A smartphone-based, privacy-aware recording system for the assessment of everyday listening situations

Authors

  • Sven Kissner Institute of Hearing Technology and Audiology, Jade University of Applied Sciences, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Inga Holube Institute of Hearing Technology and Audiology, Jade University of Applied Sciences, Oldenburg, Germany
  • Joerg Bitzer Institute of Hearing Technology and Audiology, Jade University of Applied Sciences, Oldenburg, Germany

Abstract

When trying to quantify hearing difficulties in every-day listening situations, mostly questionnaires are used to collect and evaluate subjective impressions. Obtaining objective data outside a laboratory is relatively difficult, given the required equipment and its proper handling as well as privacy concerns emerging from long-term audio recordings in a non-regulated and populated environment. Therefore, a smartphone-based system was developed that allows long-term ecological momentary assessment. Microphones are placed close to the ears to obtain signal characteristics, e.g., interaural level differences, similar to those perceived by a listener. Currently, root-meansquare, averaged spectra and the zero crossing rate are calculated. Additional features can be implemented and the flexibility of the smartphone itself allows for additional functionality, e.g., subjective ratings on predefined scales. A simple user interface ensures that the system can be properly handled by nontech-savvy users. As only the extracted features but not the audio-data itself are stored, screening and approval of the recorded data by the test subject is not necessary. Furthermore, additional standard features, e.g., the spectral centroid, can be computed offline, utilizing the recorded features.

References

Kates, J.M. (2008). Digital Hearing Aids. ISBN: 978-1-59756-317-8. (Plural Publishing).

Kollmeier, B. andWesselkamp, M. (1997). “Development and evaluation of a german sentence test for objective and subjective speech intelligibility assessment,” J. Acoust. Soc. Am., 102, 2412-1421.

Shiffman, S., Stone, A.A., and Hufford, M.J. (2008). “Ecological momentary
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Welch, P.D. (1997). “The use of fast Fourier transform for the estimation of power spectra: A method based on time averaging over short, modified periodograms,” IEEE Trans. Audio Electroac., 15, 70-73.

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Published

2015-12-15

How to Cite

Kissner, S., Holube, I., & Bitzer, J. (2015). A smartphone-based, privacy-aware recording system for the assessment of everyday listening situations. Proceedings of the International Symposium on Auditory and Audiological Research, 5, 445–452. Retrieved from https://proceedings.isaar.eu/index.php/isaarproc/article/view/2015-53

Issue

Section

2015/7. Novel methods for behavioral & objective assessment of hearing function