A Smart Nocturnal Environment Monitoring System for the Hearing Impaired

This paper presents a novel machine learning prototype to actively assist hearing-impaired people during sleeping hours. The prototype can learn ambient sounds and intelligently decide if they are indicative of dangerous situations such as warning alarms, or if they are merely unimportant background sounds. The application is targeted towards the hearing-impaired who will have removed hearing aids or external components of cochlear implants before sleep. Any sounds of importance can then be translated into vibrations to awaken the sleeping hearing impaired user. The system is suggestive of future smart interactive machines to assist and protect those with either hearing loss or profound deafness.

Content

Author and article information

Contributors

John Finlay

Stefan Greppmair

Michael Jennings

Matthew Kane

Johannes Leopold

Philip A. Catherwood

James Uhomoibhi

Conference

Publication date: July 2018

Publication date (Print): July 2018

Pages: 1-3

Affiliations

[0001]Ulster University

Shore Road, N’abbey

Co.Antrim, BT370QB

Article

DOI: 10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.94

SO-VID: a2d9236d-9cc9-4cd6-aabc-fd29745dd9d4

License:

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Conference name: Proceedings of the 32nd International BCS Human Computer Interaction Conference

Conference acronym: HCI

Conference number: 32

Conference location: Belfast, UK

Conference date: 4 - 6 July 2018

Conference sponsor: Electronic Workshops in Computing (eWiC)

Conference theme: Human Computer Interaction Conference

History

Product

1477-9358 BCS Learning & Development

Self URI (article page): https://www.scienceopen.com/hosted-document?doi=10.14236/ewic/HCI2018.94

Self URI (journal page): https://ewic.bcs.org/

References

Speechbuddy www.speechbuddy.com/blog/hearing-loss/cochlear-implants-what-to-expect-during-surgery (10 Feb. 2018)
hearinglink www.hearinglink.org/your-hearing/about-deafness-hearing-loss/facts-about-deafness-hearing-loss/ (10 Feb. 2018)
G.R. Herer 2013 American Speech Language Hearing Assoc www.asha.org/Articles/Intellectual-Disabilities-and-Hearing-Loss (10 Feb. 2018)
V. BryanG. PenneyL. AndrewsM.R. Russo 2014 Chapter 28: Empirical study using alternative early warning systems to address fire in the homes of deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals V.C. Wang (ed.) Handbook of R. on edu. and tech. changing soc IGI Global USA
Alert Group www.alertergroup.com (14 Mar. 2018)
Tynetec www.tynetec.co.uk (14 Mar. 2018)
B. GordonR. LeighT. JurkiewiczK. Tankongchumruskul 2017 Wearable alarm system for a prosthetic hearing implant. US9630006B2, US Grant 2017
P.A. CatherwoodD.D. FinlayJ.A.D. McLaughlin 2015 Subcutaneous body area networks: A SWOT analysis IEEE Intl. Symp. Technology and Society Dublin Ireland 11-12 Dec. 2015 1 8 IEEE
P.A. CatherwoodD.D. FinlayJ.A.D. McLaughlin 2016 Intelligent Subcutaneous Body Area Networks: Anticipating Implantable Devices IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 35 73 80 IEEE
Action Hearing Loss www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk (14 Mar. 2018)
J. SalamonJ.P. Bello 2015 Unsupervised feature learning for urban sound classification Intl. Conf. on Ac., Speech & Sig. Proc Brisbane, Australia 19-24 April, 2015 171 175 IEEE
S. DielemanB. Schrauwen 2014 End-to-end learning for music audio Intl. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc Florence, Italy 4-9 May, 2014 6964 6968 IEEE
S. Hershey 2017 CNN architectures for large-scale audio classification Intl. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc New Orleans, LA 5-9 Mar. 2017 131 135 IEEE
R. Harper 2010 Evaluation of a CE approved ambulatory patient monitoring device in a general medical ward Ann. Intl. Conf. IEEE Eng. Med. & Biol. Soc Buenos Aires, Argentina 31 Aug. - 4 Sep. 2010 94 97 IEEE
C. SchreinerP. CatherwoodJ. AndersonJ. McLaughlin 2010 Blood oxygen level measurement with a chest-based pulse oximetry prototype system Comp. in Cardiology Belfast, UK 26-29 Sept. 2010 537 540 IEEE
P.A. CatherwoodN. DonnellyJ. AndersonJ. McLaughlin ECG motion artefact reduction improvements of a chest-based wireless patient monitoring system Comp. in Cardiology Belfast, UK 26-29 Sept. 2010 557 560 IEEE
Y. LeCunY. BengioG. Hinton 2015 Deep learning. Nature 521 436 444

Comments

Comment on this article

[1] Speechbuddy www.speechbuddy.com/blog/hearing-loss/cochlear-implants-what-to-expect-during-surgery (10 Feb. 2018)

[2] hearinglink www.hearinglink.org/your-hearing/about-deafness-hearing-loss/facts-about-deafness-hearing-loss/ (10 Feb. 2018)

[3] G.R. Herer 2013 American Speech Language Hearing Assoc www.asha.org/Articles/Intellectual-Disabilities-and-Hearing-Loss (10 Feb. 2018)

[4] V. BryanG. PenneyL. AndrewsM.R. Russo 2014 Chapter 28: Empirical study using alternative early warning systems to address fire in the homes of deaf or hard-of-hearing individuals V.C. Wang (ed.) Handbook of R. on edu. and tech. changing soc IGI Global USA

[5] Alert Group www.alertergroup.com (14 Mar. 2018)

[6] Tynetec www.tynetec.co.uk (14 Mar. 2018)

[7] B. GordonR. LeighT. JurkiewiczK. Tankongchumruskul 2017 Wearable alarm system for a prosthetic hearing implant. US9630006B2, US Grant 2017

[8] P.A. CatherwoodD.D. FinlayJ.A.D. McLaughlin 2015 Subcutaneous body area networks: A SWOT analysis IEEE Intl. Symp. Technology and Society Dublin Ireland 11-12 Dec. 2015 1 8 IEEE

[9] P.A. CatherwoodD.D. FinlayJ.A.D. McLaughlin 2016 Intelligent Subcutaneous Body Area Networks: Anticipating Implantable Devices IEEE Technology and Society Magazine 35 73 80 IEEE

[10] Action Hearing Loss www.actiononhearingloss.org.uk (14 Mar. 2018)

[11] J. SalamonJ.P. Bello 2015 Unsupervised feature learning for urban sound classification Intl. Conf. on Ac., Speech & Sig. Proc Brisbane, Australia 19-24 April, 2015 171 175 IEEE

[12] S. DielemanB. Schrauwen 2014 End-to-end learning for music audio Intl. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc Florence, Italy 4-9 May, 2014 6964 6968 IEEE

[13] S. Hershey 2017 CNN architectures for large-scale audio classification Intl. Conf. on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Proc New Orleans, LA 5-9 Mar. 2017 131 135 IEEE

[14] R. Harper 2010 Evaluation of a CE approved ambulatory patient monitoring device in a general medical ward Ann. Intl. Conf. IEEE Eng. Med. & Biol. Soc Buenos Aires, Argentina 31 Aug. - 4 Sep. 2010 94 97 IEEE

[15] C. SchreinerP. CatherwoodJ. AndersonJ. McLaughlin 2010 Blood oxygen level measurement with a chest-based pulse oximetry prototype system Comp. in Cardiology Belfast, UK 26-29 Sept. 2010 537 540 IEEE

[16] P.A. CatherwoodN. DonnellyJ. AndersonJ. McLaughlin ECG motion artefact reduction improvements of a chest-based wireless patient monitoring system Comp. in Cardiology Belfast, UK 26-29 Sept. 2010 557 560 IEEE

[17] Y. LeCunY. BengioG. Hinton 2015 Deep learning. Nature 521 436 444

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