| Speech recognition in noise with active and passive hearing protectors: A comparative study. | |
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MedLine Citation:
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PMID: 21682395 Owner: NLM Status: In-Data-Review |
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
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The perceived negative influence of standard hearing protectors on communication is a common argument for not wearing them. Thus, "augmented" protectors have been developed to improve speech intelligibility. Nevertheless, their actual benefit remains a point of concern. In this paper, speech perception with active earplugs is compared to standard passive custom-made earplugs. The two types of active protectors included amplify the incoming sound with a fixed level or to a user selected fraction of the maximum safe level. For the latter type, minimal and maximal amplification are selected. To compare speech intelligibility, 20 different speech-in-noise fragments are presented to 60 normal-hearing subjects and speech recognition is scored. The background noise is selected from realistic industrial noise samples with different intensity, frequency, and temporal characteristics. Statistical analyses suggest that the protectors' performance strongly depends on the noise condition. The active protectors with minimal amplification outclass the others for the most difficult and the easiest situations, but they also limit binaural listening. In other conditions, the passive protectors clearly surpass their active counterparts. Subsequently, test fragments are analyzed acoustically to clarify the results. This provides useful information for developing prototypes, but also indicates that tests with human subjects remain essential. |
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Authors:
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Annelies Bockstael; Bert De Coensel; Dick Botteldooren; Wendy D'Haenens; Hannah Keppler; Leen Maes; Birgit Philips; Freya Swinnen; Vinck Bart |
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Publication Detail:
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Type: Journal Article |
Journal Detail:
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Title: The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America Volume: 129 ISSN: 1520-8524 ISO Abbreviation: J. Acoust. Soc. Am. Publication Date: 2011 Jun |
Date Detail:
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Created Date: 2011-06-20 Completed Date: - Revised Date: - |
Medline Journal Info:
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Nlm Unique ID: 7503051 Medline TA: J Acoust Soc Am Country: United States |
Other Details:
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Languages: eng Pagination: 3702 Citation Subset: IM |
Affiliation:
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Ghent University, Department of Information technology, Sint-Pietersnieuwstraat 41, 9000 Ghent, Belgium. |
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From MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine
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