Simulation studies for comparison of Bone-conducted Ultrasound and Bone-conducted Audible Sound

Abstract

Bone-conducted ultrasound (BCU) has been used to develop a bone-conducted ultrasonic hearing aid (BCUHA) since it was reported that normal-hearing humans as well as some profoundly deaf people can perceive ultrasound through bone conduction (BC). In order to make a comparison between BCUHA and the conventional bone-conducted hearing aid (BCHA), finite difference time domain (FDTD) method is used to calculate the sound field in human head for both BCU and BC audible sound. The study shows that BCU stimulus is more efficient in transmitting sound to both cochleae than the BC audible sound stimulus, suggesting that BCUHA performs better than BCHA.