School of Computer Science and Engineering, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
MOE Key Laboratory of Computer Network and Information Integration, Southeast University, Nanjing 211189, China.
Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2023 Jan 25;20(3):2161. doi: 10.3390/ijerph20032161.
Excessive use of Personal Listening Devices (PLDs) and prolonged exposure to noise from loud music create many potential risks associated with hearing loss. To this end, the World Health Organization has published Recommendation ITU-T H.870 in 2019, which provides adults and children with a set of recommendations for sound dosage and operating times needed to avoid potential hearing risks. Some studies have investigated noise exposure of related applications for listening safety, resulting in some related recommendations and applications; however, these studies often do not pay attention to measurement error, which is important for human real noise exposure estimation to avoid hearing loss. This paper proposes a method for calculating noise exposure that can accurately calculate the actual noise sound-pressure level (SPL) and PLD dosage based on the WHO-ITU standard. We develop a calculation method and design a listening system that includes (i) a Safe Listening Personal Listening Device (SL-PLD) that can measure the listening dose in real time and control the output volume effectively, (ii) a Safe Listening Application (SL-APP) for assisting the SL-PLD to check the listening status in real time and provide alerts. Our experimental results show that (i) the proposed noise calculation method can reach 0.88 dB deviation under the 76 dB reference SPL and 98.8% accuracy, as compared to the SoundCheck tool measurement, (ii) the proposed SL-PLD controls the SPL output effectively as the dose increases, and (iii) the SL-APP determines the dosage usage and will provide a warning when the dosage exceeds a preset value. Therefore, users can adjust their listening behavior for more secure listening by using our methods and applications.
过度使用个人听力设备 (PLD) 和长时间暴露在大声音乐的噪声中会带来许多与听力损失相关的潜在风险。为此，世界卫生组织在 2019 年发布了 ITU-T H.870 建议书，为成年人和儿童提供了一组避免潜在听力风险所需的声音剂量和操作时间的建议。一些研究已经调查了与听力安全相关的应用程序的噪声暴露情况，从而产生了一些相关的建议和应用程序；然而，这些研究往往没有注意到测量误差，这对于人类真实噪声暴露的估计以避免听力损失非常重要。本文提出了一种噪声暴露的计算方法，该方法可以根据世卫组织-国际电联标准准确计算实际噪声声压级 (SPL) 和 PLD 剂量。我们开发了一种计算方法并设计了一个听力系统，该系统包括 (i) 一种可以实时测量听力剂量并有效控制输出音量的安全听力个人听力设备 (SL-PLD)，(ii) 一种安全听力应用程序 (SL-APP)，用于辅助 SL-PLD 实时检查听力状况并提供警报。我们的实验结果表明：(i) 与 SoundCheck 工具测量相比，所提出的噪声计算方法在 76dB 参考 SPL 下可达到 0.88dB 的偏差，准确率为 98.8%；(ii) 所提出的 SL-PLD 随着剂量的增加有效控制 SPL 输出；(iii) SL-APP 确定剂量使用情况，并在剂量超过预设值时发出警告。因此，用户可以通过使用我们的方法和应用程序来调整他们的听力行为，以实现更安全的听力。
