A master thesis from Aalborg University
The benefits and user experience of hearing aids controlled by eye gaze of the user
[Fordelene og brugeroplevelsen af høreapparater styret af brugerens øjeretning]
Author(s)
Term
4. term
Education
Publication year
2020
Submitted on
2020-01-06
Pages
97 pages
Abstract
Et problem der er med høreapparater i dag er, at de ikke altid reducerer støjen korrekt, hvilket kan gøre det svært at følge en samtale i støjende omgivelser. Dette kandidatspeciale stræber efter at undersøge om øjestyring af høreapparater kan have en fordelagtig indvirkning på brugen af høreapparater. Dette gøres ved at teste to typer af øjestyringsalgoritmer på konceptplan; en hård og en blød øjestyringsalgoritme. Et eksperiment er udført med 13 høreapparats brugere, der ved at følge en samtale på en TV-skærm skal svare på spørgsmål under fire forskellige konditioner; en familiariseringsrunde og en kondition med henholdsvis ingen, hård og blød øjestyring. For hver kondition svarer testpersonerne efterfølgende på et NASA Task Load Index (TLX) spørgeskema, der måler arbejdsbyrden. Efter eksperimentet er der afholdt et exit-interview. Når procentfordelingen af antal rigtige svar udregnes og analyseres, viser resultaterne, at der bliver svaret flest spørgsmål rigtigt under familiariseringsrunden. Derefter følger hård øjestyring, blød øjestyring og ingen øjestyring med færrest korrekte svar. En signifikant forskel er fundet mellem alle konditionerne, undtagen hård og blød øjestyring. Når arbejdsbyrden bliver analyseret er den eneste forskel fundet mellem familiariseringsrunden og de tre andre konditioner, hvor familiariseringen scorer lavest. Øjestyring af et høreapparat ser ud til at virke, da uønsket støj bliver reduceret i den retning testpersonerne ikke kigger. Når testpersonerne bliver spurgt om hvilken form for øjestyring de foretrækker, er det klart hård øjestyring der er mest foretrukket.
A problem with hearing aids is that they do not always reduce the noise correctly, which can make it hard to follow a conversation in noisy surroundings. This master thesis seeks to investigate if eye gaze steering of a hearing aid can benefit the hearing aid user by testing two forms of eye gaze steering on a concept level; hard and soft eye gaze steering. An experiment is conducted with 13 hearing aid users answering questions by following a conversation during four different conditions; a familiarization round and a no, hard, and soft eye gaze steering condition. For every condition, participants answered a NASA Task Load Index (TLX) questionnaire for measuring workload, and after the experiment, an exit-interview was conducted. When calculating the percentage of correct answers during each condition the results show the familiarization round to have the most correct answers, followed by the hard eye gaze steering, soft eye gaze steering, and no steering with least correct answers. A significant difference is found between all conditions, except the hard and soft eye gaze steering. When measuring workload the only difference is found between the familiarization round and the three other conditions, where the familiarization is scoring lowest. The eye gaze steering of a hearing aid seems to work by reducing noise that participants do not want to listen to, and when asked about their preferences, participants preferred the hard eye gaze steering.
Keywords
Documents
Colophon: This page is part of the AAU Student Projects portal, which is run by Aalborg University. Here, you can find and download publicly available bachelor's theses and master's projects from across the university dating from 2008 onwards. Student projects from before 2008 are available in printed form at Aalborg University Library.
If you have any questions about AAU Student Projects or the research registration, dissemination and analysis at Aalborg University, please feel free to contact the VBN team. You can also find more information in the AAU Student Projects FAQs.