Brief Title
Evaluation of a Binaural Beamformer (StereoZoom) in a Virtual Acoustic Environment and in Real Life
Official Title
Evaluation of a Binaural Beamformer (StereoZoom) in a Virtual Acoustic Environment and in Real Life
Brief Summary
The goal of the study is to determine the benefit in speech intelligibility of the BBF and
the MBF compared to an omni-directional microphone in different noise conditions. Secondary
objective is to determine if there is a subjective preference for one of the microphone
settings in different noise conditions.
Detailed Description
Study participants will be invited for two appointments. In the first appointment test will
be performed inside the lab (lab measurements) and outside the lab (real life measurements)
and in the second appointment test will be performed in the lab. In between appointments
participants are asked to try the Naida CI Q90 at home and in their familiar surroundings for
2-4 weeks (home trial).
Lab measurements:
The Oldenburg Sentence Test (Wagner et al. 2006) will be used as speech signal to determine
the speech reception threshold (SRT) for each background noise with an adaptive procedure.
The overall level of the noise will be held constant while the level of the speech signal
will be adapted depending on the words understood correctly for each sentence.
In addition to the objective speech intelligibility measurements the three microphone
settings will also be assessed subjectively. For each background noise scenario the Oldenburg
sentences will be presented successively from the frontal loudspeaker. The experimenter will
switch between two programs on the participant's processor who then compares the two
different microphone settings of these programs. Three paired comparisons will be performed:
omni-directional vs. MBF, omni-directional vs. BBF and MBF vs. BBF. The comparisons will be
made with regards to speech intelligibility, noise suppression and overall preference in each
situation.
Real life measurements:
Even though the results obtained in the lab present a good approximation to real-life
performance both beam former options should also be tested outside the lab and in everyday
life. In a guided tour the experimenter will take the study participant to noisy places in
Zürich, if possible to the same or similar places in which the lab recordings were made. The
same paired comparisons as in the lab will be performed with the experimenter talking to the
participant or reading a story aloud.
Home trial:
Finally, the study participant should evaluate all three microphone settings for 2-4 weeks
during activities in their familiar surroundings, i.e. having a conversation with one or more
persons at home, in the tram, in a restaurant, attending a meeting at work, etc. Subjective
feedback will be collected in a questionnaire.
Instead of collecting subjective feedback in paper form the questions can be presented on a
SmartPhone (Motorola Moto G) screen for those participants able to use a SmartPhone (Motorola
Moto G). In that way the participant can answer the questions when he finds himself in a
certain listening situation. Such a solution might be more comfortable than a paper
questionnaire for some participants. An App for a mobile questionnaire called MobEval already
exists from Phonak and will be used in this study. Participants will receive loaner
SmartPhones (Motorola Moto G).
Study Type
Observational
Primary Outcome
speech reception thresholds (SRT) assessment with audiological measures
Secondary Outcome
paired comparisons assessment with scaling
Condition
Sensory Hearing Loss
Intervention
binaural beamformer
Publications
* Includes publications given by the data provider as well as publications identified by National Clinical Trials Identifier (NCT ID) in Medline.
Recruitment Information
Recruitment Status
Other
Estimated Enrollment
4
Start Date
September 1, 2015
Completion Date
October 31, 2016
Primary Completion Date
October 31, 2016
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria:
- all participants, which signed the Informed Consent (Appendix Informed Consent Form)
- severe to profound hearing impairment - bilaterally implanted with either the CII or
HiRes90k cochlear implant devices
- experience with their more recent CI at least three months
- usage of the Naida CI sound processor on each ear for at least three months
- ability for speech understanding in the presence of competing noise without any
assistance from lip-reading
- score: at least 20% correct for a sentence test delivered with an SNR of +10 dB, or an
SRT of better (lower) than +15 dB
- ability to give subjective feedback in a certain listening situation
- first language: German or Swiss-German
- if participants are recruited additionally from other clinics, ability to travel to
Zurich
Exclusion Criteria:
- Acute inflammation or pain in head-/neck area
- Dizziness
- Age of participants <18 years
- Age of participants > 80 years
- Any participant who is found to require substantial changes to their standard clinical
program may be either excluded, or be asked to first get used to the new program
before returning for the study test session.
Gender
All
Ages
18 Years - 80 Years
Accepts Healthy Volunteers
No
Contacts
Norbert Dillier, Prof. Dr, ,
Location Countries
Switzerland
Location Countries
Switzerland
Administrative Informations
NCT ID
NCT03361527
Organization ID
ABERC-14-09-01
Responsible Party
Sponsor
Study Sponsor
Advanced Bionics AG
Study Sponsor
Norbert Dillier, Prof. Dr, Principal Investigator, Universitätsspital Zürich, Klinik für ORL
Verification Date
November 2017