Oticon More Virtual Outer Ear

@e1405 said:

Does anyone know or could refer me to a whitepaper that effectively explains the distinctions between the three types of ‘virtual outer ear’ for Oticon MORE (Aware, Balanced, and Focused)?

Sure, Right Here.53

You have Genie2, right?
Click on help in the MSI screen, for a brief explaination.

Nov 11, 2023Edited

The link that @flashb1024 showed you is a new link that has a more condensed version of it. There’s another older whitepaper that is a more elaborate version with more wordings and chartings, in case you want to read up on it with even more details. I tried to google the link to THAT one for you, but it seems like it no longer exists and has been replaced by the simpler version.

I’ll show some screenshots of that section below. But if you want a copy of the whole whitepaper, PM me with a location and I’ll upload that whole whitepaper for you.

e1405 Author

Thanks @flashb1024 and @Volusiano. I remember seeing the whitepaper you shared, @Volusiano, but couldn’t find it.

It’s confusing. The first, short reference implies that the VOE opens and closes directionality, while the second, more detailed, talks about it as a regression model of different ear shapes and individual responses. Anyway, I guess I have to take the empirical route once again and hear the differences myself. I’ve always used the VOE Aware, but I feel like the VOE Balanced in my Lecture program works better in some quiet to moderately noisy situations.

Also keep in mind that VOE doesn’t cover all listening environments. It only covers the left side of your Environment Configuration that you set. The Sound Enhancer takes over from the VOE to cover the right side of the Environment Configuration when you start entering the Difficult Environment settings that you set in the Environment Configuration. Below is a screenshot where based on this Environment Configuration setting, VOE would only cover Very Simple and Simple as those are defined by you as your Easy Environment. So if you have yours defined like that in the screenshot below, moderately noisy situations that you mentioned would not be using the VOE settings anymore, but would start using the Sound Enhancer.

e1405 Author

Yes, I am aware. I remember when I first bought my Mores, and my audiologist was setting them up for me. I told her that in the quiet of her clinic, I understood her better with the ‘Focused’ VOE. We found that a bit odd. Since Genie states that the ‘Aware’ VOE provides greater (well!) awareness of everything in an easy environment, we decided to stick with ‘Aware.’ I believe the whitepaper says something different, though, suggesting that the outer ear’s anatomy plays a more significant role. I’m going to stick with ‘Balanced’ for a while and see how it goes.

Nov 12, 2023Edited

I misspoke a little bit about the Sound Enhancer. The Sound Enhancer is actually an underlying processing step that is applied to either Simple or Difficult environments, as can be seen in the screenshot below. What takes the equivalent place of the VOE for Difficult Environment is actually the Spatial Balancer. Both the VOE and its equivalent, the Spatial Balancer, are labelled as part of the Spatial Clarity Processor. I’m including the writeup for the Spatial Clarity Processor below in the 3rd screenshot for your info.

The Spatial Balancer writeup is already included in the previous post if you want to review it. If you look at the diagram below, the Spatial Balancer combined with the Scan & Analyze section in front of it is basically the same as what they use in the original OpenSound Navigator on the OPN and OPN S. That’s the Analyze and the Balance blocks in the OpenSound Navigator (OSN) in the second screenshot below. The Neural Noise Suppression blocks for both Easy and Difficult replaces the Noise Removal module in the OpenSound Navigator.

So what they did differently on the More (and Real) compared to the original OPN is that they introduced the VOE to replace the OSN Balance module for Easy Environment. Basically they decided that Easy environment does not required a complicated balancing act, so simulating a Virtual Outer Ear may give the user a more realistic effect of simulating the real outer ear when the sound scene is simple.

But apparently they didn’t ditch anything they developed in the original OpenSound Navigator for the OPN and OPN S. But they did replace the original OSN Noise Removal module with the Neural Noise Suppressor .

stevemink

Excuse why while I finish up my PhD in above subject matter, so I can respond in kind in the near future.

e1405 Author

In reply to @Volusiano

Thanks, @Volusiano. Great summary!

brec

In reply to @Volusiano

@Volusiano said:

There’s another older whitepaper that is a more elaborate version with more wordings and chartings, in case you want to read up on it with even more details. I tried to google the link to THAT one for you, but it seems like it no longer exists and has been replaced by the simpler version.

First hit for search on “TechPaper 2020 An Introduction to MoreSound Intelligence” in DuckDuckGo: 69674uk_tech_paper_moresound_intelligence.pdf16

Nov 12, 2023Edited

@Volusiano said:

There’s another older whitepaper that is a more elaborate version with more wordings and chartings, in case you want to read up on it with even more details. I tried to google the link to THAT one for you, but it seems like it no longer exists and has been replaced by the simpler version.

@brec said:

First hit for search on “TechPaper 2020 An Introduction to MoreSound Intelligence” in DuckDuckGo: 69674uk_tech_paper_moresound_intelligence.pdf

Thanks for this. I wonder if you and I are using different search engines? I did try to use that same phrase you did in Google and I didn’t get it as a first hit or on the first page I browsed through. I must have spent about 10 minutes browsing through the hits and most of it leads to the condensed one on the Oticon website.

brec