h a l f b a k e r y"Bun is such a sad word, is it not?" -- Watt, "Waiting for Godot"
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Some of my hearing has gone, I'm 45, so no big surprise.
Over the years, I have thought about what it would take to
be able to properly hear again. An idea I had that I haven't
seen in my limited searching would work as follows:
First, most speech is understood in certain frequency
ranges,
defined in the upper harmonics. These are the
frequencies that are lost as hearing degrades.
What if you had a system that analyzed hearing loss, and
redirected lost frequencies to frequencies that were still
available? Either neighboring frequencies, or lower
frequencies that normally would share a harmonic with the
lost frequency? Wouldn't that create a better hearing result,
allowing for some kind of improvement in speech decoding?
Some deep voices
http://www.behindth...oiced-voice-actors/
It seems to me that if one can understand a deep voice, then a converted high voice should be understandable, too. [Vernon, Feb 18 2016]
Summary of Research / products since the 60's and 70's
https://www.phonakp...ues_for_fitting.pdf
[scad mientist, Feb 18 2016]
Widex
https://www.widexac...tion_DeafEduInt.pdf
[scad mientist, Feb 18 2016]
[link]
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// Some of my hearing has gone // |
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Check under the back seat of your car - it's amazing what can end up there. |
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[+] for the idea. It would sound weird at first, but humans are very adaptable. |
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One of my lost romantic interests was partly caused by a frequency hole in my hearing ( due to Machine shop noise ) and her voice being pitched right at that same frequency. |
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I would buy such a hearing aide in a heartbeat. |
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What was her name ? e? e something. ? |
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I think it somewhat already exist in some hearing aids. |
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The feature would be called "frequency compression" |
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Sounds like a great idea. Apparently people have been
studying it for a long time (see link). I looked into Widex in
a little more detail and it sounds very similar to what you
propose. One question I had with yours is how awful music
might sound. Widex deals with that by always shifting
sounds in increments of octaves. |
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I think that does prove the concept should work, but their
target audience is a little different than what I envision. |
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For that study, it seems they took a whole bank of
frequencies and moved them down, which is appropriate
for people who would normally wear a hearing aid as a
young person. |
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My concept would be different in this way: individual
frequencies would be identified per person, and only those
frequencies would be shifted. |
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I think this is an important distinction, as hearing loss for
most of the population as we age is a frequency here and
there, rather than a whole section of hearing frequency. It
seems to me that it would be jarring and confusing to have
some frequencies that one could hear mapped to others in
a lower register. |
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Instead, by only remapping required frequencies, the
alterations could be more adaptable. |
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Of course, this would mean periodic updates as additional
frequencies were lost due to continued aging. |
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Regarding music: yeah, that is a challenge, but if the
frequencies selected were harmonics (of which the octave is
one), that might allow for that to be okay. But you're right - it
would be a consideration for quality of life, and since I'm a
singer, I wouldn't want to always be flat or sharp because of a
hearing aid. |
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Which brings up a different idea: what if you could use this
kind of tech to make someone always be on pitch? |
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//One of my lost romantic interests was partly caused by a frequency hole in my hearing ( due to Machine shop noise ) and her voice being pitched right at that same frequency. // |
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Ooooh, that inspires a modification - selective frequency sensetivity of the hearing aid. You know, in case you want to be able to filter out certain frequency ranges as well..... |
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