called an electronic ear. In addition to Thomas's electronic ear, there are various variants of current hearing sensor. LiFT (Listening Fitness Training) by Paul Madaule, Dr. Audi Integration Integration Training (AIT) by Guy Berard, SAMONAS by Ingo Steinbach, and others are well known, as are Integrated Listening Systems (iLs) by Kate O'Brien Minson and Randall Redfield.

For auditory perception training using the auditory perceptual training device as described above, a user's hearing perception status must first be diagnosed. After diagnosing a hearing perception condition, a hearing perception training program suitable for a user is determined according to the diagnosis result. Currently, a method of diagnosing a user's hearing condition may include a questionnaire method and a method of using a hearing sensor. The questionnaire method is to provide a questionnaire verified by an expert to the user (or guardian in the case of an infant) and measure the hearing perception of the user based on items checked by the user. In the method of using the auditory angle measuring device, the objective auditory state of the user is measured by using a hardware device such as an audio meter or a computer program.

In the conventional auditory perception training, a therapist has to operate the device every time in order to apply the auditory perception training program to the user according to the diagnosis result. Different users have different auditory perception characteristics and therefore different auditory perception training programs. There was also the inconvenience of having to reconfigure the device for each training date or lesson for a given auditory perception training program. For example, LiFT's auditory perception training usually requires 60 training days, each of which includes two 30-minute training lessons. Therefore, in order to conduct auditory perception training using these conventional devices, the therapist must manually set the device every 30 minutes. Since mistakes are likely to occur in the process of setting up such a device, the conventional auditory perception training device has to be operated by a therapist rather than a trained user.

In particular, if you use different auditory learning programs for multiple target users with one auditory training device, the auditory learning program changes every time the user changes. It is very inconvenient.

The present invention has been proposed to solve the above problems, by using a user's preset auditory perception training profile automatically set the auditory perception device according to the training lessons to personally auditory perception that can perform auditory perception training The purpose is to provide a training device.

In addition, another object of the present invention is to provide a personalized hearing perception training method using the hearing perception training device.

According to an aspect of the present invention, there is provided a hearing perception training device, including: a user profile storage unit for storing one or a plurality of hearing perception training profiles each including a plurality of training lessons; And a hearing perception training processor configured to output a filtered sound manipulated based on a current training lesson among training lessons included in the perceptual perception training profile selected from the perceptual perception training profiles. Each of the auditory perception training profiles may include information about the user, the current lesson cycle, and the training lessons. Each of the training lessons may include information on filter characteristics, training time, balancing, and type of sound source data. The auditory perception training processor may include a decoding unit configured to receive and decode a sound source, and a filter unit to filter the decoded sound source according to a filter characteristic determined by the current training lesson. The hearing-sensing training processor may further include a smart switch for gating the filter unit such that the filter characteristics are high frequency boosting and low frequency boosting at irregular time intervals. The auditory perception training device may further include a display configured to display the current training lesson session and the user. The hearing perception training may be automatically stopped when the hearing perception training corresponding to the current lesson cycle ends. The user profile storage unit may include a removable nonvolatile memory.

According to another aspect of the present invention for achieving the first object of the present invention, the hearing sensor training device displays one or a plurality of hearing sensory training profiles stored in a nonvolatile memory, and displays one hearing sensory training profile from a user. Reads the selected user interface unit, sound source data for auditory perception training, and the selected auditory perception training profile, wherein the selected auditory perception training profile includes a plurality of training lessons, the current among the plurality of training lessons; And an auditory sense training processor for filtering and outputting the sound source data according to a filter characteristic determined by a training lesson. Each of the auditory perception training profiles includes information about a user, a current training lesson cycle, and training lessons, each of which includes information about filter characteristics, training time, balancing, type of sound source data. can do. The auditory perception training device may further include a display configured to display the current training lesson session and the user. The user profile storage unit may include a removable nonvolatile memory.

In addition, the hearing perception training method according to an aspect of the present invention for achieving the second object of the present invention comprises the steps of displaying one or a plurality of hearing perception training profiles stored in a nonvolatile memory, and one hearing perception training from a user Selecting a profile, reading sound source data for the auditory perception training and the selected auditory perception training profile, wherein the selected auditory perception training profile includes a plurality of training lessons, and the plurality of training lessons And filtering and outputting the sound source data according to filter characteristics determined by the information included in the training lesson in which the auditory perception training is currently performed. Each of the auditory perception training profiles includes information about the user, the current training lesson cycle, and the training lessons, each of which includes information about filter characteristics, training time, balancing, type of sound source data. Can be. The method may further include displaying the current training lesson session and the user on a display unit. The hearing perception training may be automatically stopped when the hearing perception training corresponding to the current lesson cycle ends.

As described above, according to the present invention, the auditory perception training apparatus and method uses the auditory perception training profile preset for each user so that the therapist performs the auditory perception training to the user without manually setting the device for each training lesson. Make it possible. Accordingly, the auditory perception training device and method can prevent mistakes that may occur in the device setting process and improve the convenience of device operation.

As the invention allows for various changes and numerous embodiments, particular embodiments will be illustrated in the drawings and described in detail in the written description. However, this is not intended to limit the present invention to specific embodiments, it should be understood to include all changes, equivalents, and substitutes included in the spirit and scope of the present invention. Like reference numerals are used for like elements in describing each drawing.

Hereinafter, preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings. In order to facilitate a thorough understanding of the present invention, the same reference numerals are used for the same means regardless of the number of the drawings.

The hearing-sensing training apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention performs the hearing-sensing training by using a predetermined hearing-sensing training profile for each user. The auditory perception training profile includes daily auditory perception training schedule (program) information for each user receiving the auditory perception training learning. The per-user hearing sensory training profile may be stored in, for example, a user information storage medium and read by the hearing sensor. The user information storage medium may be, for example, a removable nonvolatile memory such as a Universal Serial Bus (USB) device or a Secure Digital (SD) memory card.

Table 1 shows an example of the user perceptual training profile.

Table 1 Examples of auditory perception training profiles

[user]

name = Jae-Seol Kim

mode = s

days = 30

seq = (2,1)

[day1]

num = 4

les1 = 1, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1;

les 2 = 3, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1;

les 3 = 3, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1;

les 4 = 5, 20, 4, 5, C, 1, 0;

[day2]

num = 3;

les1 = 5, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1

les2 = 5, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1

les3 = 5, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1

[day3]

...

...

[day30]

num = 1;

les1 = 5, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1

The name is a user field, indicating that this auditory perception training profile is a training profile for Kim Jae-sul.

mode is an operation mode field, and s indicates that it is static. There are static, dynamic, and professional modes of operation. Static means that once a training profile has been determined, the mode of operation does not change until the training days are over. dynamic means an operation mode in which a training program is automatically changed according to a value input by a therapist at regular intervals, and professional means a manual mode by the therapist. When the mode value is s, static is displayed in blue and dynamic and professional are displayed in gray. When the mode value is d, dynamic is displayed in blue and static and professional are gray in the operation screen of the auditory perception training device. When the mode value is p, professional is displayed in blue and dynamic and static are gray in the operation screen of the auditory perception training device.

days is the number of training days to perform the auditory perception training program, and 30 indicates that the auditory perception training profile is 30 days old.

seq means the current training lesson, and (2, 1) indicates that the current training lesson is the first training lesson on the second day.

[day1], [day2], [day3], and [day30] refer to auditory perception training programs on the first day, second day, third day and 30th day, respectively. num means the number of training lessons for the training day. There are four training lessons on the first day, two training lessons on the second day, and one training lesson on the 30th day.

les1, les2, les3, and les4 mean the first, second, third, and fourth training lessons on the training day, respectively.

The field values of the training lessons mean the filter characteristics, training time, bone conduction size level, balancing type, sound source data type, gating type, and microphone state in order.

For example, among the training lessons on the first day, the field values of les2 are 3, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1. The second training lesson on the first day is trained for 20 minutes using filter 3, with bone conduction level 4, balancing type 5 and Mozart music, and gating level 1 The microphone is set to the on state.

Of the first day's training lessons, the field values of les4 are 5, 20, 4, 5, C, 1, 0. The training lesson at this time is trained for 20 minutes using the fifth filter, with bone conduction level 4, balancing type 5th, and Gregorian chant music, and gating level 1 The microphone is set to the off state.

Filter characteristics used for auditory perception training may include high pass, low pass, high boosting, low boosting, band pass, and band rejection, and the cutoff frequency of each filter may also be variously set.

The seq field represents a training lesson session in which auditory perception training is currently in progress. As the auditory perception training progresses, in the auditory perception training profile illustrated above, the seq field is (1,1)-> (1,2)-> (1,3)-> (1,4)-> (2, 1)-> (2,2) can be changed. That is, when one training lesson ends, the number of training lessons increases by one when the next training lesson is present on the current training day, but if it does not, the number of training days increases by one and the training lesson increases. Meaning number is initialized to 1. Accordingly, the user can select the auditory perception training profile and then simply execute the auditory perception training device to receive the auditory perception training for the current training date and training lesson.

The bone conduction field value is a value for adjusting the output level of the bone conduction output stage, and may have a value of 0 to 10, for example. The balancing field value is a value for adjusting balancing between the volume of the right earphone and the volume of the left earphone, and may have a value of 0 to 5, for example.

The type of the sound source data may indicate a type of music such as M (Mozart), C (Chant), W (Walt), CE (Cello), and the like.

Gating refers to an operation in which a characteristic of a predetermined filter changes randomly in real time.

1 is a conceptual diagram showing a usage environment of a hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 2 is a block diagram showing a hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention. 3 is a view showing in more detail the filter of FIG.

4A to 4C illustrate examples of a user interface screen in a process of selecting a user, and FIGS. 5A to 5C illustrate examples of a user interface screen in a hearing perception training process. 6 is a diagram showing an example of a training schedule of a conventional auditory perception training program. 7A-7F are graphs showing examples of filters that can be used for auditory perception training.

Referring to FIG. 1, the hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention displays an operation state of the hearing sensor training device through the display unit a. The hearing-sensing training device may receive a touch input for performing a predetermined operation through the display unit a. The display unit a may be implemented as, for example, a liquid crystal display or a touch screen. The auditory perception training device may further include a power display unit (b) indicating whether power is applied, and may further include a power button (c) for turning on or off the power.

In order to operate the hearing sensor, the hearing sensor training profile for the user may be stored in a removable nonvolatile memory such as an SD card, and then the removable nonvolatile memory may be inserted into the hearing sensor. You can also download the auditory perception training profile from the outside via a PC or directly online and store it in a memory mounted inside the auditory perception training device.

Referring to FIG. 2, the hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention includes a hearing sensor training processor 210, a user interface unit 240, and an output unit 260.

The user interface 240 may include a display. The display unit may be implemented as a touch screen.

The auditory sense user may be selected through the user interface 240. For example, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a hearing perception user may be selected by selecting one of a plurality of hearing perception training profiles.

The auditory perception training processor 210 may include a decoder 211, a smart switch 213, a controller 215, and a filter 217.

The decoding unit 211 receives and decodes sound source data 222 for sound source treatment.

3 is a view showing in more detail the filter of FIG.

The filter unit 217 receives the sound source data decoded by the decoder 211 and filters one of the plurality of filter types of the filter set 217a according to the filter characteristic information 216 of the controller 215. The filter characteristic information 216 is included in the auditory perception training profile selected by the user. For example, as illustrated in FIGS. 7A to 7F, the plurality of filter types include a high pass filter (HPF), a low pass filter (LPF), a high boosting filter, and a low boosting filter. Filters, band pass filters, band rejection filters, and the like may be included. The plurality of filter types may further include various filters for auditory perception training in addition to the filter types illustrated in FIGS. 7A to 7F. The detailed filter characteristics of each filter type may be variously set. For example, the cut off frequency of the high pass filter may be set to 1 kHz, 2 kHz, 3 kHz, 4 kHz, or 8 kHz.

As such, the various filters have distinct filter numbers. For example, filter 1 may be a filter that does not filter, filter 3 may be a high pass filter having a cutoff frequency of 1 kHz, and filter 21 may be a band pass filter that passes a frequency of 1 kHz to 2 kHz. As such, various filter characteristics may be selected by values of filter fields included in a training lesson. For example, filter 1 is selected in the first training lesson and filter number 5 is selected in the fourth training lesson in the auditory perception training on the first day of Table 1.

The filter unit 217 further increases the output filter characteristics of the filter set 216 by using the high booster 217b at irregular time intervals in response to the switching control signal 214 from the smart switch 213. frequency boosting) and the low booster 217c is used to gate the output filter characteristics of the filter set 216 to be further low frequency boosted.

The filter unit 217 may be implemented using an analog filter or may be implemented using a digital filter.

The smart switch 213 gates the filter unit such that the filter characteristics are high frequency boosting or low frequency boosting at irregular time intervals. The smart switch 213 determines the switching timing of the gating operation when the gating setting is turned on. Specifically, the switching time point may be randomly determined, or the switching time point may be determined from a feature of the decoded sound source data, for example, an amplitude or the like.

The control unit 215 reads a user's perceptual training profile from the user information storage unit 230 and performs the auditory perception training based on a current training lesson selected by the user among the training lessons included in the read auditory training profile. Control to output the filtered sound source for.

For example, if a user selects 'Kim Jae-sul.ini' among a plurality of user auditory training profiles, the profile is selected. As described above, a 30-day training program may be performed in a static mode with respect to the user 'Jim Jae-sul'. Specifically, according to the first lesson "les1 = 5, 20, 4, 5, M, 1, 1" on the second day of seq (2, 1), on the second day of the auditory perception training program (day2) Using filter type 5, Bone conduction magnitude level 4, Balancing code value 5, Type M of sound source data, Gating on setting, Microphone on ON) to perform auditory perception training.

Although not shown in the drawing, the hearing sensor training unit 210 may further include a microphone (not shown), a second filter unit (not shown), and a mixer 219 to perform reading training. Although not shown in the figure, the second filter unit may be implemented by including a filter set included in the filter unit 217. For example, the second filter unit receives the voice input through the microphone and filters the voice using one of a plurality of filter types of the filter set according to the filter characteristic information 216 of the controller 215, and a mixer (not shown). In operation 217, the sound source data filtered by the filter unit 217 and the voice filtered by the second filter unit are mixed to generate a mixed signal. The output signal of the mixer may be gated such that the filter characteristics are high frequency boosted and low frequency boosted at irregular time intervals in response to the switching control signal 214 from the smart switch 213.

The output unit 260 adjusts the volume of the output signal of the filter unit 217 under the control of the controller 215 according to the training lesson of the auditory perception training program. The output unit 260 may generate the right ear earphone output 262 by adjusting the volume of the right earphone, and generate the left ear earphone output 264 by adjusting the volume of the left earphone. Alternatively, the output unit 260 may generate a bone oscillator output 266 by adjusting the bone oscillation of the bone oscillator. The hearing-sensing training device according to an embodiment of the present invention may operate using a headphone having a bone conduction function, in which case the right ear earphone output 262 is provided as a left earphone of the headphone. The left ear earphone output 264 may be provided to the right earphone of the headphone, and the bone oscillator output 266 may be provided to the bone conductor of the headphone.

The hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a sound source unit 220. The sound source unit 220 provides sound source data for sound source treatment. The sound source data may include music data for auditory perception learning training. The sound source data may include, for example, a compressed file such as MP3, OGG, AAC, or an uncompressed file such as WAVE.

Hearing and hearing training device according to an embodiment of the present invention may further include a user information storage unit 230. The user information storage unit 230 (or the user profile storage unit) may store the perceptual auditory training profile for each user. The user information storage unit 230 may store user's hearing-sensing training schedule (program) information for each user. The user information storage unit 230 may include a USB or an SD memory card.

In the above description, the auditory perception training device filters the decoded sound source using a filter having a characteristic determined according to a training lesson and then listens to the user. However, a plurality of sound sources are already stored in the auditory perception training device by various filters, and a device that plays a sound source filtered by a filter having a specific characteristic according to a training lesson is possible. That is, the auditory perception training device is sufficient to provide the user with the function of hearing the filtered sound source manipulated based on the training lesson, and it is conceivable that it does not necessarily filter internally.

 Hereinafter, the operation of the hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, when the auditory perception training device is turned on, the default user auditory perception training profile stored in the user information storage unit 240 is read and the perceptual perception training is performed according to the training lessons included in the read perceptual perception training profile. Set it to.

The auditory perception training profile is preset for each user. The auditory perception training profile can be set differently depending on the user—for example, a preschool age child, a preschool age child, or an adult.

The auditory perception training profile may identify a hearing perception impairment state of the user according to a survey result obtained through a questionnaire pre-made for each user, and use a hearing perception training profile predetermined according to the hearing perception impairment state. The hearing impairment state may include attuneing related hearing impairment, positioning related hearing impairment, tuning and positioning related hearing perception disorder, and focusing related hearing impairment.

6 shows an example of a hearing perception training program for a preschool age child in a LiFT manner. In FIG. 6, T denotes a sound source type (Mozart, Chant, etc.), F denotes a filter type (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4, etc.), and Bal denotes a balance code (e.g., 4, 3, 2, etc.). , First class).

Referring to FIG. 6, a total of 60 days of auditory perception training are performed from 1) to 60). For example, in the case of training day 1), two lessons are performed with M1 and B4. Here, M1 indicates that the sound source data type is M (Mozart). B4 represents one of a plurality of balancing adjustment types such as, for example, B1, B2, B3, and B4. The volume of the left earphone: the ratio representing the volume of the right earphone is 1: 3.

As shown in FIG. 4A, when the USER menu 7 is selected on the main menu screen of the hearing-sensing training apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, a screen for selecting a storage storing user information (FIG. You can select a repository in 4b). When selecting a repository, one of a plurality of user profiles may be selected on the screen as shown in FIG. 4C for selecting a user profile stored in the selected repository. As shown in FIGS. 4B and 4C, the upper button 17 may be selected to move to the upper menu, and the cursor may be moved by pressing the cursor up button 18 and the cursor down button 19.

As shown in FIG. 4A, the gating on / off may be set by selecting the gating menu 1 on the main menu screen of the auditory perception training device.

The plurality of operation mode menus 2, 3, and 4 of the main menus of the auditory perception training apparatus of FIG. 4A activate and display one operation mode menu according to the current operation mode.

When the start menu 6 is selected from the main menu of FIG. 4A, as shown in FIG. 5A, the auditory perception training is started and the user information 9 including the training day, the lesson cycle, and the indication of the training operation ( 13), the time (14) the device has been operating, the progress status is displayed. As shown in FIG. 5A, the volume value of the headphones may be increased or decreased by using the volume up-down icon 15, and the volume value of the microphone may be increased or decreased by using the microphone value up-down icon 16. .

When the auditory perception training corresponding to the training day of the day is terminated by selecting the PAUSE icon 10 in FIG. 5A, the auditory perception training may be automatically stopped as shown in FIG. 5B. If the same user continues to use it, the PLAY icon 11 may be selected to continue the stopped training, and the EXIT icon 12 may be pressed to end the auditory perception training program operation and return to the first screen. If the same user continues to use, it may be implemented to automatically perform the auditory perception training for the next training day.

As shown in FIG. 4A, when the setting menu 8 is selected on the main menu screen of the hearing sensor, the serial number menu of the hearing sensor and the remaining operation menu for showing the remaining operation time of the hearing sensor. Can be displayed.

Preferred embodiments of the present invention described above are disclosed for purposes of illustration, and those skilled in the art will be able to make various modifications, changes, and additions within the spirit and scope of the present invention. Additions should be considered to be within the scope of the following claims.

1 is a view showing the use environment of the auditory perception training device.

Figure 2 is a block diagram showing a hearing sensor training device according to an embodiment of the present invention.

3 is a view showing in more detail the filter of FIG.

4A to 4C illustrate examples of a user interface screen in a process of selecting a user.

5A to 5C illustrate examples of a user interface screen of a hearing perception training process.

6 is a diagram showing an example of a training schedule of a conventional auditory perception training program.

7A-7F are graphs showing examples of filters that can be used for auditory perception training.

<Explanation of symbols for the main parts of the drawings>

210: hearing perception training processor

Claims (16)

A user profile storage unit for storing one or a plurality of auditory perception training profiles each comprising a plurality of training lessons; And And an auditory perception training processor configured to output a filtered sound manipulated based on a current training lesson among training lessons included in the auditory perception training profile selected from the perceptual perception training profiles. The apparatus of claim 1, wherein each of the auditory perception training profiles includes information about a user, a current lesson cycle, and training lessons. The training lesson of claim 1, wherein each of the training lessons A hearing perception training device comprising information on filter characteristics, training time, balancing, and type of sound source data. According to claim 1, wherein the hearing perceptual training processing unit A decoding unit to receive and decode a sound source; And And a filter unit for filtering the decoded sound source according to the filter characteristic determined by the current training lesson. According to claim 4, wherein the hearing perception training processing unit And a smart switch for gating the filter unit such that filter characteristics are high frequency boosting and low frequency boosting at irregular time intervals. According to claim 4, wherein the hearing sensor training device And a display unit for displaying the current training lesson session and the user. The hearing perception training apparatus according to any one of claims 4 to 6, wherein the hearing perception training is automatically stopped when the hearing perception training corresponding to the current lesson cycle is finished. The method of claim 1, wherein the user profile storage unit comprises a detachable non-volatile memory device. A user interface configured to display one or a plurality of auditory sense training profiles stored in the nonvolatile memory, and to receive one auditory sense training profile from a user; And Reads sound source data for the auditory perception training and the selected auditory perception training profile, the selected auditory perception training profile includes a plurality of training lessons, the filter characteristics determined by the current training lesson among the plurality of training lessons And a hearing perceptual training processor for filtering and outputting the sound source data according to the present invention. 10. The method of claim 9, wherein each of the auditory perception training profiles includes information about a user, a current training lesson cycle, and training lessons, each of the training lessons comprising filter characteristics, training time, balancing, and audio data. Auditory perceptual training device comprising information about the type. The method of claim 9, wherein the hearing perception training device And a display unit for displaying the current training lesson session and the user. The hearing sensor training apparatus of claim 9, wherein the user profile storage unit comprises a removable non-volatile memory. Displaying one or a plurality of auditory training profiles stored in the nonvolatile memory; Receiving one auditory perception training profile from a user; Reading sound source data for the auditory perception training and the selected auditory perception training profile, the selected auditory perception training profile comprising a plurality of training lessons; And And a step of filtering and outputting the sound source data according to a filter characteristic determined by information included in a training lesson in which the current auditory perception training is being performed among the plurality of training lessons. The method of claim 13, wherein each of the auditory perception training profiles includes information about a user, a current training lesson cycle, and training lessons, each of the training lessons comprising filter characteristics, training time, balancing, and type of sound data. Auditory perception training method comprising the information on. The method of claim 13, further comprising displaying the current training lesson session and the user on a display unit. 16. The method of any one of claims 13 to 15, wherein the auditory perception training is automatically stopped when the auditory perception training corresponding to the current lesson session is terminated.

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