Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
Figure 3-5.
the audiogram is an instrument used to graph hearing
sensitivity. Speech sounds can be graphed to provide additional appli-
cable information related to hearing sensitivity. the shaded area is often
referred to as the “Speech Banana.”
with hearing loss in the high frequencies
are likely to have difficulty understanding
speech because they have trouble hearing
consonants due to the frequency region of
the hearing loss and because these conso-
nants contribute more to the intelligibil-
ity of the speech signal. This is why these
individuals may comment that they hear
people speak, but that it appears that the
speakers mumble or “don't speak clearly.”
Distance
When thinking about the effect of dis-
tance on sound energy, you have likely
noticed that a sound becomes louder if
we move closer to the source and softer
if we move farther from it. These changes
in our perception of loudness are based
on the principle that sound spreads or
distributes itself over larger and larger
