gms | German Medical Science

People with hearing difficulties often wait many years before they start using hearing aids, even though sooner treatment could lead to better outcomes. Reasons for deferring hearing aid treatment include, among others, overestimation of own hearing abilities and underestimation of the benefit provided by modern hearing aids [1]. One possibility to improve early uptake of hearing aids could be to showcase their potential benefits, for example during a clinical session right after diagnostic tests have revealed a problem, or at public events. Here, we present recent efforts into the development and evaluation of a prototype hearing aid demonstrator that is mobile, hygienic and practical to use. The demonstrator allows the wearer to experience the current acoustic environment processed with the same core features as in a commercially available hearing aid. The demonstrator is made up of a pair of sound-insulated headphones with attached microphones and the Portable Hearing Laboratory, a mobile platform for real-time hearing-aid signal processing [2]. The first version of the prototype contains core hearing-aid functionality, namely level- and frequency dependent amplification and directional microphones, which have been implemented in the open Master Hearing Aid framework [3]. Several amplification profiles tuned to a set of standard audiometric profiles can be selected to adjust the device settings for a given user. Evaluation measurements will assess the performance of the prototype demonstrator. This includes electro-acoustic measurements of the maximum output level, equivalent input noise and frequency response, as well as match to programmed gain targets. The evaluation results will be discussed in relation to the target application. They will also be compared to results obtained with commercial reference devices. Further, audiological evaluation measurements with hearing impaired subjects are planned.