Wireless binaural hearing aid technology for telephone use and listening in wind noise

Abstract

Objective: To assess the speech perception benefits of binaural streaming technology for bilateral hearing aid users in two difficult listening conditions.

Design: Two studies were conducted to compare hearing aid processing features relating to telephone use and wind noise. Speech perception testing was conducted in four different experimental conditions in each study.

Study sample: Ten bilaterally-aided children in each study.

Results: Significant improvements in speech perception were obtained with a wireless feature for telephone use. Significant speech perception benefits were also obtained with wireless hearing aid features when listening to speech in simulated wind noise.

Conclusions: Binaural signal processing algorithms can significantly improve speech perception for bilateral hearing aid users in challenging listening situations.

Keywords:

• Hearing aids
• hearing aid satisfaction
• noise
• speech perception

Acknowledgements

We gratefully acknowledge Phonak, with whom the University of Melbourne has a collaborative research relationship, for providing the hearing devices used in this study. We wish to thank the participants for volunteering their time.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.