Effects of reproduction methods and familiarity on the ability to listen to competing words

摘要

A hearable device is a promising Life-Tech device realizing hand-free and eye-free information retrieval. Because its output comprises voices and sounds, we need to clarify the performance of simultaneously listening to multiple voices to develop an informative device. In this study, a word intelligibility test was conducted to examine the effects of sound reproduction methods and word familiarity on the ability to listen to competing words. The experimental results show that both factors affect the performance significantly; a reproduction method with high spatial separation and usage of high-familiarity words are keys to achieve high performance.