The articulation of direct bone conducted sound in noisy environment

Abstract

We have constructed the direct bone conducted sound (DBC) detection system which is connected with piezo electronic accelerometer and the titanium implant of bone-anchored hearing aid (Baha) implanted on the temporal bone. Our previous study has reported that the sound distortion of the DBC was less than that of conventional bone conducted sound (BC) due to its property of outputting the DBC without going through the skin. This study reports the articulation of the DBC in noisy environment. The subject who output the DBC wears a Baha on his left side for hearing loss. He pronounced 50 monosyllables and words in quiet and extremely noisy environment. His voices were output simultaneously throughout three pathways, DBC, BC, and air conducted sound (AC). Sixteen participants with normal hearing heard those voices and answered how those were heard. In the quiet environment, the percentage of collect answers of the AC showed statistically significance (<.01) than those of the DBC and the BC. However, in extrem...