SBIR Phase II: Software Technology for Improved Perception of Speech/Audio to Self Personalize Hearing Aids/Devices

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase II project is to potentially provide personalized hearing health care for those with hearing loss. Providing a customized amplification device and app solution that allows the user to understand speech more clearly may avoid audiologist appointments and allow the user to take control of their hearing right from their phone.

Hearing loss is often associated with decreased employment and potentially lower income. An effective amplification device may enable those with mild-to-moderate hearing loss to improve their employment and earnings. Additionally, this technology may remove the discomfort that certain populations experience within the medical system and provide individualized empowerment in relation to their hearing.

This SBIR Phase II project seeks to deliver personalized sound profiles from the comfort of the user’s home at a fraction of the cost of traditional hearing aid solutions. This self-fitting technology differentiates is differentiaed from the majority of over-the-counter or direct-to-consumer hearing solutions as the new technology allow the hearing aid enable personalize sound profiles in a variety of different listening environments.

The technological goals are to allow users to optimize sound profiles in situ for live sound environments, and to standardize the software platform to enable partnerships with any hardware manufacturer in order to expand the suite of products that can help people hear clearly. The proposed project will continue the development of the technology including: increasing the range of frequencies that are adjusted during the self-fitting process, including the adjustment of non-linear gain parameters in the self-fitting process, an allowing users to obtain profiles for different listening environments.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.