Harvey Dillon Director, National Acoustic Laboratories Parliamentary Breakfast Hearing Awareness Week, 2012 Hearing aids – how much do they really help?

Economic impact Untreated hearing loss leads to $11.75 bn p.a. in lost economic activity – Access Economics – Listen Hear! (2006) $6.7 bn from productivity loss (lower work-force participation and effectiveness) Australians with hearing loss per year of age 3.1m – 14% 3.8m – 15% 4.8m – 17% ≥101

Use of hearing aids by new clients in Hearing Services Program Dillon, Hickson & Lloyd (2012)

Impact of need

Aid ownership by hearing loss Blue Mountains Population >55 years Hartley et al (2012)

Speech intelligibility (mild loss – 22 dB 3FAHL) Hearing aid “helps” in quiet places Tiny additional benefit from directivity Conditions: DI = 3 dB when REIG > 3 dB n.h. spatial adv = 6 dB ∆SNR re n.h. = -3.7 dB

Speech intelligibility (moderate-severe loss – 54 dB 3FA HL) Conditions: DI = 3 dB when REIG > 3 dB n.h. spatial adv = 6 dB ∆SNR re n.h. = -7.7 dB

Effects of hearing loss Leisure noise Hearing damage Difficulty hearing in noise & reverb Workplace noise Environmental factors Genetic pre- dispositions Depression, decreased independence, quality of life, ……. Age $6.7 bn loss Cessation of work; Under- achievement at work Social withdrawal

Technology of the next few years Super-directional hearing aids

Binaural-Processing Super-directional Microphone (Mejia & Dillon, 2007) W3W3 W4W4 ∑ ∑ R out K Rear- directional array Masking threshold Cross-fading process Outputs with spatial reconstruction HRTF L HRTF R Z -d d = 3 ms delay (Precedence effect) DOA- reconstruction Q1Q1 Q2Q2 Q3Q3 Q4Q4 ∑ Binaural beamformer Main direction al signal W1W1 W2W2 ∑ ∑ L out K Subsidiary signal

Video demo

Super-directional microphones (mild loss) Conditions: DI = 6 dB when REIG ≥ 0 dB n.h. spatial adv = 6 dB ∆SNR re n.h. = -3.7 dB

Hearing aids of the future  ? Convergence: phone interface, computer interface, music player, GPS interface hearing protector, hearing aid/enhancer,

Thanks for your interest

In summary With changes in technology, usage of hearing aids within the Government's Hearing Services Program has significantly increased over the past five years. Hearing loss none-the-less remains more often uncorrected than corrected, particularly among people with mild and moderate hearing loss. Imminent further improvements in technology will likely result in hearing aids enabling some people with hearing loss to hear more clearly than people with normal hearing. This will likely smash negative perceptions and stigma that still sometimes are associated with the use of hearing aids. A demonstration of future super-directional hearing aid technology will be provided.