Turn the volume up? An end to family rows over the TV
Innovative research to help people with hearing problems enjoy watching television with their families again has won a top award for a PhD researcher at the University of Southampton’s Institute of Sound and Vibration Research (ISVR).
Although half of people aged over 60 suffer some hearing loss, only around 20 per cent of them use hearing aids. This often leads to arguments over how high TV volume should be turned up when families are viewing together.
Marcos Simón is developing a new loudspeaker array to create a ‘hot spot’ of TV sound in a room. If the person with poor hearing sat in this particular area he/she would benefit from the higher volume of sound generated there. He has already designed one model to demonstrate the concept and will build and test another this summer.
Marcos has been awarded the Young Person’s Award for Innovation in Acoustical Engineering 2013 by the Institute of Acoustics, sponsored by the Industrial Acoustics Company Ltd (IAC).