Hearing loss is becoming an even more prevalent problem in our society today, especially with the excessive use of personal listening devices. But at the same time, it's a problem that goes unnoticed most of the time. In order to increase awareness for this real problem, it's time that we get people's hearing checked in order to prevent inevitable deafness. This is where the problem starts. It is very rare to get a hearing test from an audiologist without a recommendation from a doctor. The other alternative is to buy a home audiometer, but this is also very expensive and limited in its function.
SoundWorks is a computer-based audiometer that tests people in an automatic manner. It generates test tones of specific frequencies (pitches of sound) at ascending sound levels for which the testee must respond when hearing the tone through a calibrated headphone setup. It covers a normal range (100Hz-8000Hz) and an extended range up to 20,000Hz and sound levels ranging from 0dB to 120dB in intervals of 10dB. After both ears are tested, a report is automatically generated for further interpretation by an audiologist.
Differentiating enhancements of SoundWorks include hysteresis of threshold, multilingual voice and text prompts, manual mode for spot checks, and speech mode.
This product was developed in C# language on Microsoft Windows 7, debugged and has been validated for complete functionality. Calibration of all sound levels, frequencies and channels has also been completed.
SoundWorks aims to provide a portable and affordable hearing test capability for under-served economies, volunteer organizations, and frontline military medical units who need a quick screening of personnel exposed to excessive sound levels. Future plans for this product include medical certification and porting to mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets.
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