Methods and systems for hearing tests
An apparatus, system, and method for hearing tests are disclosed. In one embodiment, the method determines a set of candidate audiograms for a user. In one embodiment, the method includes estimating the slope of hearing level of a user. The method also includes estimating a pure tone average for the user based on the answers of the user to a questionnaire. The gender of the user is also determined. The gender, estimated slope, estimated pure pone average of the user are used to estimate the most possible audiograms from a set of predetermined candidate audiograms. A hearing aid is programmed based on the estimated audiograms for the user. The programmed hearing aid has several settings, each based on the estimated audiograms, for the user to choose from.
1. A method comprising:
presenting, by a sound card, a first stimulus signal at a first frequency and a second stimulus signal at a second frequency to a user, the first frequency and the second frequency in a human audible frequency range;
receiving adjustments, from a user interface operated by the user, to the first stimulus signal and the second stimulus signal to adjust an intensity of the first stimulus signal and the second stimulus signal;
determining, by a processor, a first hearing threshold and a second hearing threshold based on the adjustments to the first stimulus signal and the second stimulus signal;
calculating, by the processor, the difference between the first hearing threshold and the second hearing threshold to yield a user threshold difference;
asking questions to the user from a questionnaire;
receiving questionnaire answers from the user;
calculating, with the processor, a user predicted pure tone average based on received questionnaire answers;
receiving, with the processor, a user age;
receiving, with the processor, a user gender;
creating, by the processor, a set of candidate audiograms, where each audiogram in the set of candidate audiograms has an associated threshold difference comprising the difference between the first hearing threshold and the second hearing threshold, an associated predicted pure tone average, an associated age, and an associated gender;
comparing, with the processor, the user threshold difference, the user predicted pure tone average, the user age, and the user gender, to the associated threshold difference, the associated predicted pure tone average, the associated age, and the associated gender associated with one or more audiograms in the set of candidate audiograms; and
selecting, with the processor, a correlated audiogram from the set of candidate audiograms whose associated threshold difference, associated predicted pure tone average, associated age, and associated gender are most closely correlated to the user threshold difference, the user predicted pure tone average, the user age, and the user gender.
2. The method of claim 1 , where the first frequency is 2 kHz and the second frequency is 4 kHz.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the hearing thresholds comprises:
(a) determining a first lowest level of a stimulus signal that the user can hear;
(b) determining a second lowest level of the stimulus signal that the user can hear;
(c) determining whether a difference between the first lowest level and the second lowest level is within a predetermined range; and
(d) if the difference is within the predetermined range, calculating the hearing threshold, wherein the hearing threshold is based on the average of the first lowest level and the second lowest level; and
(e) if the difference is out of the predetermined range, repeating the steps (a), (b), (c) and (d).
4. The method of claim 1 , where calculating the difference between the first hearing threshold and the second hearing threshold further comprises calculating the range of the difference, where calculating the range of the difference further comprises:
estimating an error in the calculated difference; and
determining the range of the difference based on the calculated difference and the error in the calculated difference.
5. The method of claim 1 , where the questionnaire comprises the Better Hearing Institute (BHI) Questionnaire.
6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the questionnaire comprises the Hearing Screening Inventory (HSI) Questionnaire.
7. The method of claim 1 , further comprising programming a hearing aid for the user based on the correlated audiogram, where programming a hearing aid for the user comprises:
calculating one or more sets of hearing aid parameters based on the correlated audiogram; and
storing the one or more sets of hearing aid parameters in the hearing aid.