2018-09-25

 A block diagram of a hearing aid shows:

 Components in a hearing aid (HA)
 Operations a HA carries out
 The order of the operations being carried out

 In more advanced hearing aids

 too complex to be represented by combination of simple blocks
NA 3653 Amplifikasi Auditori 1  Symbol is a box with short description
SEM 1 SESI 2018/2019
Instructor: Dr. Chong Foong Yen

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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Picture source: Dillon, H. (2012). Hearing aids (2nd edition). Thieme.

Picture source: Dillon, H. (2012). Hearing aids (2nd edition). Thieme.

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
Malaysia

 Transducer
 Converts acoustic signals (input) into electrical signals
 Electret microphone
(output).
 Back-plate is coated with electret
 Electret has permeant electrical charges

 A perfect microphone  On one side excess electrons

 The waveform of the electrical output identical with the  The other side shortage of electrons
waveform of acoustic input  Sound wave causes diaphragm to move up & down
 The changing distance between diaphragm & electret changes
the voltage
 Sensitivity
 Ratio of output voltage to input sound pressure

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan

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© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia

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 Frequency response
 Essentially flat
 Low cut intentionally reduced to prevent intense low-
 Omnidirectional microphone :
frequency sound from overloading the microphone
 sound from all directions is picked up with equal strength
 Two inlet port
 single port
 Helmholtz resonance  polar pattern with a circle-shape
 Causes peak in the frequency response
 5 dB at around 4-10 kHz  Directional microphone(s) :
 Shorter & wider inlet port, higher resonance frequency  Pick up sound mostly from the front, suppress sounds coming from
the back
 Imperfections  Single or dual-port
 Random electrical noise  Sensitivity of directional microphone
 Sensitive to vibration
 May pick up wind noise

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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 How directional microphone works (single mic dual-port)?

 The distance between the front and the rear port creates an external
time filter.  For a dual-microphone design
 Incorporate two separate omnidirectional microphones
 Sounds coming from behind hit the rear port first before travelling to the
front port (external delay)  User can switch between omnidirectional or directional mode

 When in omnidirectional mode

 An acoustic damper or resister is placed at the rear port to cause a time
 Output of one omnidirectional mic is selected, or
delay for the sound entering the rear port.
 Output from both omnidirectional mics are added together

 When the external and internal delays are the same, sounds from the  When in directional mode
rear port and the front port cancel out each other.  Output of the rear omnidirectional mic is electronically delayed and
subtracted from the output of the front omnidirectional mic

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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 Polar Sensitivity Pattern

1
6

2 5
Picture source: Chung, K. (2004). Challenges and recent developments in hearing aids part I. Speech understanding in
noise, microphone technologies and noise reduction algorithms. Trends in Amplification, 8(3), 83-124.

 Directivity Index
 The ratio of sensitivity for frontal sounds relative to sensitivity 3 4
averaged across all other directions
 Front-to-back ratio
 The ratio of sensitivity for frontal sounds relative to sensitivity from Picture source: https://www.earq.com/blog/parts-of-a-hearing-aid
the back of the microphone
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 Increases the strength of electrical signal

 Take power from battery and transfer to the signal

 Components within an amplifier

 Integrated circuits (IC)
 Transistors
 A few dozens to thousands
1
 Bipolar: lower internal noise

2  Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS): uses less battery

 Diodes
 allow current to flow one way
 To sense the size if signals

3 4  Capacitors
 As filters
 May or may not built into IC

Picture source: https://www.earq.com/blog/parts-of-a-hearing-aid

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 Analog-to-digital converters (ADC)

 Linear amplifier
 Convert electrical signal to string of numbers
 Whenever an output signal reaches the maximum, peak clipping
occurs.  Digitization – changed numbers into bits (binary digits; 0 or 1)
 Peak clipping creates harmonic distortions  Sampling rate or sampling frequency
 Exception: amplifier with compression limiting  Must be at least double of the highest frequency component in a sound
 Example: the highest frequency component of a complex sound is 10 kHz,
then sampling rate should be 20 kHz or more.
 Compression amplifier  Anti-aliasing filter (low-pass filter)
 Turns down gain when input or output of amplifier gets higher
 Other names
 Digital signal processors
 Automatic gain control – AGC
 Modify the sounds
 Automatic volume control

 Digital-to-analog converters (DAC)

 Convert the samples of sounds in bits back to electrical signals

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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 Enable hearing aids to have different amplification

characteristics in different frequency regions.  A miniature loudspeaker
 Filters
 High-pass  Turn amplified and
 Low-pass modified electrical signal
 Band-pass back into acoustic signal
 Band-stop

 Tone controls  Principle of operation

 Affect the tonal quality or timbre
 Vary the cut-off frequency of a filter
 Vary the slope of a filter

 Serial vs parallel
 parallel – bands or channels
Picture source: Dillon, H. (2012). Hearing
aids (2nd edition). Thieme.
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 Frequency response
 Receiver-in-the canal (RIC)  Behind-the-ear (BTE)
 Custom hearing aids & RITE
 Resonance peak at 2 kHz and 4 kHz
 Receiver outside the body of  Receiver within the body of
hearing aid hearing aid

 BTEs
 More resonance peaks
 1, 3, 5 kHz
 Affected by tubings
 Tubing inside the hearing aid
 Ear hook
 Tubing of earmould

Picture source: Dillon, H. (2012). Hearing aids (2nd edition). Thieme.

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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 To smooth peaks in the frequency response of a hearing aid

 Program button
 Usually placed within the ear hook or tubing of a BTE  Enable wearer to change listening programs of the hearing aid
 Location affects how it smooth the peaks manually
 Types: star damper, fused-mesh damper
 Battery compartment
 A place where the hearing-aid battery is inserted
 On/off switch

• To pick up magnetic fields (e.g. from telephone and

loop system)  Programming socket
 To connect the hearing aid to the programming software via a
• Induction programming cable
• Small coil of wire produces voltage when alternating
magnetic field flows through it
© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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 Delivers power to the hearing aids

 Zinc-air batteries are most commonly used
 Volume control  Type : 675, 13, 312, A10, A5
 Enable wearer to increase or decrease the volume of the hearing
aid manually

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 Direct audio input (DAI)

 Rechargeable battery  Transmit electrical signal directly from a device (e.g FM receiver,
MP3 player, handheld microphone) to the hearing aid
 Built-in lithium-ion rechargeable battery
 Audioshoe / adapter
 Charging station

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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 Remote control
 Allow users to change listening program or volume without having to actually
touch the hearing aids

 Remote control apps

 Available for iOS and Android
 Download from the Apple iTunes and Google Android app
stores
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 Pretend yourself as one hearing aid component.

 Dillon, H. (2012). Hearing aids (2nd edition). Thieme.
 Find all components (i.e., your group member) so that you can
arrange yourself as the building blocks of a
 Analog hearing aid  DiGiovanni, J. (2008). Hearing aid handbook. Cengage Learning.
 Digital hearing aid

 Draw the block diagram of your group

 Chung, K. (2004). Challenges and recent developments in
 Each group member briefly describe “your” job as a component hearing aids part I. Speech understanding in noise, microphone
in a hearing aid technologies and noise reduction algorithms. Trends in
Amplification, 8(3), 83-124.

© Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan © Audiology Programme, Faculty of Health Sciences, Universiti Kebangsaan
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Malaysia Malaysia