Automating hearing assessments for all

Hearing loss affects nearly 1.5 million people in the Netherlands, resulting in devastating consequences for children and adults. Hearing screening is essential, but requires clinicians’ time and is not easily available to everyone. Automatic speech recognition (ASR) technology can revolutionise screening for hearing loss, yet, the existing systems work only for native-speaker healthy adults. We will develop and evaluate self-administered automated tests for screening multiple populations, making the tests accessible for all. We will customise freely available ASR systems to automate traditional hearing tests, and humanoid robots as interactive interfaces to increase the effectiveness of the new tests.

Research Team

dr. ir. Gloria Araiza-Illan (UMCG Otorhinolaryngology)
Prof. dr. ir. Deniz Başkent (UMCG Otorhinolaryngology)
Prof. dr. Barbara van Munster (UMCG Geriatrics, Alzheimer Centrum Groningen)
Prof. dr. Joke Spikman (UMCG Clinical Neuropsychology)
Prof. dr. Ute Bültmann (UMCG Health Sciences)
Ir. Bert Maat and dr. ir. Sander Ubbink (UMCG ENT)
Prof. dr. Bernd Meyer (University of Oldenburg)

User Committee

Sonova AG
Gemeentelijke Gezondheidsdienst (Public Health Department)
Arbo Unie (Health Care Providers for Occupational Health)
Stichting Open Spraaktechnologie (Open Speech Technology Foundation)
Computational Audiology Network (CAN)

Student projects

Daniel Tiran
Katarzyna Kapuścińska
Devi Hoogerbrug
Thijmen Meijer
Edoardo Visconti

Funded by Open Technology Programme