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Essex researchers receive funding to develop hearing 'dummy'

Written by Sam Fountain

Wednesday, 05 September 2007

Article Index Essex researchers receive funding to develop hearing 'dummy' Page 2 Page 1 of 2 Researchers at the University of Essex are leading the UK’s work to improve the quality of life for billions of people worldwide who suffer from hearing loss, attracting almost £0.5m in funding. Professor Ray Meddis plans to develop a computerised ‘hearing dummy’ able to simulate a patient’s hearing loss, making it easier for audiologists to maximise the potential of a patient’s hearing aid. “The project allows us to make more extensive measurements of people’s hearing to get a more detailed understanding of what is wrong when people are not hearing well,” said Prof Meddis, of the University’s Department of Psychology. Building on over 20 years of research into how the ear works, Prof Meddis has developed a computer model for normal hearing which he plans to fine tune to represent the hearing of individual patients, making it easier to personalise hearing aids. “Then we will have a better idea of what remedies can be applied and improved diagnosis will help audiologists take better advantage of recent technological developments,” he said. The program, which has won a £447k fund from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Funding council (ESPRC), along with £50k from the Deafness Research Council aims to test the computer model on patients, to assess which hearing aid would be optimise their hearing. “The magic ingredient is the computer model,” said Meddis. “I use the model to predict a patient’s responses and to specify the underlying pathology – the particular bit that is not working which differs from person to person.” “I need to devise a battery of tests that will allow me to tune the model to represent a particular individual.” Using the results from tests on actual patients, Meddis will be able to adapt the model to assess what kind of hearing loss they suffer from, and use that data to personalise the attributes of the hearing aid they need – without requiring the patient to make multiple visits to a clinic. Prev - Next >>

 

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