Open Source Hearing Assessment System for Open Science

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The goal of this project is to build and validate an open-source research platform that will enable multiple- measure diagnostic hearing research across human and animal species. Our proposed innovation will promote reproducibility with easily connected open data repositories and accessibility to both researchers and subject populations, ensuring that studies enroll large enough populations to achieve the statistical power the hearing science community requires. Our user-friendly, low-cost, extendable, and mobile auditory test platform will facilitate collaborative development and the open exchange of new datasets and measurement paradigms within the broader hearing research community worldwide, including academia and industry. This project will leverage Creare's existing open-source Audio Processing platform, Tympan, an open, published design device that uses readily available components. The project will expand Tympan's functionality in fundamental ways: (i) it will significantly enhance the scope by supporting transducers for common tests of auditory function, including audiometry, otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), wideband acoustic immittance (WAI), speech recognition, and eventually evoked potentials; (ii) it will add software designed to easily administer a test battery and share test paradigms and data across research studies; and (iii) it will provide interfaces to back-end servers for seamless storage in semantically enriched open science data repositories. The project promises significant advances: (1) increased clinical transition of multiple-measure diagnostics through the open access to a validated powerful research platform; (2) improved transparency, reproducibility, and standardization of human and animal studies by providing easy access to an open science repository; and (3) increased access to high-quality research tools for resource-limited laboratories that will expand the reach of hearing research.