A Cocktail Party of 3D-Printed Robot Heads #ASA184

Imagine a cocktail party full of 3D-printed, humanoid robots listening and talking to each other. That seemingly sci-fi scene is the goal of the Augmented Listening Laboratory at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. With precise control over the simulated subjects, the researchers can adjust the parameters of the experiment and even set the machines in motion to simulate neck movements. They will describe the talking human head simulators, and their work investigating how humans receive sound and developing audio technology, at the 184th ASA Meeting.

Beyond Necessity, Hearing Aids Bring Enjoyment Through Music #ASA184

At the 184th ASA Meeting, Emily Sandgren and Joshua Alexander of Purdue University will describe experiments to determine the best hearing aids for listening to music. To test and compare, they took over 200 recordings of music samples as processed by hearing aids from seven popular manufacturers. They asked study participants to rate the sound quality of these recordings and found that the hearing aids had lower ratings for music than their control stimuli. The researchers found bigger differences in music quality between hearing aid brands than between speech and music programs.

Program That Trains Community Health Workers to Deliver Hearing Care Shows Success Among Low-Income Older Adults

A first-in-kind program that trains trusted older adult community health workers to fit and deliver low-cost hearing technology to peers with hearing loss significantly improved communication function among participants, according to the results of a randomized clinical trial led by Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers.