Portable Hearing Laboratory - CRP

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In the parent Phase II project (R44DC016247; PI: C. Pavlovic) we successfully developed a portable platform for developing and testing new hearing aid technology. This Portable Hearing Laboratory, or PHL, has now been acquired and is being used by a number of leading university laboratories and other research centers and their feedback has been extremely positive. The device features a central unit (BatAndCat Box) which provides an appropriate and complete hearing aid ambient for developing new algorithms. A number of realistic interfaces has also been provided. This includes an extremely high quality BTE system we designed; an ITE system adapted by us, as well as an appropriate interface circuitry for typical wearables (e.g; headsets via the line input). Finally, a smart phone app features interfaces both for the researcher and the subject. The system runs the Master Hearing aid sweet developed concurrently in R01DC015429 (PIs Hohmann and Pavlovic). In this CRP renewal we will achieve the following goals: 1. Implement various Design for Excellence Measures (DFX) and super modern manufacturing technology to obtain the highest product quality at the lowest product cost. This would make the product affordable for large clinical studies and, potentially, for some consumer sales. 2. In response to the recent availability of, and the recent research demand for, a far greater processing power to enable the development of algorithms which rely on machine learning, we plan to increase the processing power of the device by at least 10 times, and likely 20 times, by changing the processor core to a multicore system. 3. Introduce modern low-latency BLE technology to enable efficient noise reduction by utilizing remote microphones and machine learning. 4. The other complementary requirement to extract speech from noise is being able to inform the system whom the listener is actually listening to. This will be achieved by providing on the PHL the interface means for external multi-sensor arrays such as EEG, OEG, etc. 5. Execute electrical and mechanical design changes dramatically reducing the size and weight of the device. This would not only be a much more acceptable device for long clinical trials, but would also open up a direct-to-consumer, secondary market for the device. 6. It is our strong determination to provide continuous support to the Beta sites for extensive further testing of the device in a variety of settings. We consider this the best means to reach the perfection.