Opn outperforms traditional and narrow directionality - … · Opn™ outperforms traditional and...
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Opn ™ outperforms traditional and narrow directionality Speech understanding in noisy environments is a common frustration for people with hearing loss, especially in multi- talker situations. Directional technology, one approach to this challenge, preferentially amplifies speech from in front of the listener while suppressing all other sounds. Further narrowing the focus of the directional “beam” can offer additional benefit, but only for speech directly in front of the listener. Oticon defied conventional thinking about directionality and noise reduction to create an innovative approach for handling multiple speakers in a noisy environment — the open sound experience. Opn enhances speech of everyone in the conversation and gives the listener access to the 360° soundscape. Putting Opn to the test Independent researchers tested 25 subjects in a scenario that mimics a real-life conversation among four friends in a noisy restaurant. 1 Each participant wore Oticon Opn 1 miniRITE with OpenSound Navigator™ set to the strongest noise reduction setting. The results obtained with Opn were compared against solutions from two other major manufacturers’ (Brand 1 and Brand 2) which use traditional directionality and narrow directionality/beamforming, respectively. Breakthrough technology – breakthrough research design Usually, speech understanding is tested with a single speaker positioned right in front of the listener with noise presented from behind. However, this artificial test situation doesn’t accurately represent the challenges of a real-life conversation. Researchers selected a more difficult speech-in-noise task 2 to simulate the noisy, challenging restaurant scenario. Noise sources: Fixed intensity 75dB SPL speech babble presented from both sides (± 30º) and speech-shaped background noise from behind the listener (180º). Random order speech signals: Varying intensity, presented from the front (0°) and both sides (±60°) of the listener Speech Reception Threshold (SRT)-50: the lowest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the listener can correctly identify 50% of sentence-based key words, representing the limits of successful participation in the conversation. Comparing results across technologies Performance for each subject was compared across all three hearing aid fittings. The lower, more negative the SRT-50, the better the predicted ability to function in noise. It is generally assumed that a 1dB decrease in SRT-50, corresponds to a 10% improvement in speech understanding. 3 Traditional Directionality Brand 1 Narrow Directionality Brand 2 OpenSound Navigator™ Oticon Opn vs. Two Directionality Technologies Listener Talker 3 Talker 1 )))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) ))))))))))))))))))))))))))) Talker 2 75dB SPL Speech babble 75dB SPL Speech babble Speech-shaped background noise 75dB SPL -10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Noise louder than speech Speech louder than noise SRT-50 1dB improvement ~10% predicted increase in speech understanding dB SNR dB SNR
Transcript of Opn outperforms traditional and narrow directionality - … · Opn™ outperforms traditional and...
Opn™ outperforms traditional and narrow directionalitySpeech understanding in noisy environments is a common frustration for people with hearing loss, especially in multi-talker situations. Directional technology, one approach to this challenge, preferentially amplifies speech from in front of the listener while suppressing all other sounds. Further narrowing the focus of the directional “beam” can offer additional benefit, but only for speech directly in front of the listener. Oticon defied conventional thinking about directionality and noise reduction to create an innovative approach for handling multiple speakers in a noisy environment — the open sound experience. Opn enhances speech of everyone in the conversation and gives the listener access to the 360° soundscape.
Putting Opn to the testIndependent researchers tested 25 subjects in a scenario that mimics a real-life conversation among four friends in a noisy restaurant.1 Each participant wore Oticon Opn 1 miniRITE with OpenSound Navigator™ set to the strongest noise reduction setting. The results obtained with Opn were compared against solutions from two other major manufacturers’ (Brand 1 and Brand 2) which use traditional directionality and narrow directionality/beamforming, respectively.
Breakthrough technology – breakthrough research design Usually, speech understanding is tested with a single speaker positioned right in front of the listener with noise presented from behind. However, this artificial test situation doesn’t accurately represent the challenges of a real-life conversation. Researchers selected a more difficult speech-in-noise task2 to simulate the noisy, challenging restaurant scenario.
Noise sources: Fixed intensity 75dB SPL speech babble presented from both sides (± 30º) and speech-shaped background noise from behind the listener (180º).
Random order speech signals: Varying intensity, presented from the front (0°) and both sides (±60°) of the listener
Speech Reception Threshold (SRT)-50: the lowest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) at which the listener can correctly identify 50% of sentence-based key words, representing the limits of successful participation in the conversation.
Comparing results across technologiesPerformance for each subject was compared across all three hearing aid fittings. The lower, more negative the SRT-50, the better the predicted ability to function in noise. It is generally assumed that a 1dB decrease in SRT-50, corresponds to a 10% improvement in speech understanding.3
TraditionalDirectionality
Brand 1
Narrow Directionality
Brand 2
OpenSoundNavigator™
Oticon
Opn vs. Two Directionality Technologies
Listener
Talker 3Talker 1
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Talker 2
75dB SPLSpeech babble
75dB SPL
Speech babble
Speech-shaped background noise75dB SPL
-10 -9 -8 -7 -6 -5 -4 -3 -2 -1 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Noise louderthan speech
Speech louderthan noise
SRT-501dB improvement
~10% predicted increase in speech understanding
dB SNR dB SNR
www.oticon.com
References1Beck DL, LeGoff N. Speech-in-noise test results for Oticon Opn. Hearing Review. 2017; 24(9):26-30.2Hörtech. Oldenburg Sentence Test (OLSA). Oldenburg, Germany: Hörtech. Available at: http://www.hoertech.de/en/medical-devices/olsa.html3Taylor B, Mueller HG. Fitting and Dispensing Hearing Aids. 2nd ed. San Diego: Plural Publishing; 2017.
Opn™ outperforms traditional and narrow directionalityand provides best access to all participants in a conversation
Overall results: Combined results from all signal sources and averaged across subjects yielded an SRT-50 of -6.3dB for Opn, which is significantly better than Brand 1 and Brand 2 directional technologies. This correlates to a predicted improvement in speech understanding of 11% vs. Brand 2 and of 18% vs. Brand 1.
Speech understanding from the center: Opn and Brand 2 performed equally well, both outperforming Brand 1. This correlates to an anticipated 20% improvement in word recognition compared to traditional directionality.
Speech understanding from the sides: Opn outperformed both directional technologies with an SRT 50 of -6.9dB and a predicted improvement in speech understanding of 15%.
This study demonstrates that Oticon’s OpenSound Navigator provides overall improvement in word recognition in noise when compared to directional and narrow directionality/beamforming systems.
ILLUSTRATION 1: OVERALL RESULTS
dB S
NR
-8
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
-6.3
-5.5+7%*
word recognition score
+11%*word recognition score
-4.9
TraditionalDirectionality
Brand 1
Narrow Directionality
Brand 2
OpenSoundNavigator
Oticon
*Predicted
Overall Improvement in Speech UnderstandingILLUSTRATION 2: CENTER SPEAKER RESULTS
dB S
NR
-8
-7
-6
-5
-4
-3
-2
-1
0
-5.0-5.2
No signi�cant di�erence
+20%*word recognition score
-3.5
TraditionalDirectionality
Brand 1
Narrow Directionality
Brand 2
OpenSoundNavigator
Oticon
*Predicted
+15%*word recognition score
ILLUSTRATION 3: LEFT & RIGHT SPEAKER RESULTS
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NR
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-1
0
-6.9
-5.7-5.6
TraditionalDirectionality
Brand 1
Narrow Directionality
Brand 2
OpenSoundNavigator
Oticon
*Predicted
Best-in-class speech understanding from the sides
Best-in-class speech understanding from the center
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7 1
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-101
86/1
1.17
