[Dprglist] Sample Retrieval vacuum cleaner

[Rud Merriam]

I've been wearing hearing aids since I was 25 and am now 70. I have 
always been able to localize sound sources. Perhaps not as accurate as 
someone with normal hearing but well within the quadrant and likely to 
with 15-30 degrees.  With the current SOTA DSP I can probably hear tones 
better than someone with normal hearing if I tweak the settings. The 
challenge is speech comprehension in noisy situations.

I need the power of BTE aids. Current aids have two mics one facing 
forward and the other back. DSP uses them for noise canceling and 
probably for lessening the rear sounds to mimic normal hearing. Haven't 
looked into the details of the processing but am generally familiar with 
DSP.

On my soapbox for all: once you turn 50 get a hearing test and repeat it 
every 5 years. You won't notice the loss so you need a test to detect 
it. If you wait too long the brain loses the ability to 'hear' the 
sounds, especially for speech comprehension. If you get aids wear them 
even though they will annoy the heck out of you. That's because you're 
now hearing stuff, like the HVAC air movement through ducts, that you 
couldn't because of the loss. You're brain will relearn and sort it out 
if you do it soon enough. They won't work as well as possible at first 
because the hearing tech will set the gain below what you really need, 
probably 85% or so. After a few months you'll get comfortable with them 
and the tech can increase the gain to 100%. They can also tweak the DSP 
settings if you pay attention to when you're having difficulties. 
Restaurants are the absolute worst places because of all the noise.

I have never lost a hearing aid because I (1) always get shirts with 
breast pockets so if I have to take them out that's where they go and 
(2) at home there are only 2 or 3 places where I will put them down. We 
just got kittens so at home now only keep them in a box on my desk. 
Previously there was a spot in the kitchen, the bathroom vanity, and my 
desk. I do have small case I can take with me if I know I will be taking 
them out - like going someplace for swimming or exercise. It goes in my 
pants pocket but is not comfortable. </soapbox>


-73 -
*Rud Merriam K5RUD*
/Mystic Lake Software/ <http://mysticlakesoftware.com/>

On 1/20/19 1:05 PM, John Swindle via DPRGlist wrote:
> People with hearing aids can't figure out who is talking to them 
> because hearing aids are in, or on, their ears (behind-the-ear has a 
> piece in the ear), changing the ear canal that the wearer grew up 
> with. The ones that aren't in-the-ear also mess up the pinna. Have you 
> wondered how we can know sound is in front of us, behind us, or above 
> us, when we only have two ears? It's the pinna and the ear canal. The 
> pinna and the ear canal screw up the sound. They are not flat 
> transducers of the sound. We learn how to hear as we grow up. We learn 
> what the screwups sound like. If the pinna is cut off or interfered 
> with, and the ear canal is plugged with an aid, the wearer loses all 
> but left-right info about where sounds come from, until they re-learn 
> how to hear. A few decades ago, head models were used for recordings 
> and head response transfer functions were created. After 30 or so 
> years, just a couple years ago, the Audio Engineering Society 
> published a standard for measuring and using HRTFs. The only use I've 
> seen for them so far is virtual reality games.
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