Evaluation and Modelling of Hearing Deficiencies

In this part of the HearCom project, we look at the communication skills of people. To asses those skills, a number of tests are proposed, developed, and made available. Our interest lies in two types of tests: fast and reliable screening tests that can be used at home, and more thorough tests for professionals that produce a complete overview of a persons hearing and communication abilities.

This resulted in the following objectives:

  • Development and evaluation of speech communication tests to be used for:

  • self-screening of auditory impairment by means of the Internet and telephone network

  • audiological diagnostics by health professionals in a uniform way across different European languages

  • testing individual auditory capabilities in various adverse acoustic situations (including noise and reverberation) and assessing the utility of hearing instruments

  • Definition, development and standardisation within Europe of a concise set of audiological tests that will evaluate hearing performance under a large variety of acoustical conditions and that will result in a personal audiological profile.

  • Definition and evaluation of tests of spatial hearing which is relevant for 3D listening and localization in daily life.

  • Implementation and demonstration of the audiological tests on a common, standardized audiological workstation to be used by experts across Europe.

These objectives resulted in the following categories of tests: