[Dprglist] Sample Retrieval vacuum cleaner

Sun Jan 20 19:25:29 PST 2019

Rud,
Great reply. You prove my point that we LEARN how to hear. We would be better to fit teenagers with hearing aids, regardless of how well they hear. You re-learned the screwups. I have a friend who got aids when she was in her 50's, and she is totally OK with them. My friends and relatives who got aids in their 70's hate them, regardless of brand, source, provider, technology, or price. And my 50-year-old friend is almost 70. It's about decades of psychoacoustics in the wearer's head, and almost nothing about technology. You are unique and fortunate because we all lose our hearing, but your brain learned decades ago how to change.
I have not read all your reply. Might have more later.
Best to you,John Swindle

-----Original Message-----
From: Rud Merriam via DPRGlist <dprglist at lists.dprg.org>
To: dprglist <dprglist at lists.dprg.org>
Cc: Rud Merriam <rudmerriam at gmail.com>
Sent: Sun, Jan 20, 2019 09:08 PM
Subject: Re: [Dprglist] Sample Retrieval vacuum cleaner

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  

   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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