Head-Tracked Ear Speaker Audiometry for Accurate Hearing Assessment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional subjective audiometry is affected by variations in reproduction hardware, listening levels, and noise floors, leading to inaccurate hearing ability assessments.
Innovation Solution
A method using two ear speakers to provide audio signals, measuring head position parameters, and adapting audio signals in real-time to ensure equal sound perception, allowing calculation of overall sensitivity, differential sensitivity, and latency shifts based on the person's natural head movements.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If traditional subjective audiometry is used with fixed reproduction hardware and standardized listening levels, then the assessment process is simple and quick, but the measurement precision is reduced due to variations in hardware, listening levels, and noise floors
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies dynamics by making the audio signal adaptation dynamic based on real-time head position measurements. The system continuously measures head position parameters and adapts the audio signal accordingly, transforming a static audiometry process into a dynamic one that responds to user movements, thereby improving measurement precision without requiring complex additional hardware
Solution Approach 2:
The system implements feedback by measuring head position parameters and using this information to adapt the audio signal in real-time. This closed-loop feedback mechanism ensures that the audio presentation compensates for head movements, maintaining accurate hearing threshold measurements despite variations in hardware and environmental conditions
2Measurement precision
If the person's head position is continuously measured and audio signals are adapted in real-time, then the measurement precision is improved by accounting for head movements, but the loss of time increases due to repeated measuring and adapting cycles
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies continuity of useful action by continuously measuring head position and continuously adapting the audio signal throughout the assessment. This continuous adaptation ensures that the useful action of accurate sound presentation is maintained without interruption, improving measurement precision while minimizing time loss through efficient continuous processing
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs preliminary action by pre-establishing the measurement and adaptation framework before the actual hearing threshold determination begins. Head position measurement and audio signal adaptation are prepared in advance and executed efficiently during the assessment, reducing the time penalty of continuous monitoring
3Reliability
If multiple audio signal parameters are adapted based on head position, then the reliability of hearing assessment is improved by compensating for environmental variations, but the device complexity increases due to multiple sensing and processing components
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies universality by designing the ear speakers to serve multiple functions: they are both the audio output devices and the platforms for mounting head position sensors. This multi-functionality reduces device complexity while maintaining reliability, as the same components perform multiple roles in the assessment system
Solution Approach 2:
The system merges the audio signal adaptation function with the head position measurement function into a unified process. By combining these functions and processing them together in real-time, the patent reduces the need for separate complex subsystems, thereby improving reliability while managing device complexity
Data Source
AI summary
A method for assessing hearing abilities of a human person having two cars, the method comprising: —providing two audio signals (S1, S2) to two respective car speakers (15, 16) at a person's corresponding cars; —measuring at least one value of at least one parameter (x15, y15, z15, x16, y16, z16) representative of the person's head position, adapting at least one of the two audio signals (S1, S2) based on the at least one measured value ((x15, y15, z15, x16, y16, z16), and repeating the measuring and adapting often enough for the sounds provided to the person to correspond to their actual head position; —detecting that the person has found their best perception of the two sounds; —calculating from the person's head position corresponding to the best perception an overall sensitivity value, a differential sensitivity value and/or a value of a latency shift of the person.