Crescendo: Developing a smartphone based hearing system
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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.