Towards embedding hearing instruments in intelligent environments

Inhalt:
An approach to embed acoustical assistive devices (AAD) in intelligent environments (IE) is described in this paper. Location Based Services (LBS) become feasible by combining an indoor localization service and AAD. Location dependent, unobtrusive and short messages shall be streamed to the AAD via multiple audio distribution nodes. The last ones connect via a Wi-Fi mesh network. However, streaming audio data over wireless TCP/IP can be a subject of substantial delays, increased latency is not as critical as in other application because the streamed message does not have to be in direct synchronization with other modalities (e.g. lip synchronization in movie pictures). Information on the idea, system architecture and first experiences during the ongoing implementation is reported. To test the usability of the prototype, especially with regard to experienced and acceptable latencies, a trial is planned at the iHomeLab Living Lab.