Figure 2 - uploaded by Benjamin Gorman
Content may be subject to copyright.
1: Diagram showing the structure of the human ear, detailing the parts of the outer, middle, and inner ear.
Source publication
At least 360 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss that frequently causes difficulties in day-to-day conversations. Hearing aids often fail to offer enough benefits and have low adoption rates. However, people with hearing loss find that speechreading can improve their understanding during conversation. Speechreading (often called li...
Contexts in source publication
Context 1
... primary goal of the middle ear is to transfer sound waves in air into mechanical pressure waves that are transferred to the fluids of the inner ear. From the pinna, sound enters the ear canal and vibrates the eardrum and three small bones (the hammer, anvil and stirrup -known together as the ossicles as shown in Figure 2.1), which transfer vibrations of the eardrum into pressure waves in the fluid of the inner ear ...
Context 2
... concept of providing supplementary phoneme-based information to speechreaders could be borrowed from fingerspelling to inspire the design of a new SAT that could provide this type PhonemeViz is positioned at the side of a speaker's face, beginning at the forehead and ending at the chin (as shown in Figure 7.2). By looking at the visualisation in combination with their ability to speechread, speechreaders should be able to attend to the speaker's face while being able to disambiguate confusing viseme-to-phoneme mappings, therefore improving understanding during conversation. Currently, PhonemeViz is at the visualisation evaluation phase, where the end goal would be to display the visualisation on a transparent head mounted display, such as the Epson Moverio glasses or the Microsoft Hololens, as a visual augmentation of speech during typical ...
Context 3
... is created when a source creates vibrations within a surrounding medium whether it is a solid, liquid or gas. These vibrations propagate away from the source at the speed of sound producing a sound wave. For instance, when we speak our vocal chords create vibrations within the air that is being exhaled, which leads to the production of sound. Human ears are capable of processing vibrations within the air at frequencies between 20 Hz to 20 kHz into sound waves [104]. When a sound wave reaches our ears it is converted into a series of messages that our brains can interpret. The outer part of the human ear, known as the pinna, gathers sound energy from a sound source and focuses it into the middle ear. The structure and shape of the pinna (as shown in Figure 2.1) is designed to bounce the sound in dierent patterns into the auditory canal, depending on whether the source is located above, below, behind, or in front of you ...
Context 4
... all individuals who are diagnosed with hearing loss have the potential to benefit from using a hearing aid. For instance, in cases where the individual has very little residual hearing, no matter how much the sound information is processed or amplified, it will not improve their ability to hear speech [103]. In these cases, it is common for the individual to have sensorineural hearing loss, which is caused by the absence or damage to the hair cells in the cochlea. The fitting of a cochlear implant (CI) can improve the speech intelligibility for individuals with this type of hearing loss. A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that replaces the need for hair cells by directly stimulating the auditory nerve. The nerve impulses are then delivered to the brain, following the typical pathways as if the cochlear was being stimulated naturally. A CI is composed of a microphone and some electronics that reside outside the skin, generally behind the ear (as shown in Figure 2.3.1), which transmits a signal to an array of electrodes placed in the cochlea (as shown in Figure 2.3.2) that directly stimulate the auditory nerve ...
Context 5
... all individuals who are diagnosed with hearing loss have the potential to benefit from using a hearing aid. For instance, in cases where the individual has very little residual hearing, no matter how much the sound information is processed or amplified, it will not improve their ability to hear speech [103]. In these cases, it is common for the individual to have sensorineural hearing loss, which is caused by the absence or damage to the hair cells in the cochlea. The fitting of a cochlear implant (CI) can improve the speech intelligibility for individuals with this type of hearing loss. A cochlear implant (CI) is a surgically implanted electronic device that replaces the need for hair cells by directly stimulating the auditory nerve. The nerve impulses are then delivered to the brain, following the typical pathways as if the cochlear was being stimulated naturally. A CI is composed of a microphone and some electronics that reside outside the skin, generally behind the ear (as shown in Figure 2.3.1), which transmits a signal to an array of electrodes placed in the cochlea (as shown in Figure 2.3.2) that directly stimulate the auditory nerve ...
Similar publications
At least 360 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss that frequently causes difficulties in day-to-day conversations. Hearing aids often fail to offer enough benefits and have low adoption rates. However, people with hearing loss find that speechreading can improve their understanding during conversation. Speechreading (often called li...
n this article, the face and its functions will be briefly presented. This approach will be ap�proached from a mental, physical and social perspective. The aim of the article is to show in a ho�listic approach the difficulties faced by a person who “loses” his current face. Acquired changes
become the cause of disability understood in many aspects...
Citations
... There, the tiny ossicles of the malleus (hammer), incus (anvil) and stapes (stirrup) absorb the vibrations and pass them on. The stirrup transmits the vibrations to the oval window of the cochlea (Stroh and Gerke, 2003;Hellbrück and Ellermeier, 2004;Zenner, 2006;Pickles, 2013;Gorman, 2018). ...
Traffic noise is one of the two biggest environmental health burdens in Europe. Excessive and chronic noise exposure leads to serious illnesses and impairs people’s general quality of life. Therefore it is necessary to establish a comprehensive quantification procedure that not only helps to monitor the situation but also serves as a basis for action planning. Developed approaches of the European Noise Directive 2002/49/EG turned out to be insufficient in this context, as they only cover a limited area of specific localities and exclude a majority of the population. The objective of this thesis is to contribute to an ongoing research project funded by the German Federal Environment Foundation (DBU) in cooperation with the German Aerospace Center (DLR), called "Mapping Noise Propagation From Space", which aims at developing a cost-effective modeling process for comprehensive noise mapping. However, decent road noise emission values that can be integrated into the model are still missing, at which point this thesis ties in. The approach is to develop a Land Use Regression (LUR) model to predict missing road noise emissions at the example location of the German city of Koblenz (Germany, Rhineland-Palatinate), by applying a multiple linear regression. Aggregated road traffic noise immission data consisting of the day–evening–night noise level indicator Lden is the dependent variable, and information derived from publicly available data is used as predictors. The main sources are the database OpenStreetMaps (OSM) and various freely available Open Government Data (OGD). As a result of an iterative pre-selection process and multiple imputation for missing values in the OSM overall data, a model was created consisting of seven different predictor variables. With an R2 of 0.74 and a standard error of 6.99, the result finally leads to a road noise emission approximation of 26 percent in total.
... The structure of human ear is shown in Figure 2.3 (B. Gorman, 2018). There are three parts of the ear: the outer ear, middle ear, and inner ear. ...
The sonic environment is an invisible but crucial part of the urban environment. Increasing density of population and diversification of social functions driven by urbanization lead to a more complex sound environment in our daily life. As an important multifunctional service area, the urban park is usually regarded as a buffer for urban noise pollution. The assessment of the sonic environment in urban parks can help park-users and park-designers get a better understanding of the health of the park environment. This study approached the urban noise pollution in urban parks with a soundscape quality assessment, from both acoustical and psychological perspectives. An urban park on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania named Penn Park was selected as a case study for soundscape quality assessment. Sound Pressure Level (SPL) was measured at ten sampled positions in Penn Park and processed in ArcMap to make the sound maps, which clearly shown the uneven distribution of the average sound energy in the park: inner part of the park with trees surrounded was the “quietest” and the part along the edge with areas of grass was the “loudest.” In three months (May, June, July) when sound pressure level was recorded by the sound pressure meter, park-users’ subjective responses to the sonic environment of Penn Park were investigated by randomly recruiting park visitors to complete a questionnaire about the soundscape quality. In total, 90 questionnaires were collected and analyzed on SPSS. Results demonstrated that there was a significant positive correlation between overall landscape quality, overall soundscape quality, and overall impression. Compared to mechanical sounds and human-made sounds, visitors preferred more natural sounds (birds, insects, wind) to be increased in Penn Park. Overall, the sonic environment of Penn Park was perceived as pleasant, quiet, smooth, varied, calming, directional, natural, and steady. The results of this study may have implications for the enhancement of soundscape design in other urban parks that are similar to Penn Park.
Globally, increasing numbers of people experience accessibility issues related to technology use. At the University of Dundee, we have developed a degree programme that aims to graduate socially-aware computing scientists who can develop for a range of access needs. To achieve this, we engage our students on a supported pathway of exploration, empathy and understanding. Students collaborate with user groups of older adults, adults with aphasia, and users of Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). This practical experience leads to an understanding of the needs of the end-user and the need to develop for `people who are not like me'.
Situationally-induced impairments and disabilities (SIIDs) make it difficult for users of interactive computing systems to perform tasks due to context (e.g., listening to a phone call when in a noisy crowd) rather than a result of a congenital or acquired impairment (e.g., hearing damage). SIIDs are a great concern when considering the ubiquitousness of technology in a wide range of contexts. Considering our daily reliance on technology, and mobile technology in particular, it is increasingly important that we fully understand and model how SIIDs occur. Similarly, we must identify appropriate methods for sensing and adapting technology to reduce the effects of SIIDs. In this workshop, we will bring together researchers working on understanding, sensing, modelling, and adapting technologies to ameliorate the effects of SIIDs. This workshop will provide a venue to identify existing research gaps, new directions for future research, and opportunities for future collaboration.
