Hearing-technology

Standing on a box in the centre of Edinburgh to talk about research into hearing and hearing aids.

One way to find out how well hearing technology is working is to get people to try it out, whilst measuring the effort they are having to put in to listen, and the level of fatigue that is causing. But how does this work?

How does a network of CCTV cameras recognise the same person or vehicle moving around? And how can this work in poor lighting?

COG-MHEAR research was live on stage as part of the Cabaret of Dangerous Ideas at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Dr Dorothy Hardy found out how two audiences might like the hearing aids of the future to work in a show that included a giant pink and black multi-modal hearing aid.

Speech is made up of many elements, including spoken words, other noises, gestures and eye gaze. How can all this be captured in a recording?

Finding out about deaf culture, including British Sign Language, as well as learning when and how hearing aids are used, are key in development of inclusive hearing technology

Systems that work with uncertainty can help in the development of hearing aids.

Hearing aid users give feedback on prototype software and hardware.

Wearable and implantable electronics that are used in health applications including treatment of neurological disorders.

How filtering works to process speech, so that you can hear what you want to hear.

A lab where real-life conversations are reproduced realistically; and how this helps in design of better hearing aids. Those annoying details like crisp munching in front of the TV and unintelligible railway station announcements are all included.

A robot in your ear? Acting as a hearing aid? That was one idea that was being aired at Prof Adam Stokes’ recent talk for the COG-MHEAR teams.

Nick Gompertz visited recently to tell us about the Earswitch that he has invented: a way to control multiple devices from within the ear

Researchers came together to talk about speech at the UK Speech 2022 conference in the University of Edinburgh. The COG-MHEAR teams presented posters and found out more about the complexities of speech and ceilidh dancing; plus developments in speech technology.

The COG-MHEAR teams were delighted to welcome audiologists, clinicians and an industry partner to discuss new hearing technology that can pick out conversation in noisy surroundings.

Research at the University of Portsmouth that can improve virtual reality by tracking facial muscle movement and recognising emotion.

Real-time demonstrations of audio-visual speech communication with background noise cancellation, plus smart lip-reading technology showed the audience how our hearing assistive research is progressing at the start of a packed conference programme in Glasgow.

The Medical Devices Manufacturing Centre: providing a route from ideas in medical research to new devices and techniques.

Prof John Hansen introduces his work on cochlear implant and hearing aid research

The COG-MHEAR research teams joined industry, academic and charity partners to share discoveries from the first year of research.

How would you feel about a hearing aid that incorporates a video sensor and uses lip reading to enhance only the speech of the person you are talking to? The COG-MHEAR project is looking into this as a future technology for hearing aids.

Limits on travel due to the COVID pandemic may have prevented the inaugural COG-MHEAR workshop from taking place in person but enthusiasm was high amongst the COG-MHEAR team for the first (virtual) COG-MHEAR workshop held towards the end of June 2021.

What did you say? – if you have ever had a conversation near a busy road or in a busy restaurant you have probably experienced a bit of trouble hearing what was being said and you may even have missed what someone was saying. Listening in noisy environments can be a challenge, particularly if you have hearing loss. In these types of situations, it can often help to look at the person talking as watching their lips move can help fill in some of the missing gaps.