via Columbia University
In a noisy room with many speakers, hearing aids can suppress background noise, but they have difficulties isolating one voice – that of the person you’re talking to at a party, for instance. KU Leuven researchers have now addressed that issue with a technique that uses brainwaves to determine within one second whom you’re listening to.
Having a casual conversation at a cocktail party is a challenge for someone with a hearing aid, says Professor Tom Francart from the Department of Neurosciences at KU Leuven: “A hearing aid may select the loudest speaker in the room, for instance, but that is not necessarily the person you’re listening to. Alternatively, the system may take into account your viewing direction, but when you’re driving a car, you can’t look at the passenger sitting next to you.”
Researchers have been working on solutions that take into account what the listener wants. “An electroencephalogram (EEG) can measure brainwaves that develop in response to sounds. This technique allows us to determine which speaker someone wants to listen to. The system separates the sound signals produced by different speakers and links them to the brainwaves. The downside is that you have to take into account a delay of ten to twenty seconds to get it right with reasonable certainty.”
Artificial intelligence to speed up the process
A new technique makes it possible to step up the pace, Professor Alexander Bertrand from the Department of Electrical Engineering at KU Leuven continues: “Using artificial intelligence, we found that it is possible to directly decode the listening direction from the brainwaves alone, without having to link them to the actual sounds.”
“We trained our system to determine whether someone is listening to a speaker on their left or their right. Once the system has identified the direction, the acoustic camera redirects its aim, and the background noise is suppressed. On average, this can now be done within less than one second. That’s a big leap forward, as one second constitutes a realistic timespan to switch from one speaker to the other.”
From lab to real life
However, it will take at least another five years before we have smart hearing aids that work with brainwaves, Professor Francart continues. “To measure someone’s brainwaves in the lab, we make them wear a cap with electrodes. This method is obviously not feasible in real life. But research is already being done into hearing aids with built-in electrodes.”
The new technique will be further improved as well, PhD student Simon Geirnaert adds. “We’re already conducting further research, for instance into the problem of combining multiple speaker directions at once. The current system simply chooses between two directions. While first experiments show that we can expand that to other possible directions, we need to refine our artificial intelligence system by feeding the system with more brainwave data from users who are also listening to speakers from other directions.”
The Latest Updates from Bing News & Google News
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Brainwave hearing aid
- Pro Hearing Sponsored Content: Better Hearing Month
Perhaps the most compelling reason she wears hearing aids, however, is because of the “ear-brain connection.” As implied, this is the connection between hearing and the brain. Long-standing, ...
- ASHA Shares New Resources on Developmental Milestones With Families This National Speech-Language-Hearing Month
A child's first word or their first time eating from a spoon are events that most parents and caregivers eagerly anticipate—just two of the many developmental milestones that babies are expected to ...
- The experience on that first day with enhanced hearing--when you spend it at Costco | The Old Guy
"Costco was the perfect place to take my hearing aids for their first run. It is positively alive with sounds of all kinds." ...
- New AirPods Point to a Hearing Aid Mode, Even More Health Tracking
I take a look at all the rumors about the upcoming AirPods, including a potential hearing aid mode that may launch with iOS 18. In the future, maybe AirPods could integrate even more sensors such as ...
- Understanding Age-Related Hearing Loss as Clarity, Not Volume, Is Key Says U of Minnesota Expert
Professor Matthew Winn of the University of Minnesota explains how age-related hearing loss blurs sounds, affecting clarity and sound separation.
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Brainwave hearing aid
[google_news title=”” keyword=”brainwave hearing aid” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]
Go deeper with Bing News on:
Smart hearing aids
- 'Opportunity to energize' voting base: Trump trying to fundraise off of his legal woes
The Trump campaign is using the New York hush money trial to fundraise for his presidential campaign. The Dispatch senior writer David Drucker discusses his outlook as the road to November heats up.
- Alert: The top UN court opens a hearing to deliver its decision in Nicaragua's request to order Germany to halt aid to Israel
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The top UN court opens a hearing to deliver its decision in Nicaragua's request to order Germany to halt aid to Israel.
- Readers' Watchdog: Home damaged by weekend storms? Here's what you need to know
So it’s always smart to review your homeowners policy annually to determine ... if your prescription medicines were lost or if you lost your glasses, contacts, hearing aids, walker, wheelchair, or ...
- New AirPods Point to a Hearing Aid Mode, Even More Health Tracking
I take a look at all the rumors about the upcoming AirPods, including a potential hearing aid mode that may launch with iOS 18. In the future, maybe AirPods could integrate even more sensors such as ...
- Does Medicare pay for hearing aids?
The average cost of hearing aids was around $4,600 as of 2018, but these days a pair of prescription-grade hearing aids can cost anywhere from $1,000 to more than $8,000 a pair. Over-the-counter or ...
Go deeper with Google Headlines on:
Smart hearing aids
[google_news title=”” keyword=”smart hearing aids” num_posts=”5″ blurb_length=”0″ show_thumb=”left”]