Crescendo: Developing a smartphone based hearing system
Date
2020
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Abstract
The ability to hear is an integral part of being a human being. It plays a vital role
in various facets of the human experience, communication, listening to music and even
being aware of one’s environment. Unfortunately, not everyone is born with this gift, and
the hard of hearing or deaf are thus isolated from society; simply because they cannot
communicate and build social connection in the same way as the hearing population. The
development of hearing aids was the attempt to bridge that gap; however, the considerable
expense and lack of production mean that these assistive technologies are not accessible
to those that really need it. Although this has continuously been an issue, the adoption of
smartphones across the globe means that technology is more accessible to people no matter
what part of the world they live in. Discoveries in digital signal processing algorithms
also suggest that sound can be manipulated to augment users hearing. The combination
of these accessible devices and improvements in technology means that there should be
a way to provide low cost, accessible hearing devices to all individuals, even those from
low-income countries. This research will explore how a functional application may be
created both to test a users hearing and function as a hearing aid.
Description
Undergraduate thesis submitted to the Department of Computer Science, Ashesi University, in partial fulfillment of Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science, May 2020
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Keywords
digital signal processing, low-cost hearing devices, mobile application, audiology testing