scholarly journals Speech Audiometry at Home: Automated Listening Tests via Smart Speakers With Normal-Hearing and Hearing-Impaired Listeners

2020 ◽  
Vol 24 ◽  
pp. 233121652097001
Author(s):  
Jasper Ooster ◽  
Melanie Krueger ◽  
Jörg-Hendrik Bach ◽  
Kirsten C. Wagener ◽  
Birger Kollmeier ◽  
...  

Speech audiometry in noise based on sentence tests is an important diagnostic tool to assess listeners’ speech recognition threshold (SRT), i.e., the signal-to-noise ratio corresponding to 50% intelligibility. The clinical standard measurement procedure requires a professional experimenter to record and evaluate the response (expert-conducted speech audiometry). The use of automatic speech recognition enables self-conducted measurements with an easy-to-use speech-based interface. This article compares self-conducted SRT measurements using smart speakers with expert-conducted laboratory measurements. With smart speakers, there is no control over the absolute presentation level, potential errors from the automated response logging, and room acoustics. We investigate the differences between highly controlled measurements in the laboratory and smart speaker-based tests for young normal-hearing (NH) listeners as well as for elderly NH, mildly and moderately hearing-impaired listeners in low, medium, and highly reverberant room acoustics. For the smart speaker setup, we observe an overall bias in the SRT result that depends on the hearing loss. The bias ranges from +0.7 dB for elderly moderately hearing-impaired listeners to +2.2 dB for young NH listeners. The intrasubject standard deviation is close to the clinical standard deviation (0.57/0.69 dB for the young/elderly NH compared with 0.5 dB observed for clinical tests and 0.93/1.09 dB for the mild/moderate hearing-impaired listeners compared with 0.9 dB). For detecting a clinically elevated SRT, the speech-based test achieves an area under the curve value of 0.95 and therefore seems promising for complementing clinical measurements.

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 9
Author(s):  
Widayat Alviandi ◽  
Jenny Bashiruddin ◽  
Brastho Bramantyo ◽  
Farisa Rizky

Background: Patients with hearing disturbance will generally undergo pure tone audiometry andspeech audiometry in a quiet room, but those examinations cannot evaluate the ability to understand speech in daily environment with a noisy background. Words in noise test will provide valuable informationregarding patient’s hearing problem in noise. Purpose: To evaluate the hearing threshold using wordsin noise test in adults with normal hearing. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted in CiptoMangunkusumo Hospital from January to April 2017. All subjects who fulfilled the inclusion and exclusioncriteria underwent pure tone audiometry, speech audiometry, and words in noise test. Results: A total of71 individuals with normal hearing were recruited for this study. Words in noise test showed the medianvalue of 67 dB and 100 dB for Speech Recognition Threshold (SRT) 50% and Speech DiscriminationScore (SDS) 100%, respectively. The SRT 50% and SDS 100% were significantly higher in the age group40–60 years compared to the age group 18–39 years. There was also a statistically significant differencebetween males and females at SRT 50% assessed by words in noise audiometry. Conclusion: Wordsin noise test showed a statistically significant difference in SRT 50% and SDS 100% between two agegroups, but no difference was found between genders. The result of this study can be used as a referencefor SRT and SDS values of speech audiometry test in noise.Keywords: words in noise, speech audiometry, speech recognition threshold, speech discrimination score ABSTRAKLatar belakang: Pasien dengan gangguan pendengaran umumnya menjalani pemeriksaanaudiometri nada murni dan audiometri tutur di ruangan yang sunyi, tetapi pemeriksaan ini tidakdapat menggambarkan kemampuan pemahaman wicara di lingkungan sehari-hari yang ramai. Testutur dalam bising dapat mengevaluasi masalah pendengaran pasien dalam keadaan bising. Tujuan:Untuk mengevaluasi ambang pendengaran menggunakan tes tutur dalam bising pada orang dewasadengan pendengaran normal. Metode: Penelitian potong lintang ini dilakukan di Rumah Sakit CiptoMangunkusumo dari Januari hingga April 2017. Semua subjek yang memenuhi kriteria inklusi daneksklusi menjalani pemeriksaan audiometri nada murni, audiometri tutur, dan tes tutur dalam bising.Hasil: Sebanyak 71 orang dengan pendengaran normal diikutsertakan dalam penelitian ini. Tes tuturdalam bising menunjukkan nilai median masing-masing 67 dB dan 100 dB pada Speech RecognitionThreshold (SRT) 50% dan Speech Discrimination Score (SDS) 100%. SRT 50% dan SDS 100% secarasignifikan lebih tinggi pada kelompok usia 40–60 tahun dibandingkan dengan kelompok usia 18–39 tahun. Hasil pemeriksaan tes tutur dalam bising menunjukkan perbedaan yang signifikan antara laki-laki dan wanita pada nilai SRT 50%. Kesimpulan: Tes tutur dalam bising menunjukkan perbedaan yang bermakna secara statistik pada SRT 50% dan SDS 100% antara dua kelompok umur, tetapi tidak ada perbedaan signifikan diantara jenis kelamin. Hasil penelitian ini dapat digunakan sebagai acuan untuk nilai SRT dan SDS pada pemeriksaan audiometri tutur dalam bising.


1994 ◽  
Vol 95 (5) ◽  
pp. 2992-2993
Author(s):  
Laurie S. Eisenberg ◽  
Donald D. Dirks ◽  
Theodore S. Bell

2004 ◽  
Vol 116 (4) ◽  
pp. 2395-2405 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mead C. Killion ◽  
Patricia A. Niquette ◽  
Gail I. Gudmundsen ◽  
Lawrence J. Revit ◽  
Shilpi Banerjee

1985 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 87-95 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sandra Gordon-Salant

The purpose of this investigation was to determine whether normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners perceive phoneme features differently in noise and to determine whether phoneme perception changes as a fuction of signal-to-noise ratio (S/N). Consonant-vowel recognition by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners was assessed in quiet and in three noise conditions. Analysis of total percent correct recognition scores revealed significant effects of hearing status, S/N, and vowel context. Patterns of phoneme errors were analyzed by INDSCAL, Derived consonant features that accounted for phoneme errors by both subject groups were similar to ones reported by other investigators. However, weightings associated with the individual features varied with changes in noise condition. Although hearing-impaired listeners exhibited poorer overall nonsense syllable recognition scores in noise than normal-hearing listeners, no specific set of features emerged from the multidimensional scaling procedures that could uniquely account for this performance deficit.


2005 ◽  
Vol 48 (5) ◽  
pp. 1165-1186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tracy S. Fitzgerald ◽  
Beth A. Prieve

Although many distortion-product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAEs) may be measured in the ear canal in response to 2 pure tone stimuli, the majority of clinical studies have focused exclusively on the DPOAE at the frequency 2f1-f2. This study investigated another DPOAE, 2f2-f1, in an attempt to determine the following: (a) the optimal stimulus parameters for its clinical measurement and (b) its utility in differentiating between normal-hearing and hearing-impaired ears at low-to-mid frequencies (≤2000 Hz) when measured either alone or in conjunction with the 2f1-f2 DPOAE. Two experiments were conducted. In Experiment 1, the effects of primary level, level separation, and frequency separation (f2/f1) on 2f2-f1 DPOAE level were evaluated in normal-hearing ears for low-to-mid f2 frequencies (700–2000 Hz). Moderately high-level primaries (60–70 dB SPL) presented at equal levels or with f2 slightly higher than f1 produced the highest 2f2-f1 DPOAE levels. When the f2/f1 ratio that produced the highest 2f2-f1 DPOAE levels was examined across participants, the mean optimal f2/f1 ratio across f2 frequencies and primary level separations was 1.08. In Experiment 2, the accuracy with which DPOAE level or signal-to-noise ratio identified hearing status at the f2 frequency as normal or impaired was evaluated using clinical decision analysis. The 2f2-f1 and 2f1-f2 DPOAEs were measured from both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired ears using 2 sets of stimulus parameters: (a) the traditional parameters for measuring the 2f1-f2 DPOAE (f2/f1 = 1.22; L1, L2 = 65, 55 dB SPL) and (b) the new parameters that were deemed optimal for the 2f2-f1 DPOAE in Experiment 1 (f2/f1 = 1.073, L1 and L2 = 65 dB SPL). Identification of hearing status using 2f2-f1 DPOAE level and signal-to-noise ratio was more accurate when the new stimulus parameters were used compared with the results achieved when the 2f2-f1 DPOAE was recorded using the traditional parameters. However, identification of hearing status was less accurate for the 2f2-f1 DPOAE measured using the new parameters than for the 2f1-f2 DPOAE measured using the traditional parameters. No statistically significant improvements in test performance were achieved when the information from the 2 DPOAEs was combined, either by summing the DPOAE levels or by using logistic regression analysis.


1992 ◽  
Vol 35 (4) ◽  
pp. 942-949 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christopher W. Turner ◽  
David A. Fabry ◽  
Stephanie Barrett ◽  
Amy R. Horwitz

This study examined the possibility that hearing-impaired listeners, in addition to displaying poorer-than-normal recognition of speech presented in background noise, require a larger signal-to-noise ratio for the detection of the speech sounds. Psychometric functions for the detection and recognition of stop consonants were obtained from both normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners. Expressing the speech levels in terms of their short-term spectra, the detection of consonants for both subject groups occurred at the same signal-to-noise ratio. In contrast, the hearing-impaired listeners displayed poorer recognition performance than the normal-hearing listeners. These results imply that the higher signal-to-noise ratios required for a given level of recognition by some subjects with hearing loss are not due in part to a deficit in detection of the signals in the masking noise, but rather are due exclusively to a deficit in recognition.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Κωνσταντίνα Κολούτσου

Σκοπός: Σκοπός αυτής της μελέτης ήταν η ανάπτυξη της Δοκιμασίας -Τέστ, το G-SEBSAT τέστ, στην ακουστική ομιλία βασισμένο σε προτάσεις για παιδιά με προβλήματα ακοής.Μέθοδοι: Προσλήφθηκαν εβδομήντα έξι παιδιά κατόπιν έγκρισης από την τοπική επιτροπή δεοντολογίας και κατόπιν ενημέρωσης από τους γονείς τους. Η συλλογή του λεξιλογίου βασίστηκε στην προβολή εικόνων που επιλέχθηκαν από δημοφιλείς αναγνωστικές ύλες στα ελληνικά στα παιδιά με προβλήματα ακοής (Hearing Impaired-ΗΙ). Εκπονήθηκε μια γραμματική ανάλυση περιεχομένου για να προσδιοριστούν οι μέσες συντακτικές και μορφολογικές δομές των φράσεων που χρησιμοποιούνται από τα παιδιά της ΗΙ ομάδας . Δέκα λίστες που σχετίζονται με αντοίστοιχες εικόνες, δημιουργήθηκαν με βάση το λεξιλόγιο και τη γραμματική ανάλυση και καταγράφηκαν από έναν άνδρα ομιλητή με μητρική του γλώσσα την σύγχρονη ελληνική. Οι δέκα λίστες παρουσιάστηκαν σε παιδιά με κανονική ακοή (Normal Hearing-NH) και σε παιδιά με HI, ενώ και στις δύο ομάδες καταγράφηκε το μέσο όριο απόκρισης ομιλίας (Speech Reception Threshold-SRT) καθώς και η κλίση της καμπύλης SRT στο επίπεδο SRT των 50% σωστών αποκρίσεων (S50). Οι κατάλογοι καταγγελιών επικυρώθηκαν σε σχέση με τη μεταβλητότητα της δυσκολίας τους σε κάθε ομάδα, καθώς και με τη μεταβλητότητα δοκιμής-επανεξέτασης των αντίστοιχων βαθμολογιών SRT.Αποτελέσματα: Το μέσο όριο απόκρισης ομιλίας (SRT) σε όλες τις λίστες για παιδιά με ΗΙ ήταν 65,27 dB και η κλίση της καμπύλης SRT στο επίπεδο SRT των 50% των σωστών αποκρίσεων ήταν 3,11% / dB. Τα αντίστοιχα αποτελέσματα σε όλους τους καταλόγους για τα παιδιά με NH ήταν 17,66 dB και 9,7% / dB αντίστοιχα. Τα SRT των παιδιών με ΗΙ συσχετίστηκαν έντονα θετικά, με στατιστικά σημαντικό τρόπο με την μέτρηση ακουστικού τόνου (Pure Tone Audiometry-ΡΤΑ) τόσο στις δοκιμασίες όσο και στις δοκιμαστικές συνεδρίες (δοκιμασία: r = 0.750, Ρ <0.0005, επανέλεγχος: r = 0.753, Ρ <0.0005). Η συσχέτιση Spearman των βαθμολογιών των τιμών SRT και των τιμών κλίσης ήταν 0.998 και 0.997 αντίστοιχα για το ΗΙ και 0.939 και 0.88 για την ομάδα με ΝΗ, υποδεικνύοντας πολύ χαμηλή μεταβλητότητα σε όλες τις συνεδρίες δοκιμής και επανεξέτασης. Επιπλέον, η ανάλυση της διακύμανσης (ANOVA) του μέσου SRT στα παιδιά με NH και τα υπολείμματα SRT στην ομάδα με HI έδειξε ότι οι διαφορετικές προτάσεις ήταν της ίδιας δυσκολίας σε κάθε ομάδα. ((F (9,81) = 0,401, ρ = 0,930 και (F (9,93) = 2,241, ρ = 0,025 αντίστοιχα).Συμπεράσματα: Για πρώτη φορά δημιουργήθηκε στην ελληνική γλώσσα επικυρωμένη δοκιμή ομιλίας ακουστικής φωνής. Οι τιμές SRT και S50 και για τα παιδιά με NH και με HI είναι συγκρίσιμες με παρόμοιες δοκιμές που αναπτύχθηκαν σε άλλες γλώσσες.


2019 ◽  
Vol 28 (1) ◽  
pp. 101-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenna M. Browning ◽  
Emily Buss ◽  
Mary Flaherty ◽  
Tim Vallier ◽  
Lori J. Leibold

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate speech-in-noise and speech-in-speech recognition associated with activation of a fully adaptive directional hearing aid algorithm in children with mild to severe bilateral sensory/neural hearing loss. Method Fourteen children (5–14 years old) who are hard of hearing participated in this study. Participants wore laboratory hearing aids. Open-set word recognition thresholds were measured adaptively for 2 hearing aid settings: (a) omnidirectional (OMNI) and (b) fully adaptive directionality. Each hearing aid setting was evaluated in 3 listening conditions. Fourteen children with normal hearing served as age-matched controls. Results Children who are hard of hearing required a more advantageous signal-to-noise ratio than children with normal hearing to achieve comparable performance in all 3 conditions. For children who are hard of hearing, the average improvement in signal-to-noise ratio when comparing fully adaptive directionality to OMNI was 4.0 dB in noise, regardless of target location. Children performed similarly with fully adaptive directionality and OMNI settings in the presence of the speech maskers. Conclusions Compared to OMNI, fully adaptive directionality improved speech recognition in steady noise for children who are hard of hearing, even when they were not facing the target source. This algorithm did not affect speech recognition when the background noise was speech. Although the use of hearing aids with fully adaptive directionality is not proposed as a substitute for remote microphone systems, it appears to offer several advantages over fixed directionality, because it does not depend on children facing the target talker and provides access to multiple talkers within the environment. Additional experiments are required to further evaluate children's performance under a variety of spatial configurations in the presence of both noise and speech maskers.


Author(s):  
Andrew J. Vermiglio ◽  
Lauren Leclerc ◽  
Meagan Thornton ◽  
Hannah Osborne ◽  
Elizabeth Bonilla ◽  
...  

Purpose The goal of this study was to determine the ability of the AzBio speech recognition in noise (SRN) test to distinguish between groups of participants with and without a self-reported SRN disorder and a self-reported signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) loss. Method Fifty-four native English-speaking young adults with normal pure-tone thresholds (≤ 25 dB HL, 0.25–6.0 kHz) participated. Individuals who reported hearing difficulty in a noisy restaurant (Reference Standard 1) were placed in the SRN disorder group. SNR loss groups were created based on the self-report of the ability to hear Hearing in Noise Test (HINT) sentences in steady-state speech-shaped noise, four-talker babble, and 20-talker babble in a controlled listening environment (Reference Standard 2). Participants with HINT thresholds poorer than or equal to the median were assigned to the SNR loss group. Results The area under the curve from the receiver operating characteristics curves revealed that the AzBio test was not a significant predictor of an SRN disorder, or an SNR loss using the steady-state noise Reference Standard 2 condition. However, the AzBio was a significant predictor of an SNR loss using the four-talker babble and 20-talker babble Reference Standard 2 conditions ( p < .05). The AzBio was a significant predictor of an SNR loss when using the average HINT thresholds across the three Reference Standard 2 masker conditions (area under the curve = .79, p = .001). Conclusions The AzBio test was not a significant predictor of a self-reported SRN disorder or a self-reported SNR loss in steady-state noise. However, it was a significant predictor of a self-reported SNR loss in babble noise and the average across all noise conditions. A battery of reference standard tests with a range of maskers in a controlled listening environment is recommended for diagnostic accuracy evaluations of SRN tests.


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