Techniques Of Hearing

Hearing, health, and technologies are entangled in multi-faceted ways. This edited volume addresses this complex relationship by arguing that modern hearing was and is increasingly linked to and mediated by technological innovations. By providing a set of original interdisciplinary investigations that shed new light on the history, theory, and practices of hearing techniques, it is able to explore the heterogeneous entanglements of sound, hearing practices, technologies, and health issues. As the first book to bring together historians, scholars from media studies, social sciences, cultural studies, acoustics, and neuroscientists, the volume discusses modern technologies and their decisive impact on how "normal" hearing, enhanced and smart hearing, as well as hearing impairment have been configured. It brings both new insights into the histories of hearing technologies as well as allowing us to better understand how enabling hearing technologies have currently been unfolding an increasingly hybrid ecology engaging smart hearing devices and offering stress-free hearing and acoustic well-being in novel auditory environments. The volume will be of interest to all scholars and students of disability studies, sound studies, sociology of health and illness, medical history, health and society, as well as those interested in the practices and techniques of self-monitored and smart hearing.

A writer-musician examines how the switch from analog to digital audio is changing our perceptions of time, space, love, money, and power. Our voices carry farther than ever before, thanks to digital media. But how are they being heard? In this book, Damon Krukowski examines how the switch from analog to digital audio is changing our perceptions of time, space, love, money, and power. In Ways of Hearing—modeled on Ways of Seeing, John Berger's influential 1972 book on visual culture—Krukowski offers readers a set of tools for critical listening in the digital age. Just as Ways of Seeing began as a BBC television series, Ways of Hearing is based on a six-part podcast produced for the groundbreaking public radio podcast network Radiotopia. Inventive uses of text and design help bring the message beyond the range of earbuds. Each chapter of Ways of Hearing explores a different aspect of listening in the digital age: time, space, love, money, and power. Digital time, for example, is designed for machines. When we trade broadcast for podcast, or analog for digital in the recording studio, we give up the opportunity to perceive time together through our media. On the street, we experience public space privately, as our headphones allow us to avoid “ear contact” with the city. Heard on a cell phone, our loved ones' voices are compressed, stripped of context by digital technology. Music has been dematerialized, no longer an object to be bought and sold. With recommendation algorithms and playlists, digital corporations have created a media universe that adapts to us, eliminating the pleasures of brick-and-mortar browsing. Krukowski lays out a choice: do we want a world enriched by the messiness of noise, or one that strives toward the purity of signal only?

Millions of Americans experience some degree of hearing loss. The Social Security Administration (SSA) operates programs that provide cash disability benefits to people with permanent impairments like hearing loss, if they can show that their impairments meet stringent SSA criteria and their earnings are below an SSA threshold. The National Research Council convened an expert committee at the request of the SSA to study the issues related to disability determination for people with hearing loss. This volume is the product of that study. Hearing Loss: Determining Eligibility for Social Security Benefits reviews current knowledge about hearing loss and its measurement and treatment, and provides an evaluation of the strengths and weaknesses of the current processes and criteria. It recommends changes to strengthen the disability determination process and ensure its reliability and fairness. The book addresses criteria for selection of pure tone and speech tests, guidelines for test administration, testing of hearing in noise, special issues related to testing children, and the difficulty of predicting work capacity from clinical hearing test results. It should be useful to audiologists, otolaryngologists, disability advocates, and others who are concerned with people who have hearing loss.

​This book provides various speech enhancement algorithms for digital hearing aids. It covers information on noise signals extracted from silences of speech signal. The description of the algorithm used for this purpose is also provided. Different types of adaptive filters such as Least Mean Squares (LMS), Normalized LMS (NLMS) and Recursive Lease Squares (RLS) are described for noise reduction in the speech signals. Different types of noises are taken to generate noisy speech signals, and therefore information on various noises signals is provided. The comparative performance of various adaptive filters for noise reduction in speech signals is also described. In addition, the book provides a speech enhancement technique using adaptive filtering and necessary frequency strength enhancement using wavelet transform as per the requirement of audiogram for digital hearing aids. Presents speech enhancement techniques for improving performance of digital hearing aids; Covers various types of adaptive filters and their advantages and limitations; Provides a hybrid speech enhancement technique using wavelet transform and adaptive filters.

The Auditory Brain and Age-Related Hearing Impairment provides an overview of the interaction between age-related hearing impairments and cognitive brain function. This monograph elucidates the techniques used in the connectome and other brain-network studies based on electrophysiological methods. Discussions of the manifestations of age-related hearing impairment, the causes of degradation of sound processing, compensatory changes in the human brain, and rehabilitation and intervention are included. There is currently a surge in content on aging and hearing loss, the benefits of hearing aids and implants, and the correlation between hearing loss, cognitive decline and early onset of dementia. Given the changing demographics, treatment of age-related hearing impairment need not just be bottom-up (i.e., by amplification and/or cochlear implantation), but also top-down by addressing the impact of the changing brain on communication. The role of age-related capacity for audio-visual integration and its role in assisting treatment have only recently been investigated, thus this area needs more attention. Relates the techniques used in the connectome and other brain-network studies to the human auditory-cortex and age-related hearing loss research findings Examines the side effects of age-related hearing impairment and their impact on the quality of life for the elderly Evaluates the importance of multi-modal means in the rehabilitation of the elderly with hearing aids and cochlear implants Discusses the role of neurostimulation and various training procedures to halt, or potentially reverse, cognitive decline in the elderly

The loss of hearing - be it gradual or acute, mild or severe, present since birth or acquired in older age - can have significant effects on one's communication abilities, quality of life, social participation, and health. Despite this, many people with hearing loss do not seek or receive hearing health care. The reasons are numerous, complex, and often interconnected. For some, hearing health care is not affordable. For others, the appropriate services are difficult to access, or individuals do not know how or where to access them. Others may not want to deal with the stigma that they and society may associate with needing hearing health care and obtaining that care. Still others do not recognize they need hearing health care, as hearing loss is an invisible health condition that often worsens gradually over time. In the United States, an estimated 30 million individuals (12.7 percent of Americans ages 12 years or older) have hearing loss. Globally, hearing loss has been identified as the fifth leading cause of years lived with disability. Successful hearing health care enables individuals with hearing loss to have the freedom to communicate in their environments in ways that are culturally appropriate and that preserve their dignity and function. Hearing Health Care for Adults focuses on improving the accessibility and affordability of hearing health care for adults of all ages. This study examines the hearing health care system, with a focus on non-surgical technologies and services, and offers recommendations for improving access to, the affordability of, and the quality of hearing health care for adults of all ages.

Cochlear Implants and Other Implantable Hearing Devices, Second Edition remains a fundamental text for hearing professionals. Cochlear implants and other implantable hearing mechanisms have become increasingly prevalent solutions to modern-day hearing trauma, making it imperative for clinicians to gain expertise on the subject. This text provides hearing professionals with the knowledge necessary to wholly understand these implantable mechanisms so that they can incorporate them into their practices. New to the Second Edition: * Three all-new chapters o Chapter 10. Single-Sided Deafness by Margaret Dillon and Kevin Brown o Chapter 17. Auditory Neuropathy, Cochlear Nerve Deficiency, and Other Challenges in the Pediatric Population by Thierry Morlet and Robert C. O’Reilly o Chapter 22. Cochlear Implants—The Future by Editor Michael J. Ruckenstein Updated references and chapter content throughout * Full color design