Research Article Development of a Low Cost Assistive Listening System for Hearing-Impaired Student Classroom

Copyright © 2013 Setha Pan-ngum et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. This paper describes the design, development, and tests of a low cost ALS. It was designed for hearing-impaired student classrooms. It utilised digital wireless technology and was aimed to be an alternative to a popular FM ALS. Key specifications include transmitting in 2.4GHz ISM band with eight selectable transmission channels, battery operated and chargeable, pocket size, and ranged up to thirty metres. Audio characteristics and user tests show that it is comparable to a commercial system, currently employed in our partner school. The results also show that wearing an ALS clearly improves hearing of hearing-impaired students. Long-term usage by school children will be monitored to evaluate the system robustness and durability. 1