Daily cognitive monitoring of early signs of hearing loss

A computer program product, the computer program product comprising a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith, the embodied program instructions being executable by a processing circuit to cause the processing circuit to:

• obtain, by the processing circuit, baseline hearing for a user;
• receive, by the processing circuit, collected data from one or more data collection devices after obtaining the baseline hearing, the collected data being aggregated over a period of time lasting at least one month, wherein the collected data comprises audio data of the user of the one or more data collection devices;
• analyze, by the processing circuit, the audio data for indications of hearing loss in the user over the period of time, wherein the program instructions configured to cause the processing circuit to analyze the audio data comprises program instructions configured to cause the processing circuit to:
• determine, using the processing circuit, whether an emotion of the user and/or at least one noise caused an elevated speech volume, wherein the emotion is determined based on a trait not utilized during normal speaking, and wherein the trait is selected from the group consisting of:
• a cracking voice of the user, an emphasis on words that indicate the emotion, an emphasis on words that indicate the emotion, an emphasis on parts of words that indicate the emotion, and combinations thereof;
• identify, using the processing circuit, the at least one noise from the audio data, the at least one noise being selected from the group consisting of:
• background noise, ambient noise, and combinations thereof;
• and
• normalize, using the processing circuit, the audio data to account for the emotion of the user and the identified at least one noise, and discount the elevated speech volume accordingly, prior to storing the audio data to the computer readable storage medium;
• and
• analyze, using the processing circuit, the stored audio data for one or more indicia of hearing loss;
• and
• alert, by the processing circuit, the user of the one or more indicia of hearing loss being detected in response to determining hearing loss that exceeds a predetermined threshold percentage of the baseline hearing being detected as a result of analyzing the audio data.

A computer-implemented method, the method comprising:

• obtaining baseline hearing ability for a user;
• receiving collected data from one or more data collection devices after obtaining the baseline hearing, the collected data being aggregated over a period of time lasting at least one month, wherein the collected data comprises audio data of the user of the one or more data collection devices;
• analyzing the audio data for indications of hearing loss in the user over the period of time, wherein analyzing the audio data comprises:
• determining whether an emotion of the user and/or at least one noise caused an elevated speech volume, wherein the emotion is determined based on a trait not utilized during normal speaking, and wherein the trait is selected from the group consisting of:
• a cracking voice of the user, an emphasis on words that indicate the emotion, an emphasis on words that indicate the emotion, an emphasis on parts of words that indicate the emotion, and combinations thereof;
• identifying the at least one noise from the audio data, the at least one noise being selected from the group consisting of:
• background noise, ambient noise, and combinations thereof;
• and
• normalizing the audio data to account for the emotion of the user and the identified at least one noise, and discount the elevated speech volume accordingly, prior to storing the audio data to a computer readable storage medium;
• and
• analyzing the stored audio data for one or more indicia of hearing loss;
• and
• alerting the user of hearing loss being detected in response to hearing loss that exceeds a predetermined threshold percentage of the baseline hearing ability being detected as a result of analyzing the audio data.