System and methods of subject classification based on assessed hearing capabilities

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9319812-B2
Application number	US-20159808-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 29, 2008
Priority date	Aug 29, 2008
Publication date	Apr 19, 2016
Grant date	Apr 19, 2016

Abstract

A method of assessing hearing characteristics of a subject is provided. The method includes determining a hearing capability of the subject based on responses of the subject to a series of sounds presented to the subject. Each sound corresponds to a presence, absence or irrelevance of a predetermined plurality of features. The method further includes assigning the subject to one of a predetermined plurality of classes based upon the responses of the subject, each of the plurality of classes being derived from hearing tests performed on a plurality of other subjects.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A computer implemented method of assessing hearing characteristics of a person, the method comprising:
providing, by a processor, a series of sounds to an interface configured to present the series of sounds to a person, wherein different sounds in the series of sounds corresponding to at least one of a presence, absence or irrelevance of a predetermined plurality of consonant features, wherein the predetermined plurality of consonant features comprises at least a Nasal feature, a Compact feature, and a Grave feature;
determining, by the processor, a hearing capability of the person based on responses of the person to the series of sounds; and
assigning, by the processor, the person to one of a predetermined plurality of classes based upon the responses of the person, each of the plurality of classes describing errors made primarily with respect to the Nasal, Compact, and Grave consonant features.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising setting, by the processor, one or more parameter values of a hearing-enhancement device based on the class to which the person is assigned.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the hearing capability comprises identifying one or more of the predetermined plurality of consonant features as contributing more than other consonant features of the predetermined plurality of consonant features to one or more failures to correctly respond to one or more sounds of the series of sounds.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein the one or more failures to correctly respond to the one or more sounds of the series of sounds defines one or more feature errors made with respect to the one or more features corresponding to the one or more sounds of the series of sounds, and further comprising generating a performance measure for the person based upon a computed mean of the one or more feature errors.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the computed mean of the one or more feature errors equals a weighted mean, and further comprising computing the weighted mean, ξ, to be equal to

ξ
=

∑

i
=
1

N

⁢

w
i

⁢

n
i

∑

i
=
1

N

⁢

w
i

where w 1 is a weight assigned to the i th feature of the predetermined plurality of consonant features and n i is the number of feature errors with respect to the i th feature.

6. The method of claim 5 , wherein the assigning the person to one of the predetermined plurality of classes comprises computing a weighted contribution of each feature, the weighted contribution of a feature quantitatively measuring the contribution that each feature makes to the computed mean of feature errors.

7. The method of claim 6 , wherein computing the weighted contribution of each feature comprises computing a value equal to

Contribution
⁡

(

f
i

)

=

w
i

⁢

n
i

ξ

wherein Contribution(f i ) is the weighted contribution of the i th feature.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the plurality of classes describe the errors made by the assigned persons with respect to Nasal, Compact, and Grave consonant features and no other consonant features.

9. A system for tuning a hearing-enhancement device, the system comprising:
an interface for rendering a series of sounds to a person and for receiving from the person a response to each of the sounds rendered, different sounds of the series of sounds correspond to one or more features belonging to a predetermined plurality of consonant features, wherein the plurality of consonant features comprises at last a Nasal feature, a Compact feature, and a Grave feature; and
a processing unit communicatively linked to said interface, the processing unit configured to:
determine a hearing capability of the person based on the received responses of the person to the series of sounds rendered,
assign the person to one of a predetermined plurality of classes based upon received responses, each of the plurality of classes describing errors made by the person primarily with respect to the Nasal, Compact, and Grave consonant features, and
set one or more parameters of the hearing-enhancement device based on the class to which the person is assigned.

10. The system of claim 9 , wherein determining the hearing capability of the person comprises identifying one or more of the predetermined plurality of consonant features as contributing more than other of the predetermined plurality of consonant features to one or more failures of the person to correctly respond to one or more sounds of the series of sounds.

11. The system of claim 10 , wherein the one or more failures to correctly respond to the one or more sounds of the series of sounds defines one or more feature errors made with respect to the one or more features corresponding to the one or more sounds of the series of sounds, and wherein the processing unit is further configured to measure a hearing performance of the person based on a computed mean of the one or more feature errors.

12. The system of claim 11 , wherein the computed mean of the one or more feature errors equals a weighted mean, and wherein the processing unit is further configured to compute the weighted mean, ξ, to be equal to

ξ
=

∑

i
=
1

N

⁢

w
i

⁢

n
i

∑

i
=
1

N

⁢

Assignees

• Banerjee Bonny
• Krause Lee Stanley
• Holmes Alice
• Shrivastav Rahul
• Univ Florida

Inventors

• Banerjee Bonny
• Krause Lee Stanley
• Holmes Alice
• Shrivastav Rahul

Classifications

• H04R2225/43

  Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility · CPC title

• H04R2225/55

  Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange · CPC title

• H04R25/70 Primary

  Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting · CPC title

• A61B5/121

  evaluating hearing capacity · CPC title

• A61B5/7264

  Classification of physiological signals or data, e.g. using neural networks, statistical classifiers, expert systems or fuzzy systems · CPC title