Capacitive Pressure/Velocity Probe for Acoustic Measurements in the Human Ear Canal

用于人耳道声学测量的电容式压力/速度探头

• 批准号: 9884604
• 负责人: RONALD N MILES
• 金额: $ 29.62万
• 依托单位: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NY,BINGHAMTON
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2019-03-02 至 2024-02-29
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9884604
• 关键词: Acoustics; Air; Auditory system; Calibration; Clinic; Clinical; Data; Dependence; Detection; Devices; Ear; Earplug; Electrodes; Electronics; Electrostatics; Elements; Environment; Estrogen receptor positive; External auditory canal; Fiber; Floor; Frequencies; Health; Hearing Aids; Hearing problem; Human; Laboratory Research; Labyrinth; Location; Measurement; Measures; Mechanics; Methods; Modernization; Monitor; Morphologic artifacts; Motion; Noise; Output; Performance; Peripheral; Physiological; Physiology; Procedures; Research; Research Personnel; Scheme; Signal Transduction; Structure; System; Therapeutic Effect; Therapeutic Intervention; Thinness; Time; Transducers; design; functional status; hearing impairment; improved; innovation; light weight; microphone; middle ear; miniaturize; nanoscale; normal hearing; novel; novel strategies; otoacoustic emission; particle; pressure; response; sensor; sound; tool; vibration; young adult

The aim of this research is to create a miniature acoustic velocity sensor which, when combined with a conventional miniature pressure microphone will enable accurate measurements of otoacoustic emissions and wideband middle-ear reflectance within the human ear canal. These quantities reveal important information about the functional status of the peripheral auditory system. Existing methods of making acoustic measurements within the ear canal using sound pressure microphones suffer from the strong dependence of pressure on the measurement location. This research will enable the detection of acoustic particle velocity simultaneously with sound pressure providing a much more repeatable and reliable measure of otoacoustic emissions than existing methods. Existing methods for measuring physiologically relevant sounds in the ear canal also suffer because these sounds are often very quiet, close to the noise floors of the miniature microphones employed in state-of-the-art systems for measuring otoacoustic emissions. The proposed effort will enable the detection of otoacoustic emissions at levels at least 10 dB lower than currently feasible. Lowering the measurement noise floor will reduce the averaging time necessary to extract these signals from noise and enable the detection of much quieter otoacoustic emissions, which can be important in subjects with hearing loss. Extending our ability to measure these important sounds in the human ear canal will lead to new discoveries of middle and inner ear function and will provide greatly improved clinical tools for the hearing impaired. This research comprises an extension of a recent discovery by the investigators that nanoscale fibers can be driven by viscous forces such that their sound-induced vibrations can be nearly identical to that of the air in a sound field. The motion of air velocity-driven electrodes will be detected using their new approach to capacitive sensing that is appropriate for highly compliant structures such as those used here. The novel acoustic velocity sensor will then be incorporated with a low-noise miniature hearing aid microphone in a measurement device. Acoustic measurements in human ear canals obtained using this low-noise and robust system will then be compared to those obtained using existing methods.

本研究的目的是建立一个微型声速传感器，当与一个 传统的微型压力麦克风将能够精确测量耳声 人耳道内的发射和宽带中耳反射。这些数据揭示了 关于外周听觉系统功能状态的重要信息。 使用声压在耳道内进行声学测量的现有方法 麦克风受到压力对测量位置的强烈依赖性的影响。这 研究将使声粒子速度与声压同时检测成为可能 提供了比现有的耳声发射更可重复和可靠的测量 方法. 用于测量耳道中生理相关声音的现有方法也受到影响，因为 这些声音通常非常安静，接近于 最先进的耳声发射测量系统。拟议的努力将使 耳声发射的检测水平至少比目前可行的低10 dB。降低 测量噪声基底将减少从噪声中提取这些信号所需的平均时间 并且能够检测更安静的耳声发射，这在受试者中可能是重要的 有听力损失。扩展我们在人类耳道中测量这些重要声音的能力， 导致中耳和内耳功能的新发现，并将提供大大改进的临床工具 为听障人士而设。 这项研究是研究人员最近发现的一个扩展，即纳米纤维可以 由粘性力驱动，使得它们的声致振动可以与 声场中的空气。空气速度驱动电极的运动将使用他们的新的 电容感测的方法，其适合于高度顺应性结构，诸如所使用的那些 这里. 这种新型的声速传感器将与低噪声微型助听器结合在一起 测量设备中的麦克风。在人耳道声学测量获得使用此 然后将低噪声和鲁棒系统与使用现有方法获得的系统进行比较。