Auditory Evaluation of Ultrasonic Bone Conduction by Presenting to the Neck

Abstract

Bone conducted ultrasonic (BCU) is expected to apply to hearing aid device for sensorineural profoundly deaf people. This device can equip excluding a head. The purpose of this study is to design the neck mounting type of the BCU hearing aid device which is able to control a sound image localization in auditory sensation. The BCU hearing aid device is constituted by the bimorph piezoelectric vibrator and the mounting device, which is produced experimentally. This BCU hearing aid device can mount on the sternomastoid and the trapezius. In the experiment, the effects of these mounted position on the direction and the angle of sound image localization are evaluated sensuality. The experiment result shows that the sternomastoid and the combination type could control the sound image localization of the crosswise direction. The experiment result also shows that the trapezius could grasp of the crosswise direction is possible.