2024 Early Hearing Detection & Intervention Conference
March 17-19, 2024 • Denver, CO
| Comparative acoustic attenuation of common face masks
Comparative acoustic attenuation of common face masks
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, face masks have become prevalent in the lives of many people. However, face masks pose a problem to Deaf and Hard-Of-Hearing individuals due to lack of access to facial expression, and acoustic attenuation, which is the decibel loss at a particular frequency of a given material. My project elucidated the attenuation and subsequent audio quality of commonly worn face masks through a series of tests including a pure tone sweep and audiobook audio sample. This project will inform Deaf and Hard-Of-Hearing individuals of their options regarding which mask will best fit their communication needs.
These tests emulated the effect on the human voice by these masks and offer a comparison between types of masks and acoustic attenuation. Through the course of testing, several trends became apparent. Fabric masks, those with roughly the same number of layers of fabric or the threads-per-inch, had lower attenuation in a style without pleats as opposed to a style with pleats. In addition, mask types utilizing a plastic surface to afford visual access attenuated very heavily. Some of these visual access masks also had significant vibration resonance, which is the phenomena that describes the amplification of a sound that is louder than the original sound. Finally, among safety-oriented masks, as might be expected, masks with a tighter fit around the face attenuated more than masks with a looser fit.
These results lead to further courses of research investigating how attenuation and visual access factor into understanding of spoken language.
- Understanding of the acoustic attenuation of various face masks
- Knowledge of the trade-off between visual access and audio access
Presentation:
23278_13573EleanorWarren.pdf
Handouts:
Handout is not Available
Transcripts:
CART transcripts are NOT YET available, but will be posted shortly after the conference
Presenters/Authors
Eleanor Warren
(POC,Primary Presenter), Independent, earlgreyellie@gmail.com;
Eleanor Warren is a hard-of-hearing high school senior at Hilliard Davidson High School who is taking classes at The Ohio State University through dual enrollment. She has completed research in the field of molecular biology, but when faced with lab closures for the summer of 2020, she decided to do research on a topic that she's passionate about - audiology. Inspired by ongoing struggles with auditory-verbal communication due to face masks, she decided to study and test how different masks add acoustic attenuation to spoken language. Eleanor is looking forward to graduating from high school in Spring 2021, and plans to pursue an undergraduate degree in molecular biology.
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