JOURNEY
First Innovation through PhD work
How idea came in mind:
My mother has sensorineural hearing impairment. In 2002, as I was totally unknown of hearing impairment, I bought analog hearing aid of Rs. 1200/-, But she told me she can hear but unwanted signals sound loudly, also noise like signal always sounding to her ear.
Meanwhile I met Dr Chaudhari for Ph D registration. As my ME project was based on ECG, WT and NN, I thought to continue the same. But Dr Chaudhari told his area is of speech processing mainly for hearing impaired and he told to start the work in the same field then I thought, yes this is the moment, where I can get ideas about hearing aids and can help to my mother and other similar subjects so that they can listen only what they want.
I have registered myself for Ph D in the year of 2004.
Literature collection or search:
Dr Chaudhari has provided some books, but the problem was with the journal papers from acoustics society of America. One friend who is enrolled him for PhD at IIT Bombay, Mumbai, solved my problem. I always used to go at IITB Mumbai after college hours, sat together to download the papers. IEEE journal papers were downloaded from the college.
With the literature collection or search, I got inspiration from the speech of our beloved president Dr A P J Kalam. He explained his views of Indian research towards hearing impairment in the 3rd conf. of Cochlear society of India in the year 2005.
I attended seminars, conferences where I got opportunity to listen Dr Gadre, Dr Kekre, Dr Preeti Rao and many others who introduce me in the area of signal processing and speech processing.
My guide told me that I have to go for patent along with publication of journal papers and conf. papers. I started hunt for how to write the patents, how to apply, etc. again one of friend help me out and guided me for patenting process. In the year 2006, I helped my guide to get his patent registered. Then in year of 2007, and in 2008, I applied for the patents with guidance of guide. My Guide was student at IITB Mumbai, he help me out to get data for testing.
Set up requirement:
While working on my work, I was always needed PC, DSP kit, Headphones. Even though this was available at Government College of Engineering Amaravati, but I was not getting the access regularly then I decided to have my own set up. I got laptop, DSP kit, headphones with the help of personal loan in the year of 2006.
Subjects search:
Testing should be performed on subjects having hearing impairment. One subject was available i.e. my mother herself. For the others, I searched at Ali Yawar Jung, got responded by Director for library utilisation. Then I along with my wife went to ENT specialist in Thane area and got some subjects. Almost my subjects were from the area of Thane with age varying from 22 to 62 year old. Also I got help from Dr Bughlani from Thane who allows me to sit in his clinic and get information about audiogram reading.
Acknowledgements:
It is my pleasure to acknowledge the support of numerous people who have helped me physically and morally during the tenure of my research. I give all credit to the God who has imparted me with enough strength all through this period.
My deepest gratitude and special thanks clearly goes to Dr. D. S. Chaudhari, my thesis supervisor and my teacher, who has extended guidance without which this endeavour would not have been completed. His genuine interest in the field keeps me motivated, while his kindness and understanding always help me go through hard times. I am grateful to him for helping me to complete the work.
I express my sincere gratitude to the numerous professors for their lectures. My sincere gratitude goes towards the authorities of Ali Yavar Jung National Institute for the Hearing Handicapped (AYJNIHH), Mumbai, for allowing me to access the library. My honest gratitude to Dr. Budhlani, for locating the hearing impaired subjects and getting the audiogram. I appreciate the timely help and encouragements of many of my colleagues.
I specially thank all the hearing impaired subjects who have participated in the listening tests. My work would not have seen light, if they had not supported.
Words are not sufficient to convey my feelings towards my wife Pratibha and children Aditya, and Anjali who have patiently endured long hours of my staying away from home. I have deprived them of my love, presence, and support many a times during the tenure of research. They remain among those who motivated me continually. I also remember my parents, parent-in-laws and other members of my family, who have prayed for me and provided the needed courage. Understanding how much they want me to be successful is a major drive for me.
The chain of gratitude is never-ending. There are several others who have played significant role behind my success. Though I am not able to mention their names, deep in my heart there is an overwhelming feeling of warmth and gratitude.