Development of a Hearing Health Monitoring Earplug for the Individual Assessment of a Human's Susceptibility to Develop Noise-Induced Hearing Loss

ETS和Sonomax Technologies之间正在进行的高效研究合作已经改变了工业听力保护方面的最佳实践。这项专注于听力健康监测的新提案如果成功，可能会产生一些想法，将进一步推动这一伙伴关系。 A.拟议研究方案的目标 听力保护设备(HPD)用于保护3000万噪声暴露的北美工人中的大多数人免受噪声性听力损失(NIHL)的影响。拟议研究计划的目标是开发一种HPD，能够舒适地保护工人，并连续测量实际接收的噪声剂量和诱发的听觉疲劳，同时考虑到工人自身患上NIHL的易感性。 B.技术和科学方法 为实现这些目标，将开发两项初步技术： 1)一个“剂量耳塞”，能够监测噪声剂量，并在即将达到日剂量时向用户及其主管发出警告。 2)“耳声发射监测耳塞”，它可以监测耳蜗的反应，并且可以比传统的听力测量方法更快地检测到特定用户听力水平的轻微漂移。 科学研究的核心是结合上述两种设备的特点，实时研究噪声暴露与听觉损伤之间的关系。 C.新颖性、重要性和预期效益 这项拟议的研究计划将导致开发一种非常独特的听力健康监测HPD。从科学角度来看，拟议的研究计划将有助于提高对人类听觉系统基本属性的基本知识，例如个人听觉疲劳恢复率或个人不再积累剂量的个人“真实”沉默水平。

The ongoing highly productive research collaboration between ÉTS and Sonomax Technologies has transformed best-practices in industrial hearing conservation. This new proposal, focused on hearing health monitoring, if successful, could generate ideas that will propel this partnership even further. A. OBJECTIVES OF THE PROPOSED RESEARCH PROGRAM Hearing Protection Devices (HPD) are used to protect most of the 30 million noised-exposed North-American workers against noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL). The objective of the proposed research program is to develop an HPD able to comfortably protect the worker and to continuously measure both the actual noise dose received and the induced auditory fatigue, taking into account the worker's own susceptibility to develop NIHL. B. TECHNOLOGICAL & SCIENTIFIC APPROACH To achieve these goals, two preliminary technologies will be developed: 1) A "dosimetric earplug" capable of monitoring the noise dose and warning both the user and his supervisor when the daily dose is about to be reached. 2) An "Otoacoustic Emissions monitoring earplug" that monitors cochlear responses and that could detect, for a given user, slight drifts in hearing levels much sooner than classical audiometric methods. The core scientific research is to study in real-time the relationship between noise exposure and auditory damage by combining the features of the two aforementioned devices. C. NOVELTY, SIGNIFICANCE AND EXPECTED BENEFITS This proposed research program will lead to the development of a very unique hearing-health monitoring HPD. From a scientific point of view, the proposed research program will contribute to improve fundamental knowledge of basic properties of the human auditory system, such as the individual auditory fatigue recovery rate or the individual "true" silence level below which the cochlea no longer accumulates doses.