# US 2013/0156240 A1 · Hearing assistance suitability determining device and hearing assistance suitability determining method > Agents: this data is available as JSON from the patentgrep API and MCP server — see https://patentgrep.com/llms.txt - Number: US 2013/0156240 A1 - Document ID: US20130156240A1 - Status: Published application - Kind: A1 - Application number: 13/819,732 - Filed: 2012-07-03 - Published: 2013-06-20 - Earliest claimed: 2011-07-08 - Assignees: Panasonic Corporation - Inventors: Yoshiaki Takagi; Takashi Katayama; Hikaru Takato - Web page: https://patentgrep.com/patent/US20130156240A1 ## CPC - H04R 25/50: {Customised settings for obtaining desired overall acoustical characteristics} - H04R 25/70: {Adaptation of deaf aid to hearing loss, e.g. initial electronic fitting} - H04R 25/552: {Binaural} - H04R 2225/43: Signal processing in hearing aids to enhance the speech intelligibility - H04R: LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; ELECTRIC HEARING AIDS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS (producing sounds with frequency not determined by supply frequency G10K) ## Abstract A hearing assistance suitability determining device, that determines suitability including whether a subject can clearly hear speech using dichotic hearing assistance, includes: a subject hearing ability information input unit; a hearing ability type determining unit that determines at least one hearing ability type that corresponds to the hearing ability information, based on hearing ability information frequency characteristics; a suitability determining unit that determines suitability for dichotic hearing assistance based on the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit; and suitability presenting unit that presents the suitability determined by the suitability determining unit. The suitability determining unit determines, by referring to a correspondence relationship, suitability based on clarity improvement for speech sound corresponding to the determined hearing ability type, the correspondence relationship indicating, for each hearing ability type, degree of perceived speech clarity improvement by the dichotic hearing assistance. ## Claims ### Claim 1 A hearing assistance suitability determining device comprising: a hearing ability information input unit configured to receive hearing ability information indicating a hearing ability of a subject for frequencies; a hearing ability type determining unit configured to determine at least one of hearing ability types that corresponds to the hearing ability information, based on frequency characteristics of the hearing ability information received by the hearing ability information input unit, the hearing ability types each being defined by a tendency in a change of a hearing ability with respect to frequencies; a suitability determining unit configured to determine a suitability of the subject for dichotic hearing assistance based on the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit; and a suitability presenting unit configured to present the suitability determined by the suitability determining unit, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to determine, by referring to a correspondence relationship, the suitability based on an amount of clarity improvement for a speech sound that corresponds to the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit, the correspondence relationship indicating, for each of the hearing ability types, an amount of clarity improvement for a speech sound that is a degree by which a clarity of speech perceived by the subject is improved by the dichotic hearing assistance. ### Claim 2 (depends on 1) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 1, further comprising: a speech sound hearing level input unit configured to receive, from the subject, a response to a speech audiometry test; and a phoneme accuracy rate calculating unit configured to calculate a phoneme accuracy rate based on the response received by the speech sound hearing level input unit, the phoneme accuracy rate indicating, for a phoneme that is a unit constituting a speech sound, whether or not the subject has accurately heard a speech sound, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to determine the suitability based on (i) the amount of clarity improvement for the speech sound that corresponds to the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit and (ii) the phoneme accuracy rate for the phoneme calculated by the phoneme accuracy rate calculating unit. ### Claim 3 (depends on 1) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 1, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to hold the correspondence relationship for each of crossover frequencies in the dichotic hearing assistance, and determine, among the crossover frequencies, a crossover frequency at which the dichotic hearing assistance is most effective for the subject to accurately hear the speech sound, based on the amount of clarity improvement for the speech sound that corresponds to the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit, and the suitability presenting unit is configured to present the crossover frequency determined by the suitability determining unit, together with the suitability. ### Claim 4 (depends on 1) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 1, further comprising a hearing assistance process setting unit configured to output, to hearing aids, setting information that allows the hearing aids to provide the subject with the dichotic hearing assistance. ### Claim 5 (depends on 1) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 1, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to determine, as the suitability, the amount of clarity improvement for the speech sound that corresponds to the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit. ### Claim 6 (depends on 1) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 1, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to determine, as the suitability, an average value of amounts of clarity improvement for respective speech sounds that correspond to the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit. ### Claim 7 (depends on 2) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 2, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to determine, as the suitability, the amount of clarity improvement that corresponds to the phoneme accuracy rate for the phoneme calculated by the phoneme accuracy rate calculating unit, for the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit. ### Claim 8 (depends on 2) The hearing assistance suitability determining device according to claim 2, wherein the suitability determining unit is configured to determine, as the suitability, an average value of amounts of clarity improvement each corresponding to a different one of phoneme accuracy rates for respective phonemes calculated by the phoneme accuracy rate calculating unit, for the at least one hearing ability type determined by the hearing ability type determining unit. ### Claim 9 A hearing assistance suitability determining method comprising: receiving hearing ability information indicating a hearing ability of a subject for frequencies; determining at least one of hearing ability types that corresponds to the hearing ability information, based on frequency characteristics of the hearing ability information received in the receiving, the hearing ability types each being defined by a tendency in a change of a hearing ability with respect to frequencies; determining a suitability of the subject for dichotic hearing assistance based on the at least one hearing ability type determined in the determining of at least one of hearing ability types; and presenting the suitability determined in the determining of a suitability, wherein in the determining of a suitability, by referring to a correspondence relationship, the suitability is determined based on an amount of clarity improvement for a speech sound that corresponds to the at least one hearing ability type determined in the determining of at least one of hearing ability types, the correspondence relationship indicating, for each of the hearing ability types, an amount of clarity improvement for a speech sound that is a degree by which a clarity of speech perceived by the subject is improved by the dichotic hearing assistance. ### Claim 10 (depends on 9) A non-transitory computer-readable recording medium for use in a computer, the recording medium having a computer program recorded thereon for causing the computer to execute the hearing assistance suitability determining method according to claim 9.