Warp Processing vs Conventional Processing in Digital Hearing Aids: A Comparative Study

Abstract

Recent advances in digital technology in amplification system uses warp processing that promises compromise for disadvantages noted in conventional hearing aids. There is a scarcity of studies which have been reported regarding warp processing's benefits in terms of speech identification scores in quiet as well as in the presence of noise. Hence the present study aimed to assess its advantage over conventional processing in a group of individuals. The study included 20 participants with moderate to moderately severe sensorineural hearing loss. The performance of the hearing aid was evaluated using both speech identification scores in quiet and noisy conditions and, on quality judgment. Results showed that all participants demonstrated improved performance with warp processing over conventional processing in all the conditions. The improved performance was higher for O dB SNR compared to other conditions. Very small improvement in performance was noticed for quiet and at -1O dB SNR conditions. For all the six parameters of quality, the hearing aid with warp processing showed a clear preference over conventional hearing aid. Hence it is concluded that it is more advantageous using warp processing hearing aids for improved understanding of speech in adverse listening conditions. Also, the sound quality is much better than the conventional hearing aid.