Simulating cartilage conduction sound to estimate the sound pressure level in the external auditory canal

Abstract

When the aural cartilage is made to vibrate it generates sound directly into the external auditory canal which can be clearly heard. Although the concept of cartilage conduction can be applied to various speech communication and music industrial devices (e.g. smartphones, music players and hearing aids), the conductive performance of such devices has not yet been defined because the calibration methods are different from those currently used for air and bone conduction. Thus, the aim of this study was to simulate the cartilage conduction sound (CCS) using a head and torso simulator (HATS) and a model of aural cartilage (polyurethane resin pipe) and compare the results with experimental ones. Using the HATS, we found the simulated CCS at frequencies above 2kHz corresponded to the average measured CCS from seven subjects. Using a model of skull bone and aural cartilage, we found that the simulated CCS at frequencies lower than 1.5kHz agreed with the measured CCS. Therefore, a combination of these two methods can be used to estimate the CCS with high accuracy.