Design and Preliminary Assessment of a Portable Self-Hearing-Monitoring System

JI Fei; LIU Yan; LI Qian; LI Na; YU Lan; WANG Dayong; ZHOU Qiyou; WANG Qiuju

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1672-2922.2014.02.08

Abstract：Objective To design a portable self-hearing-monitoring system and to evaluate its reliability. Methods A portable self-hearing-monitoring system was composed using a ThinkPad laptop computer, Creative soundcard, ER3A insert phones and custom audio convertor. Custom software was developed and the test signals were calibrated. The original prototype was tested in small-sampled pre-assessment for major hardware or software flaws and led to revision of both software and hard-ware. A test-reliability assessment was then done in 18 normal hearing people (36 ears). Hearing thresholds in each subject were tested by regular pure tone audiometry in sound proof booth and by self hearing test as well. The thresholds at all frequen-cies from both methods were compared for differences. Results A prototype portable self-hearing-monitoring system was esteb-lished. Thresholds obtained by the self-hearing-monitoring system and pure tone audiometry fit well with each other between 250 Hz and 4 kHz (the difference was-1.81±8.29,-1.81±7.09, 0.56±6.95, 3.33±5.35, 1.94±6.68 and 3.47±5.71 dB, respec-tively), although discrepancy was noticed at 125 Hz (-6.11 ± 8.29 dB), 6 k Hz (-5.28 ± 6.54 dB) and 8 k Hz (-3.33 ± 6.87 dB). Ambient noise seemed to affect the test results of the system. Conclusions The portable self-hearing-monitoring system pro-vides a new convenient method for automatic audiometry. Test reliability of this system should be further evaluated.