Designing a Single Speaker-based Ultra Low-Cost Otoacoustic Emission Hearing Screening Probe

Hearing impairment is one of the most widespread disabilities world wide. Early detection and treatment of hearing loss in neonates and small children is necessary for normal speech development. Also early detection of hearing loss in adolescents and adults will improve treatment possibilities. However, comprehensive hearing screening is not easily accessible everywhere and is too expensive for mass usage, especially in developing countries. While there are solutions for smartphone based self-administered tests, these cannot be used for neonates and small children. We propose a simplified low-cost ear probe, to measure otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), which can be used for objective hearing screening, without feedback from the subject. In this paper we built five different prototype probes and characterize them. Finally, we selected two probes and demonstrate the feasibility in a small study.