2023/01/31 by Zokoll, Melanie A., Meis, Markus, Wagener, Kirsten C. +3
#Cochlea-Implantat #MFi #Medicine and health #Streamen #Telefonieren mit CI #cochlear implant #streaming #telephoning with CI
paper · doi:10.3205/zaud000029
The present study investigated whether direct bilateral streaming on cochlea implant (CI) and hearing aid provides bimodal hearing instrument users with an advantage when making phone calls via smartphone compared with previously used methods. In two laboratory tests, 22 experienced CI listeners (mean age 50.8±18.6 years), fitted bimodally with a Cochlear N7 processor, as well as a GN ReSound hearing aid, were tested with their own previously used, mostly unilateral phone use (reference condition) and with MFi technology (test condition). In the test condition, signals were directly streamed from a smartphone to both hearing instruments. Speech intelligibility, subjectively perceived listening effort, each in interfering noise, and subjective ratings (including sound, usability via System Usability Scale, SUS) were obtained as key measures of benefit. The results showed a trend towards improved speech intelligibility, as well as a significantly lower listening effort with bilateral streaming compared to conventional telephone use in both the measurement and the questionnaire data. In terms of usability, bilateral streaming also resulted in better ratings compared to the reference.