HEARING AID PREFERENCES

Summary

I was part of an academic-industry joint research team between UC Berkeley and the Starkey Hearing Research Center (SHRC). Our goal was to create a novel user interface for optimizing music listening for a hearing aid wearer over multiple genres. In the experimental interface, a user-configurable two-dimensional spatial map provided smooth interpolation between multi-dimensional preset vectors representing acoustic processing parameters of the hearing aid (e.g. compression, de-noising, EQ). The novel control paradigm was tested with hearing-impaired subjects to optimize a music listening experience in various genres, classical, country, rock, etc.

For the project, I was fitted by an audiologist with an "unlocked" hearing aid, with full API access to its internal processor. I modified the device via its detachable programming boot, drilling through the case and soldering a two-wire serial connection into the programming pins, enabling real-time modification of device processing parameters without having to remove the hearing aid. I used this configuration for rapid prototyping of the experimental interface.