Tactile Aids for the Hearing Impaired
Tactile aids can offer a particularly cost-effective answer to the
increasing demand for technical aids for the profoundly and totally
deaf. This book covers the design of tactile aids - single and
multichannel - and the ways in which they may benefit the hearing
impaired.
Authors from Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA have
contributed chapters, and among the topics they cover are:
fundamentals of vibrotactile and electrotactile perception; signal
processing strategies; tactile coding (including synthetic Tadoma);
choice of subjects and subject training; evaluation of tactile aids
and comparison with cochlear implants; and communication for the
deaf-blind.
The book should provide a useful reference for those who work
with the profoundly deaf, students and others with interests in the
perception of speech and environmental sound.
Preface.
List of contributors.
Chapter 1. Perception via the sense of touch (Ronald T. Verrillo
and George A. Gescheider).
Chapter 2. Electrical stimulation of the skin (Brian H. Brown
and John C. Stevens).
Chapter 3. The design of vibrotactile trasducers (Roger W.
Cholewiak and Michael Wollowitz).
Chapter 4. Communication of the acoustic environment via tactile
stimuli (Janet M. Weisenberger).
Chapter 5. Signal processing strategies for single-channel
systems (Ian R. Summers).
Chapter 6. Signal processing strategies for multichannel systems
(James L. Mason and Barrie J. Frost).
Chapter 7. The selection and training of tactile aid users
(Geoff Plant).
Chapter 8. The evaluation of tactiles aids (Lynne E.
Bernstein).
Chapter 9. The potential benefit and cost-effectiveness of
tactile devices in comparison with cochlear implants (Peter J.
Blamey and Robert S.C. Cowan).
Chapter 10. Natural methods of tactual communication (Charlotte
M. Reed, Nathaniel I. Durlach and Lorraine A. Delhorne).
Chapter 11. A comparative trial of four vibrotactile aids (A.
Roger D. Thornton and Andrew J. Phillips).
Index.
