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A comparative study of four directional microphones and directivity steering for bimodal cochlear implant users

Conference Paper (2025)
Author(s)

Hendrik Christiaan Stronks (Leiden University Medical Center, Universiteit Leiden)

A.J. Langerak (Leiden University Medical Center)

A.J.P. Schrijvers (Leiden University Medical Center)

R Koning (Advanced Bionics Corporation)

Jeroen Johannes Briaire (Leiden University Medical Center)

J.H.M. Frijns (TU Delft - Electrical Engineering, Mathematics and Computer Science, Universiteit Leiden, Leiden University Medical Center)

Research Group
Environmental Technology and Design
DOI related publication
https://doi.org/10.61782/fa.2025.0007 Final published version
More Info
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Publication Year
2025
Language
English
Research Group
Environmental Technology and Design
Pages (from-to)
3219-3226
Publisher
European Acoustics Association, EAA
ISBN (electronic)
978-84-87985-35-5
Event
11th Convention of the European Acoustics Association (Euronoise) (2025-06-23 - 2025-06-26), Malaga, Spain
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Abstract

Background: Cochlear implant users (CI) experience degraded speech intelligibility (SI) in noise. A contralateral hearing aid (HA) benefits listening in noise, and directional microphones and directivity steering can further enhance SI.Objectives: Four directional microphones were evaluated for bimodal listeners, including a monaural and binaural broadband front-facing beamformer (BFM and BFB) and a novel monaural and binaural narrowband side-beamformer (BFMS, BFBS). Broadband directivity steering (DS) was also evaluated. Methods: BFM, BFB, and DS were tested in diffuse noise with speech administered frontally or to the HA side (S0Ndif and SHANdif). BFMS and BFBS were tested with speech presented on the CI side and noise on the HA side or vice versa (SCINHA, SHANCI). SI was assessed by determining speech reception thresholds (SRTs). Results: In the S0Ndif condition, BFB significantly improved SI by 2.9 dB SNR and BFM by 1.3 dB SNR, but not significantly. In the SHANdif condition, BFM and BFB did not benefit SI, but DS improved SI by 3.6 dB. BFBS significantly improved SI by 1.1 dB SNR, but BFMS was ineffective. Conclusion: Binaural beamformers outperform their monaural counterparts. The novel BFBS is a promising technique for bimodal listeners.