News

July 1, 2007 – The Hearing Journal published an article by Patrick M. Zurek and Joseph G. Desloge (of Sensimetrics Corporation) in its July 2007 issue entitled “Hearing loss and prosthesis simulation in audiology”.   You may read, download, and print the article here. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

January 1, 2007 - Sensimetrics Corporation, in collaboration with the Spoken Language Systems Group at MIT, has been awarded a STTR Phase I grant by the NSF to study speech processing in the auditory system. Dr. Oded Ghitza and Prof. Jim Glass are the Principal Investigators of the project, which is entitled "Exploiting nervous-system rhythmicity for spoken-word recognition". The Phase I project is aimed at the evaluation of a model for recognizing diphones ( i.e. speech segments of duration of few tens of milliseconds) by exploiting the presumed role of nervous-system rhythms in neural computation. In the long term, the knowledge gained from this work will contribute to a basic understanding of hearing and to improving the performance of automatic speech recognition systems.

September 1, 2006 – Hearing Products Report has published an Industry Q&A piece with Patrick M. Zurek, President of Sensimetrics, on the release of HeLPS: The Hearing Loss and Prosthesis Simulator.  The article is entitled “Understanding Hearing Loss through Simulation”, and it can be read, downloaded and printed here. (You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader.)

August 23, 2006 - Sensimetrics Corporation has been awarded an SBIR Phase I grant by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to develop a tactile aid for the deaf that is contained entirely in a single small unit that can be worn on the arm like a wristwatch. The goal of the project, which is entitled "A Wireless Self-Contained Tactile Aid," is to build a device that facilitates awareness of environmental and speech sounds via tactile stimulation for infants and young children during the time period when they are awaiting a cochlear implant. Integration of the tactile aid's components in a small wrist-worn package will eliminate the wires that connect the electronics to the vibrators of current tactile aids. This improvement, which faces challenges from feedback, battery life, and weight limitations, will make tactile aids much easier to use in the target population. Dr. Thomas E. von Wiegand is Principal Investigator.

April 8, 2005 - Sensimetrics Corporation, in collaboration with the Sensory Communication Group at MIT, has been awarded an STTR Phase II grant by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study speech processing in the auditory system. Dr. Oded Ghitza and Prof. Louis Braida are the Principal Investigators of the project, which is entitled "Application of Cortical Processing Theory to Acoustical Analysis". The goal is to formulate a template-matching operation, with perception-related rules of integration over time and frequency at its core, in the context of human perception of degraded speech.  Phase I focused on implementing signal processing principles realized by the auditory periphery in providing the observed graceful degradation of human performance in noise. This peripheral model will be used in Phase II as a front-end in a system designed to predict human consonant confusions under a variety of acoustic distortions.

September 12, 2003 - Sensimetrics Corporation, in collaboration with the Sensory Communication Group at MIT, has been awarded an STTR Phase I grant by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research to study speech processing in the auditory system. Dr. Oded Ghitza and Prof. Louis Braida are the Principal Investigators of the project, which is entitled "Application of Cortical Processing Theory to Acoustical Analysis". A psychophysical approach to determine phenomenological models of cortical processing of speech stimuli will be used. The work involves both psychophysical and modeling efforts. The knowledge gained from this work will contribute in the long term to a basic understanding of hearing and to improving the performance of automatic speech recognition systems.

July 25, 2003 - Sensimetrics Corporation has been awarded an SBIR Phase II grant by the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders to continue development of a system for demonstrating hearing loss and auditory prostheses. The goal of the project, which is entitled "Hearing Loss and Prosthesis Simulator", is a system that simulates the auditory-perceptual effects of hearing loss in combination with hearing aids or cochlear implants. The simulator will be completely wearable for use in everyday settings without occupying hands or eyes. In addition, unlike other hearing-loss simulations, this system will be immersive, meaning it processes the acoustic signals sensed in any ambient sound field. The eventual simulator will satisfy a need for demonstrations of hearing loss and prostheses in settings that include: training of audiologists and teachers of the deaf; hearing conservation and public education programs; counseling for families of hearing-impaired and deaf persons; and hearing aid selection. Dr. Patrick M. Zurek is Principal Investigator.