The UW researchers used cheap earbuds that are connected to a small microphone that can listen to the vibrations of the hair cells. A smartphone app then analyzes the sounds and can provide guidance to attend a specialist if abnormal results arise.<\/p>\n
Performing a hearing test with newborns is important to make sure that they receive the support they require if it turns out that they have a hearing issue. However, in many places in the world, people do not have access to the testing equipment required for these procedures.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere is a huge amount of health inequity in the world. I grew up in a country where there was no hearing screening available, in part because the screening device itself is pretty expensive,\u201d said Shyam Gollakota, one of the developers of the technology. \u201cThe project here is to leverage the ubiquity of mobile devices people across the world already have \u2014 smartphones and $2 to $3 earbuds \u2014 to make newborn hearing screening something that\u2019s accessible to all without sacrificing quality.\u201d<\/p>\n
The traditional way to test newborn hearing is to create sounds in the ear at two different tones. This causes the hair cells in the ear to vibrate, creating a third tone. The equipment listens for this third tone to interpret the test results. However, the traditional equipment used to perform this procedure is very expensive, in part because its speakers must be able to play the two different tones without any interference.<\/p>\nThese researchers turned to inexpensive earbuds as an alternative, and allow each earbud to play a different tone. The earbuds are also attached to a small microphone that can listen for the returning tone from the hair cells and a smartphone app uses algorithms to analyze the results, and reduce the effects of background noise and interference.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs you can imagine, these sounds that are coming out from the ear are very soft, and sometimes it\u2019s hard to hear them over noise in the environment or if the patient is moving their head,\u201d said \u00a0Justin Chan, another researcher involved in the project. \u201cWe designed algorithms on the phone that help us detect the signal even with all that background noise. These algorithms can run in real time on any smartphone and do not require the latest smartphone models.\u201d<\/p>\n
Study in journal Nature Biomedical Engineering<\/em>: An off-the-shelf otoacoustic-emission probe for hearing screening via a smartphone<\/p>\nVia: University of Washington<\/p>\n
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