I-Corps: A virtual reality software for listening with hearing aids in complex environments

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The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project is to increase the adoption and perceived benefit of hearing aids using an improved virtual reality (VR) fitting process. Although many people may benefit from using hearing aids, the majority of potential patients choose not to purchase any devices. The different reasons suggested for not using hearing aids include negative stigma, cost, and little to no perceived benefit. The current process of fitting hearing aids is indirect, requiring multiple visits to the clinic. Users typically are fit with hearing aids, sent out to use them for a few weeks, and then asked return to the clinic for adjustments. As such, the process is time consuming to tune a device properly, and it is hard to know if the final tuning is what is best for a specific patient. The proposed virtual reality (VR) software may enable direct, real-time feedback about hearing aid fitting in a controlled clinical environment with a trained audiologist. Patients may be more involved in the hearing aid tuning process, enabling them to directly perceive the benefit of wearing hearing aids. With increased hearing aid adoption, better social engagement may potentially lower the rates of cognitive decline and depression, known comorbidities with hearing loss.This I-Corps project is based on the development of a virtual reality (VR) software to improve the fitting process for hearing aids within audiology clinics. The proposed technology uses an algorithm that enables a highly accurate virtual acoustic rendering of listening with and without hearing aids in realistic sound fields. Existing virtual acoustic algorithms have inaccuracies at higher frequencies, where hearing loss is most common. These inaccuracies make developing VR demonstrations of hearing aids difficult for complex, realistic sound fields. The proposed algorithm is designed to work well at all frequencies, so it may be accurately applied to virtual rendering of listening with hearing aids. The VR software developed for this project simulates both a listener’s natural hearing, without hearing aids, and a listener’s aided hearing, while wearing hearing aids. As such, this software seeks to allow a listener to directly compare their current hearing with the experience of wearing a hearing aid. The proposed technology uses devices currently on the market that are compatible with current hearing aid fitting processes and software used in audiology clinics. The proposed software also may be scaled to work with any hearing aid capable of low-latency streaming, expanding its compatibility across different devices.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.