Benefits of Remote Microphone Design

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Answer

Remote microphone placement is a concept developed by Resound. You can think of the remote microphone products as being similar to a CIC where the microphone is moved out of the case and placed up in the concha of the ear. Because the microphone is moved out of the case, these instruments can be made smaller, or with a much, much larger vent, to accommodate as open a fitting as possible with a CIC form factor.



ReSound Live with remote microphone

Being a significant new development in custom hearing instrument technology, ReSound Live hearing instruments equipped with remote microphones offer other advantages as well. Remote microphone hearing instruments help maintain natural and directional localization cues through microphone placement in the concha cymba area of the pinna. Because behind-the-ear (BTE) and some traditional custom hearing instruments have less-than-ideal microphone placement compared to the natural ear, distortions can occur if sound collection from the pinna is not utilized. Taking advantage of the pinna effect helps to preserve natural localization (including front-back localization performance) and directional cues. These cues are additionally well-preserved in windy listening situations without the use of a wind noise reduction algorithm. For less-than-ideal microphone placement in hearing instruments such as BTEs including open fit BTEs, replication of the pinna effect is important for the preservation of localization and spatial awareness. As an element of good sound quality, ReSound Live BTE hearing instruments restore the pinna effect to give a sense of spatial awareness and localization.

For further discussion of this topic including research results, please refer to the article
Spatial awareness and localization: ReSound Live remote microphone and behind-the-ear hearing instruments that can be found on the ReSound Web Channel on AudiologyOnline.

Shane E. Dodge, M.S. is an Audiologist at the GN ReSound Copenhagen facility. His research interests include the influence of the head related transfer function on hearing instrument sound processing and design. He earned his Masters of Science degree from the University of Wyoming.