It is estimated that disputes over TV volume, often caused by some family members having age-related hearing loss, affect one in ten households. To combat this, researchers from the University’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research have developed an award-winning loudspeaker system. Marcos Simón, a PhD researcher, has devised a highly-directional system of acoustical radiators, or loudspeaker arrays, which produce a sound ‘hot spot’ by boosting the audio signal in the area of a room where a hearing impaired person is sitting but maintaining the same audio levels.
Experiments have shown that it is possible to obtain around 30 per cent speech intelligibility improvement of the hearing impaired listeners while maintaining a good audio quality for those with healthy hearing.
