«The inability to see separates from things, the inability to hear separates from humans.» Immanuel Kant

Hearing disorders are usually diagnosed with subjective testing. This requires a conscious, active participation of the patient. In the case of a newborn or toddler, such tests are not feasible. Similarly, subjective tests are sometimes difficult to conduct in elderly people.

However, there are objective tests that allow assessing the status of hearing, without having to rely on the active cooperation of the investigated person.

To allow the most complete, fast and automated diagnosis of hearing with objective methods, the project has several goals:

• Integration of all objective and subjective testing of audiometry on a common measurement platform
• Combination of measurement methods that complement each other
• Improvements in terms of time requirements and degree of automation
• Miniaturization of the hardware used (goal: mobile system, handheld device)
• Development and evaluation of new methods

A DSP-based measurement platform (otobox) is developed, which generates stimuli and records evoked responses (EEG, microphone signals). The signal processing and analysis is partially implemented on the platform, and partially on a PC connected via Bluetooth.

Contact

Thomas Rosner

Florian Kandzia