The Hearpiece database of individual transfer functions of an in-the-ear earpiece for hearing device research

Abstract

We present a database of acoustic transfer functions of the Hearpiece, a commercially available multi-microphone multi-driver in-the-ear earpiece for hearing device research. The database includes HRTFs for 87 incidence directions as well as responses of the drivers, all measured at the four microphones of the Hearpiece as well as the eardrum in the occluded and open ear. The transfer functions were measured in both ears of 25 human participants and a KEMAR with anthropometric pinnae for five insertions of the device. We describe the measurements of the database and analyse derived acoustic parameters of the device. All regarded transfer functions are subject to differences between participants and insertions. Also, the KEMAR measurements are close to the median of human data in the present results for all assessed transfer functions. The database is a rich basis for development, evaluation and robustness analysis of multiple hearing device algorithms and applications. It is openly available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.3733190.

Modelling speech reception thresholds and their improvements due to spatial noise reduction algorithms in bimodal cochlear implant users

“…Hearing Aid Side (left) On the HA side, the input signal was first convolved with the impulse response of the ER-4 in-ear headphones to eardrum provided by Denk and Kollmeier (2021) . This was done because the ER-4s were used to substitute the HA and deliver the MHA processed acoustic signal to the bimodal CI user in Zedan et al.…”

Hybrid multi-harmonic model for the prediction of interaural time differences in individual behind-the-ear hearing-aid-related transfer functions

“…OlHeaD-HRTF [5] Hearpiece [28] OTIMP [29] IHTA-indHARTF [42] Number of participants and artificial heads Hemi-anechoic chamber Data formats Custom MAT, SOFA [46] Custom MAT, SOFA [46] Custom MAT OpenDAFF [47], SOFA [46] License They subsequently provided consent to publish the collected data in a pseudonymous way. The personal data and experimental results were processed and archived in accordance to country-specific and European data-protection regulations [45].…”

“…first to third columns of Table 1. Such databases provide a valuable basis for comparisons across HA devices, to highlight specific features and acoustic characteristics, and their variations between participants [28]. Further benefits extend to the development of acoustically transparent HAs [5] and individualised HA algorithms [29].…”

Robust single- and multi-loudspeaker least-squares-based equalization for hearing devices

“…All required ATFs were measured for the earpiece depicted in Figure 1 (see also [23], [29]), which was inserted into the left ear of a GRAS 45BB-12 KEMAR Head & Torso with low-noise ear simulators. It should be noted here, that this earpiece consist of four microphones and two loudspeakers.…”