Grant: Idea to Innovation

Functional loss of the auditory modality has a debilitating effect on the quality of life of millions people in North America. The conventional "audiogram", which assesses the hearing sensitivity at discrete frequencies, is inadequate in comprehensively describing a person's auditory loss. Psychoacoustic measurements go beyond the traditional audiogram to provide a comprehensive evaluation of the auditory function. In this project, we propose to enhance a prototype platform developed at the National Centre for Audiology for psychoacoustic assessments of children and adults. Key features of the proposed psychoacoustic test platform include: a highly intuitive software user interface that allows the clinician to select and run the appropriate psychoacoustic tests; rich multimedia and animation for motivating and engaging young children in completing the psychoacoustic tasks; and a handheld device with high quality wireless headphones for field measurement purposes. Together with the Industry Liaison office at Western, we are working towards the creation of a spin-off company to maximize the commercial value of this platform technology, first step being the development of the psychoacoustic measurement system. To date, there are no reliable psychoacoustic testing devices on the market to meet the needs, representing an attractive opportunity. 121 funding will allow us to further refine the software program for the application and to integrate the system. We have received serious interest from industry players including Unitron Canada from Kitchener, Ontario and GN Otometrics from Denmark (see enclosed support letters). With support from 121, we shall be in a position to pursue partnership with leading industry players and to bring economic impact to the local community through our spin-off.