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A calibration System for artificial ear in telecommunication

Conference Paper · October 2013

DOI: 10.1109/ICCSNT.2013.6967301

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2013 3rd International Conference on Computer Science and Network Technology

A Calibration System for Artificial Ear in

Telecommunication

Hu Bingxin, Zhu Haijiang Zhong Bo, Yang Ping, He Longbiao, Xu Huan

College of Information Science & Technology Division of Mechanics and Acoustics
Beijing University of Chemical and Technology National Institute of Metrology
Beijing, China Beijing, China
Email:[email protected] Email: [email protected]

Abstract—In this paper we propose a novel system for of earphones and other transducers designed to be coupled to
automatic calibration for the artificial ears. Aiming at the human ears [2]. A device, often referred to as the artificial ear,
artificial ears for telephonometric use, the system is designed in is used widely in audiometry, telecommunications and audio
accordance with the international standards. The calibration engineering, and its electro-acoustical characteristics are fully
process involves testing the parameters of the probe microphone given in IEC (see Table I) [3-6]. It can change the sound input
and the acoustic characteristics of the artificial ear on open and signal to electrical output signal, eventually input to acoustic
closed ear condition. The parameters include sound pressure analysis system. As the forefront of measuring system,
level, acoustic impedance, frequency response sensitivity, etc. On artificial ear should be accurate to avoid leading to bad effects
above basis, all processes are controlled by the controlling
to the follow-up measurement. According to the relevant
program. The measured data can be analyzed automatically by
this program. As a result, the final results can be obtained. The
regulations, measuring devices should be calibrated at regular
results show that the parameters measured for 318 ears conform intervals (generally, the period is 1-2 years). Calibration is a
to the recommendation ITU-T P.57. Experiments indicate that comparison between measurements – one of known magnitude
this system can accurately realize the artificial ear calibration. or correctness made or set with one device and another
measurement made in as similar a way as possible with a
Keywords—artificial ear; automatic calibration; microphone second device.

I. INTRODUCTION TABLE I. CRITERIONS OF ARTIFICIAL EARS FROM IEC

Acoustic metrology is an important part of acoustics. It Serial Criterion Criterion
Original
mainly does research on basic parameters, subjective Criterion
Number Number Name
Number
parameters and engineering parameters in acoustics, and also Ear simulator for the
ensures the units are unified and the results are accurate. 1
IEC 60318-
measurement of supra-aural and IEC 318
Acoustic metrology is the important component of acoustic 1:2009
circumaural earphones
research and the basis for acoustic development. It includes IEC 60318-
Acoustic coupler for the
acoustic benchmarks and standards, variable transmission, 2 calibration of supra-aural IEC 303
3:1998
earphones used in audiometry
measurement method, etc. According to the transmission Occluded-ear simulator for the
material, it can be divided into several sub-fields which are the IEC 60318- measurement of earphones
3 IEC 711
airborne sound, underwater sound, ultrasonic sound and 4:2010 coupled to the ear by means of
audible sound. The content of airborne sound metrology is the ear inserts
2 cm3 coupler for the
transmission and traceability of basic sound value, such as IEC
measurement of hearing aids
sound pressure, sound power, sound intensity, etc. Its major 4 60318- IEC 126
and earphones coupled to the
5:2006
task is to calibrate acoustic equipment to ensure its ear by means of ear inserts
measurement results accurate and standard. The content in this
paper is all belong to the airborne sound metrology. In Recommendation ITU-T P.57 [7] was approved on 14
accordance with the way of transmission, there are bone December 2011 by ITU-T Study Group 12(2009-2012) under
conduction and air conduction [1]. Bone conduction is a way recommendation ITU-T A.8 procedures, it specifies the
that the signal of audio-frequency vibrations transferred from electro-acoustical features of artificial ears for telephonometric
skull to inner ear directly. Air conduction is a different way measurements. Three devices are specified: a type for classical
that the sound signal transferred from external ear to middle ear, telephone sets measurements, a type for earphone and a
inner ear. It is required a device to simulate a real ear in the realistic reproduction which designed as a human ear. Annex A
experiment for evaluate parameters of airborne sound of the recommendation ITU-T P.57 is a practical procedure for
metrology, and artificial ear is that device. obtaining the input impedance of artificial ears, briefly
describes the general process to calibrate the acoustic input
Artificial ear or ear simulator is an important measurement
impedance of Type 1 and Type 3.2 artificial ears.
device for characterizing the performance and acoustic output

978-1-4799-0561-4/13/$31.00 ©2013 IEEE 1128 Dalian, China

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 However, it is still problem. The main problems are as transmitter microphone (B&K Type 4134). The method is that
follows: we can obtain the frequency response of the reference
microphone by measuring the frequency response of the probe
(1) The recommendation only specifies the calibration microphone. The absolute frequency response of the probe
method on closed ear condition, it hasn’t given a method to microphone in [V/Pa] is calculated as (1).
calibrate in open ear condition.
(2) At present most of the national metrological Vo, prb( f ) (1)
Hprb.abs( f ) [ ] * Hrefcal( f )
departments cannot calibrate the artificial ears for Vo,ref ( f )
telephonometric use, so the calibrated data mainly come from
the foreign manufacturer. HPrb.Abs(f) - Absolute frequency response of the probe
microphone
(3) In being of methods, the mode of traditional
measurement depends on people. Data recording and VO,Prb(f) - Probe microphone output voltage in calibration unit
processing are typically manual tasks. An experimenter can VO,Ref(f) - Reference microphone output voltage in calibration
spend time trying to calculating the output data results and unit
validating with the standards. Obviously, it is low efficient,
complicated, and maybe existed errors are difficult to avoid in HRefCal(f) - Absolute calibrated reference microphone response
manual operation.
Secondly, the same method and set-up used for the probe
So, it is significant to develop an automatic calibration microphone calibration is applied to calibrate the transmitter
system for artificial ear. The system can automatic measuring microphone. But, it is still difference. It means that the
the parameters of artificial ears, save manual processing, reference microphone is used as a sound source to generate the
artificial records, sorting, and it is used well in practice. signal, and the transmitter microphone, is used as a receiver
now. The absolute frequency response of the transmitter
In this paper, we introduce basic principle of artificial ears microphone can be calculated from (2).
calibration in Section 2 firstly. Then the system’s experimental
setup structure and calibration process are presented in Section VO ,Tr ( f )
3. We depict the implementation of software controlling in H Tr . Abs.Mic ( f ) [ ] * H Pr b. Abs ( f )
Section 4. Section 5 shows measurement results for parts of VO ,Pr b ( f )
(2)
calibration experiments. The content of section 6 is summaries
and concludes. HTr.Abs.Mic(f) - Absolute microphone frequency response of the
transmitter microphone
II. BASIC PRINCIPLE VO,Prb(f) - Probe microphone output voltage in calibration unit
As for artificial ear, there are three main technical VO,Tr(f) - Transmitter microphone output voltage in calibration
parameters: frequency sensitivity response, sound pressure unit
sensitivity, acoustic input impedance. On open ear condition,
the frequency sensitivity response is the proportion between the HPrb.Abs(f) - Absolute frequency response of the probe
artificial ear output and the homologous sound pressure at the microphone (as measured above)
ERP. The sound pressure is recorded by the probe microphone, The frequency response of the transmitter microphone, in
at the time suffered from an incident wave perpendicular to the relation to the sensitivity at a reference frequency (f0), is shown
bulkhead. On closed ear condition, the frequency sensitivity as (3).
response can be obtained using the set-up for acoustic input
impedance calibration. The frequency sensitivity response is H Tr . Abs.Mic ( f )
defined as the same as the way on open ear condition. The H Tr . Re l .Src ( f ) *( f )
H Tr . Abs.Mic ( f 0 ) f0
proportion between the sound pressure measured by the probe (3)
microphone and the volume velocity produced by the 1/2" Used as a volume velocity source, the absolute sensitivity
microphone is the definition of the acoustic input impedance. of the transmitter microphone is according to (4).
In the recommendation ITU-T P.57, the frequency sensitivity
response and the input impedance of the Type 1 and 3.2 H Tr. Abs.Stc ( f ) H Tr . Re l .Src ( f ) * S Tr .Src
artificial ears are determined in reference to the ERP. The (4)
tolerance limits and standard curve are also described in ITU-T The absolute sensitivity factor of the transmitter
P.57. microphone in [m3/Vs] STr.Src is obtained as (5).
The whole calibration process is mainly divided into three
parts: the probe microphone calibration, the transmitter PPr .Mic ( f 0 )
S Tr .Src
microphone calibration, artificial ear calibration (open and [ Z a , Re f .Vol ( f 0 ) * Vi ,Tr .Mic ( f 0 )]
(5)
closed condition). According to the recommendation, artificial
ear calibration process is shown as follows. The Za,Re f.Vol(f0) is defined as (6).
Firstly, the required set-up is based upon a probe 1 Uc 2
microphone (Brüel & Kjær Type 4182) [8], a laboratory Z a ,Re f .Vol
standard reference microphone (B&K Type 4180) [9] and a jZ a jZV (6)

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 The excitation voltage, vi,Tr.Mic, the sound pressure, pPr.Mic, is
known and measured at a low frequency (f0) where the
frequency response of the transmitter microphone is frequency
independent, at the same time, the reference volume functions
as an ideal compliance.
During the measurements of the artificial ear calibration,
the impedance probe is in touch with the artificial ear. The
output voltage of the artificial ear is measured as VO,Ear, which
is relative to the sound pressure at the ERP. Then the closed
condition sound pressure sensitivity is shown as (7).
VO , Ear ( f )
H Ear ,ClosedCond . ( f )
Vo , prMic ( f )
[ ] Fig. 1. Calibration Set-Up for Probe Microphone (Open Ear Condition)
H Pr b. Abs ( f ) (7)
The artificial ear to be calibrated on open condition is
The volume velocity, q(f), is provided by the transmitter installed in a large plane bulkhead. The sound pressure is
microphone. The sound pressure pERP(f) at the ERP is acquired directly in front of the ERP using a probe microphone
measured by the probe microphone of the impedance probe. with its probe tip located at the ear reference plane. It is
The acoustic input impedance is derived as (8). indicated as Figure 2.
VO ,Pr bMic ( f )
[ ]
p ERP ( f ) H Pr b. Abs ( f )
Z Ear , ERP ( f )
q( f ) [Vi ,Tr .Src (f) * H Tr.Abs,Src (f)]
(8)
Vi,Tr.Src(f) - Input voltage to the transmitter microphone used as
a volume velocity source
VO,PrbMic(f) - Output voltage of the probe microphone
The whole process above is the calibration on closed
condition, and the process on open condition is much easier.
Firstly, the similar set-up is used for the probe microphone
calibration, but in free- field version. Instead of a transmitter
microphone, an artificial mouth is chosen to deliver the signal.
Meanwhile, the reference microphone is changed to 1/4"
microphone (B&K Type 4939) [10]. The absolute frequency
response of the probe microphone in [V/Pa] is calculated as (9).
Vo, prb( f ) Fig. 2. Calibration Set-Up for Artificial Ear (Open Ear Condition)
Hprb.abs( f ) [ ] * Hrefcal( f )
Vo,ref ( f )
(9) The set-up for probe microphone on closed ear condition is
The open condition frequency sensitivity is shown as (10). shown in Figure 3.

SEar,Open Cond. ( f ) VO,Ear ( f ) / PEPR ( f ) (10)

III. EXPERIMENTAL SET-UP DESIGN

The experimental structure of the automatic calibration
system consists of probe microphone calibration unit,
transmitter microphone calibration unit and the measurement
unit. It will be introduced in two different cases.
Figure 1 is the set-up for probe microphone calibration on
open condition. A transmitter microphone is used to produce a
sound pressure at the tip of the probe microphone, inside the
calibration coupler. This sound-pressure input is sensed by a Fig. 3. Calibration Set-Up for Probe Microphone (Closed Ear Condition)
reference microphone located very close to the tip of the probe
microphone. A dual channel signal analyzer measures the Figure 4 shows a practical realization of a calibration
sound pressure input and voltage output and subsequently the device (impedance probe). It is used for measuring acoustical
frequency response of the probe microphone. Then the input impedance of Type 1 and Type 3.2 artificial ears. A 1/2"
sensitivity of probe microphone could be calculated.

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working-standard pressure microphone is placed in a flat Because of the well documented OLE-interface, it is easy to
surface and concentrically applied and sealed to the artificial use a program to control the powerful analyzers and
ear. The 1/2" microphone should be mounted with a protection functionality of PULSE. The program can be written in any of
grid. The set-up is used as a constant volume velocity source, the common languages that support OLE automation such as
driving the artificial ear at the ERP. The corresponding sound Visual C++, Visual Basic and Java. In the calibration system,
pressure at the ERP shall be measured using a probe we write a Visual Basic program to control the SSR analyzer to
microphone with its probe tip positioned at the ERP. Finally, realize the automatic function. Figure 5 is an interface of the
the ratio between the sound pressure measured by the probe automatic calibration system. In the VB program, it has three
microphone and the volume velocity produced by the 1/2" function modules: information, measurement information,
microphone is the definition of the acoustic input impedance. frequency sensitivity response measurement.

V. EXPERIMENTS
After the experiment system is completed, we need to
verify the stability and validity of the system to ensure that it is
available. The whole process was mentioned in part II, and
based on the set-up the experiment data was obtained. In the
following, the experiment results will be shown to confirm this.

A. Calibration of the Impedance Probe

In this experiment, we choose the B&K Type 4182 Probe
Microphone. The probe microphone can be connected to the
"
Preamplifier Input of any B&K frequency analyzer or
measuring amplifier. Calibrate the frequency response using a
Fig. 4. Calibration Set-Up for Artificial Ear (Closed Ear Condition) laboratory standard reference microphone B&K Type 4180
together with a transmitter microphone B&K Type 4134.
Frequency sensitivity response for 50mm stiff probe-tube on
IV. SOFTWARE DESIGN two different conditions are shown in Figure 6.
PULSE is a real-time acquisition and multi-analysis
platform of B&K Company’s for sound and vibration
measurement. Steady-state response analysis is the basic tool
for telephone and audio testing that allows measurements of
basic output response and frequency response. Multi-analysis
allows you to run analyzers of the same or different types
(Overall noise levels, SSR, CPB, FFT, etc.), on one or several
signals simultaneously.
SSR (Steady State Response) technology has various
parameters, such as scanning mode, namely frequency
scanning (constant in amplitude, variation in frequency) or
amplitude scanning (constant in frequency, variation in
amplitude), maximum measurement time, delay time, etc. The
application of SSR technology can improve the measurement Fig. 6. Frequency Sensitivity Response for 50mm Stiff Probe-Tube
efficiency greatly and shorten the measurement time, especially
for high frequency measurements. So it’s widely applied in the
acoustic measurement. B. Frequency Sensitivity Response for Ear Simulator
The closed ear frequency sensitivity response measurement
is performed using a probe microphone positioned
concentrically to the artificial ear Type 4185– A transmitter
microphone Type 4134 serves as a sound source and probe
microphone Type 4182 measures the input sound pressure to
the concha volume. The frequency sensitivity response on open
ear is measured placing the artificial ear Type 4185 or Type
4195 in a plane baffle exposing the artificial ear – see fig. 2. An
artificial mouth acts as a sound source to generate a plane
incident wave perpendicular to the baffle. The input sound
pressure to the concha volume is measured by probe
microphone Type 4182. Frequency sensitivity response for ear
simulator Type 4185 on closed and open condition are shown
Fig. 5. The Interface of The Automatic Calibration System in Figure 7 [11].

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 The results all above primarily validated the correctness of
the calibration system when compared with the criterion curve
or data of the recommendation ITU-T P.57 and B&K
specification [13]. At the same time, the comparison proved
that the measurement deviation is within the tolerance.

VI. CONCLUSION
In this paper, a brand new automatic calibration system for
artificial ear is implemented and verified. It is designed in
agreed with the recommandation ITU-T P.57. In another hand,
the system has the remarkable features of high-efficiency, a
high degree of automation and easy-operation. Based on a high
precision acoustic measurement system of B&K Company, and
Fig. 7. Frequency Sensitivity Response for Ear Simulator Type 4185 combined with the self-designed experimental device and
automatic calibration system, the system can ensure the
Frequency sensitivity response for ear simulator Type validity of the experiment results. The system has solved some
4195(high leak and low leak) on open condition are shown in problems while there are still problems at present, so we must
Figure 8 [12]. perfect it continuously.

REFERENCES
[1] GB/T 16403-1996, “Acoustics-Audiometric test methods-Basic pure
tone air and bone conduction threshold audiometry”.
[2] Richard Barham, Knud Rasmussen, Thomas Fedtke, Dominique
Rodrigues and Tomasz Zmierczak. “Measurement of the acoustical
impedance of artificial ears”. NPL REPORT AC 6. July 2008, p. 1-20.
[3] IEC. IEC60318-1:2009 “Electroacoustics-Simulators of human head and
ear-Part 1 Ear simulator for the measurement of supra-aural and
circumaural earphones” [S]. [S.I.]: IEC, 2009.
[4] IEC. IEC60318-3:1998 “Electroacoustics-Simulators of human head and
ear-Part 3 Acoustic coupler for the calibration of supra-aural earphones
used in audiometry” [S]. [S.I.]: IEC, 1998.
[5] IEC. IEC60318-4:2010 “Electroacoustics-Simulators of human head and
ear-Part 4 Occluded-ear simulator for the measurement of earphones
Fig. 8. Frequency Sensitivity Response for Ear Simulator Type 4195 coupled to the ear by means of ear inserts” [S]. [S.I.]: IEC, 2010.
[6] IEC. IEC60318-1:2006 “Electroacoustics-Simulators of human head and
C. Acoustical Impedance for Ear Simulator ear-Part 5 2cm3 coopler for the measurement of hearing aids and
earphones coupled to the ear by means of ear inserts” [S]. [S.I.]: IEC,
The acoustical impedance measurement is same with the 2009.
closed ear frequency sensitivity response measurement. The [7] ITU. ITU-T P.57 (12/2011) “Artificial ears” [S]. [S.I.]: ITU, 2011.
acoustical impedance for ear simulator Type 4185 is shown in [8] Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S. “Product Data:
Figure 9. Probe Microphone-Type 4182 Product Data” [G/OL].
[9] Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S. “Product Data:
Condenser Microphone Cartridges-Type 4180” [G/OL].
[10] Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S. “Product Data:
1/4" Free-field Microphone-Type 4939” [G/OL].
[11] Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S. “Product Data: Ear
Simulator for Telephonometry-Type 4185” [G/OL].
[12] Brüel & Kjær Sound & Vibration Measurement A/S. “Product Data:
Wideband Ear Simulator for Telephonometry-Type 4195 (bp1423-13)”
[G/OL].
[13] “Application Note: Improving Telephone Handle Performance (b00455
ü11)” [G/OL].

Fig. 9. Acoustical Impedance for Ear Simulator Type 4185

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