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Complex Systems: Solutions and Challenges in Economics, Management and Engineering pp 497–519Cite as

Cochlear Implants: Consequences of Microphone Aging on Speech Recognition

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Part of the book series: Studies in Systems, Decision and Control ((SSDC,volume 125))

Abstract

Aging is a general phenomenon which affects everything and everybody in this world. Designed for the rehabilitation of profound deafness, cochlear implants (CI) do not escape to this general rule. One very insidious effect concerns the microphone as an ongoing drift occurs over the time. In this work we wish to assess the consequences of this evolution on speech recognition. In order to perform this task, a general population of CI users and NH subjects (using a CI simulator) participated to this study. They listened to French dissyllabic words and we recorded recognition percentages. Words were presented to the listeners in noise with a variable signal to noise ratio (SNR) and the percentages ranged from 0 to 100%. For the CI simulator, the drift was simulated from data coming from figures measured on regular hearing aids. This choice seems relevant as CIs and hearing aids use the same microphones. Also, the CI simulator we used, picked up the general principles of a vocoder to represent the classical coding strategies used in CIs (CIS-like and n-of-m). With CI users, the results were compared before and after cleaning the microphones; also, in a subgroup of CI users, we performed the replacement of the head filter protecting the microphone and the recognition percentages were compared with those coming from the standard “Brush and Blow” cleaning procedure. The results have been revisited and quantified after a curve fitting. The outcomes indicated that the CIS-like coding schemes were less sensitive to aging than the n-of-m strategies. Also, cleaning ameliorated the recognition performances, but the increase was not dramatically high. Furthermore, the improvement mainly occurred in the middle of the SNR range where the noise was not too intense. We made these observations with CI users and with NH subjects so it indicates that the results should be linked to the properties of the signal. Finally, as we cannot stop the consequences of aging, we can set up an action plan to reduce its effect. And this is true in everyday life. In the case of CIs, a lot of solutions are available, among them the choice of the sound coding strategy and the periodicity of the clinical check and device setting.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the persons and the institutions who participated to the study; M. Kevin Perreaut who initiated the work, Dr. Fabien Seldran and Dr. Fabien Millioz for the scientific contribution and Ms. Evelyne Veuillet for the links with the ethic committee. We also wanted to thank the members of the CRIC Lyon and the staff of the Edouard-Herriot hospital for their collaboration, the subjects who listened to the Fourier’s lists, the Hospitals of Lyon and the Polytechnic School of the University of Lyon.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University Claude-Bernard Lyon1, 43 bd du 11 Novembre, 69622, Villeurbanne-Cedex, France

    C. Berger-Vachon, P. A. Cucis, E. Truy, H. Thai Van & S. Gallego

  2. Lyon Neurosciences Research Centre, (CRNL), INSERM U1028, 95 bd Pinel, 69675, Bron-Cedex, France

    C. Berger-Vachon, E. Truy & H. Thai Van

  3. LBMC-IFSTTAR, 25 Avenue François Mitterrand, 69500, Bron, France

    C. Berger-Vachon

  4. Audition-Conseil Centre, 34 Avenue Lacassagne, 69003, Lyon, France

    S. Gallego

  5. CRIC, ORL Building, Edouard-Herriot Hospital, Place d’Arsonval, 69437, Lyon-Cedex 03, France

    E. Truy & H. Thai Van

Authors
  1. C. Berger-Vachon
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  2. P. A. Cucis
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  3. E. Truy
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  4. H. Thai Van
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  5. S. Gallego
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to C. Berger-Vachon .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Lyon Neurosciences Research Center and Biomechanical and Impacts Laboratory, University Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France

    Christian Berger-Vachon

  2. Department of Economics and Business Organization, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain

    Anna María Gil Lafuente

  3. Systems Research Institute, Polish Academy of Sciences, Warsaw, Poland

    Janusz Kacprzyk

  4. Department of Intelligent Information Systems, Petro Mohyla Black Sea National University, Mykolaiv, Ukraine

    Yuriy Kondratenko

  5. Department of Management Control and Information Systems, University of Chile, Santiago, Chile

    José M. Merigó

  6. Department of Civil, Energy, Environment and Materials Engineering, Mediterranean University of Reggio Calabria, Reggio Calabria, Italy

    Carlo Francesco Morabito

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Berger-Vachon, C., Cucis, P.A., Truy, E., Thai Van, H., Gallego, S. (2018). Cochlear Implants: Consequences of Microphone Aging on Speech Recognition. In: Berger-Vachon, C., Gil Lafuente, A., Kacprzyk, J., Kondratenko, Y., Merigó, J., Morabito, C. (eds) Complex Systems: Solutions and Challenges in Economics, Management and Engineering. Studies in Systems, Decision and Control, vol 125. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69989-9_30

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-69989-9_30

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-69988-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-69989-9

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