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CHAPTER I
GENERATING PRODUCT CONCEPT

1.1 Background

Hearing loss or Hearing impairment means your ear is not working correctly or as
well as it should. It happens when there is a problem with one or more parts of the ear or
ears, the nerves coming from the ears, or the part of the brain that controls hearing.
Someone who has hearing loss might be able to hear some sounds or nothing at all.

People with hearing impairment usually use device to enhance and improve their
hearing called Hearing Aid. Hearing Aid can improve hearing by amplifying soft sounds.
Hearing aids use the same basic parts to carry sounds from the environment into the ear
and make them louder. Most hearing aids are digital, and all are powered with a hearing
aid battery.

Small microphones collect sounds from the environment. A computer chip with an
amplifier converts the incoming sound into digital code. It analyzes and adjusts the sound
based on your hearing loss, listening needs and the level of the sounds around. The
amplified signals are then converted back into sound waves and delivered to the ears
through speakers.

The existing hearing aids can enhance sound through amplifier and the result is the
raising is volume. Unfortunately, those products have some weakness, for example can
create ear irritation, cannot fully produce clear sound and cannot reduce noises. Based on
these weaknesses, we will make a more effective and efficient product by combining
conventional principal and making new concepts
Our new product will have specifications that are related to the early specifications in
the first assignment. One of the most appealing specifications from our product is the
device has speech enhancement and noise reduction. Besides that, some specifications that
will be in our product are it has multiple channels, feedback cancellation, wireless
capability etc.
Before we determine the products concept, we make a list of existing concept that has
been used in markets. After that, we do brainstorming to extract the ideas that will be
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used as new concepts for our product. Then, the new and existing concepts will be
combined to be screened and to eliminate the unfeasible concepts by using some
parameters. The remaining concepts then scored in scoring stage. The concept that has
highest score in scoring section then tested to consumer by using interview to collect
their opinions.

1.2 Problem Decomposition

In determination of our product, there are a few steps that we have to do to get the
best concept. The first step is split the problem into sub-problems and analyze sub-
functions. Here are the few problems that appear from our topic that will be developed
further, Hearing Aid
Hearing Aid
A B
From this theme, finally found some of the following questions.
A. Hearing
What is the meaning of Hearing Loss?
How to improve hearing for Hearing Loss people?
How to classify Hearing Loss?
What cause abnormal hearing?
B. Aids
What is the meaning of Hearing Aid?
What is the function of Hearing Aid?
What is the principle work of Hearing Aid?
How to enhance the audio resolution in Hearing Aid?
How to reduce noise in Hearing Aid?
How long the Hearing Aid will last?
How to make this device comfortable?

1.3 Result of Decomposition Problem

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A sensor unit

A Speech detection
unit
Speech
Recognition
Technique A direction estimated
unit

A Speech enhancement
Unit
Speech
Enhancement A computation unit with
programmable circuitry
System-on-chip
Technique
A sound receiving unit

Articulation
Audio Signal
Sound
Hearing Aids
Processing

A digital volume
A microphone
controller

An electronic A
Reduced sound processor microcontroller
Background and
Noise Reducer
Feedback Noise
System An audio signal A feedback
amplifier tracker

An earphone
spaced apart
from the
microphone

Figure 1. 1. Result of Decomposition Concept

The following is an explanation of result of decomposition concept
Table 1. 1. Result of Decomposition Concept
Decomposition
No Brief Description Innovations
Concept
Speech Enhancement
Technique
1 Speech Recognition A speech recognition technique is a technique in which a speech This system comprising of;
A sensor unit comprising at least one
Technique signal input by a user or the like is recognized as a signal
microphone
corresponding to a predetermined language. A speech detection unit for detecting speech of
a speaker by using a signal of the sensor unit
A direction estimation unit for estimating a
direction of the speaker by using a signal of
the sensor unit and generating direction
information indicating the estimated direction
A speech enhancement unit for enhancing the
speech of the speaker that is input to the at
least one microphone, wherein the speech
detection unit controls operations of the
direction estimation unit and the speech
enhancement unit based on a result of the
detecting speech by using the speech detection
unit, and the direction estimation unit
transmits the direction information to the
speech enhancement
 Table 1. 1. Result of Decomposition Concept (Continued 1)
Decomposition
No Brief Description Innovations
Concept
Speech Enhancement
Technique
2 System-on-chip This system comprising of;
By utilizing the state-of-the-art system-on-chip technique, the
Technique A computation unit including a
entire noise reduction system can be fabricated into one silicon
programmable circuitry which implements a
die which is so small that it can be easily incorporated into the
noise reduction and speech enhancement
microphone housing or fabricated onto a Micro-Electro-
algorithm. This comprises of
Mechanical System (MEMS) microphone component. The An analog-to-digit (A/D) converter
preferred noise reduction and speech enhancement algorithm is A digital signal processor (DSP)
A memory including RAM or ROM
the Cochlear Transform which simulates more close to the
A digit-to-analog (D/A) converter.
human hearing system with a feedback loop to tune its A sound receiving unit or generating unit.
performance in terms of speech recognition criteria. The
algorithm produces superior results to those algorithms tuned in
terms of SNR. The invention reduces the software work needed
in a system design and makes the whole application system
design easier and more reliable.
 Table 1. 1. Result of Decomposition Concept (Continued 2)
Decomposition
No Brief Description Innovations
Concept
Speech Enhancement
Technique
3 Articulation Audio This system comprising of;
Signal Provide a speech enhancement apparatus and a speech A generator part configured to generate and
enhancement method capable of improving the articulation of output a value representing likelihood of a
speech. consonant from an input audio signal having
a predetermined sampling frequency
A calculator part configured to generate a
consonant/vowel discriminating signal
A determining part configured to determine a
gain coefficient that exceeds one when the
second signal level is smaller than the first
signal level based on the level-related signal
A multiplier part configured to multiply the
audio signal by the gain coefficient and
output an audio signal having an emphasized
consonant portion thereof.
 Table 1. 1. Result of Decomposition Concept (Continued 3)
Decomposition
No Brief Description
Concept
Noise Reducer
System
4 Reduced Background This is an electronic sound processor for use in conjunction with This system comprising of;
and Feedback Noise
a microphone and speaker comprising an automatic gain
controller (AGC) connected in parallel to an automated feedback
tracker, a microcontroller and a digital volume controller, the
microcontroller operatively connected to the digital volume
controller, wherein the microcontroller is configured to execute
electronic instructions for recognizing a feedback noise condition
and background noise condition, and for modulating the digital
volume controller in response to presence of the feedback noise
condition and background noise condition.
Innovatio
ns
A microphone, converting ambient sound
signals to audio signals
An electronic sound processor comprising
A digital volume controller
A microcontroller operatively connected
between said digital volume controller
and said microphone
A feedback tracker operatively connected
between said microcontroller and said
microphone
An audio signal amplifier for amplifying
audio signals to a volume level set by the
digital volume controller
An earphone spaced apart from the
microphone, the earphone reproducing sound
from audio signals received from the audio
signal amplifier
 Table 1. 1. Result of Decomposition Concept (Continued 4)
Decomposition
No Brief Description Innovations
Concept
Noise Reducer
System
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1.4 Concept Combining and Concept Tree

40 UNIVERSITAS INDONESIA