Method and device for continuous in-ear hearing health monitoring on a human being

A device for continuous in-ear hearing health monitoring on a human being, the device comprising:

• a pair of earpieces, each said earpiece including an internal microphone (IEM-I, IEM-C) adapted to be in fluid communication with an outer ear canal of an ear of a user, an outer ear microphone (OEM-I, OEM-C) adapted to be in fluid communication with an adjacent environment outside the ear of the user, and first and second receivers adapted to be in fluid communication with the outer ear canal;
• a controller system connecting to both the first and second receivers of at least one said pair of earpieces for simultaneously sending first (f1(n)) and second (f2(n)) stimuli sound signals thereto, respectively, the controller system connecting to the internal and outer ear (IEM-I, OEM-I) of one said earpieces corresponding the a tested ear of the user and to the internal (IEM-C) microphone of the other one said earpieces for recording respective inner (d1(n)), outer (x2(n)) and inner (x1(n)) sound signals therefrom;
• and
• an output media connected to the controller system for providing a resulting magnitude of a distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) signal calculated by the controller system using a noise rejection algorithm and a signal extraction algorithm based on a carrier signal (c(n)) at a frequency of the DPOAE signal established using the first (f1(n)) and second (f2(n)) stimuli sound signals.

A method for continuous in-ear hearing health monitoring on a human being based on measurements of distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) signals and using a pair of first and second earpieces, each said earpiece having an internal microphone (IEM-I, IEM-C) adapted to be in fluid communication with an outer ear canal of an ear of a user, an outer ear microphone (OEM-I, OEM-C) adapted to be in fluid communication with an adjacent environment outside the ear of the user, and first and second receivers adapted to be in fluid communication with the outer ear canal, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) sending simultaneously first (f1(n)) and second (f2(n)) stimuli sound signals to the first and second receivers of the first earpiece of a tested ear of the user, respectively;
• b) simultaneously recording respective inner (d1(n)) and outer (x2(n)) sound signals from the internal and outer ear microphones (IEM-I, OEM-I) of the first earpiece and an inner sound signal (x1(n)) from the internal microphone (IEM-C) of the second earpiece;
• and
• c) processing the inner (d1(n), x1(n)) and outer (x2(n)) sound signals of said first and second earpieces to obtain a resulting distortion product otoacoustic emission (DPOAE) signal based on the first (f1(n)) and second (f2(n)) stimuli sound signals and using a noise rejection algorithm followed by a signal extraction algorithm.

A signal noise rejection method for providing a signal (s(n)) of an otoacoustic emission (OAE) for a continuous in-ear hearing health monitoring on a human being and using first and second in-ear earpieces being worn by a user, each said earpiece having an internal microphone (IEM-I, IEM-C) adapted to be in fluid communication with an outer ear canal of a respective ear of the user, an outer ear microphone (OEM-I, OEM-C) adapted to be in fluid communication with an adjacent environment outside the respective ear of the user, and first and second receivers adapted to be in fluid communication with the outer ear canal, first (f1(n)) and (f2(n)) second stimuli sound signals being simultaneously respectively sent to the first and second receivers of the first earpiece adapted for being worn in a tested ear of the user, first inner (d1(n)) and outer (x2(n)) sound signals being respectively simultaneously recorded from the internal (IEM-I) and outer ear (OEM-I) microphones of the first earpiece, and second inner sound signal (x1(n)) being simultaneously recorded from the internal microphone (IEM-C) of the second earpiece, the method comprising the steps of:

• a) acquiring a first input signal based on the first inner (d1(n)) sound signal;
• b) performing a noise rejection of the first input signal with either 1) a first output (y1(n)) from an inner-ear normalized least-mean square (NLMS) adaptive filtering of the second inner sound signal (x1(n)) to get an inner-ear noise reduced OAE signal (e1(n)) being a second input signal based on the first inner (d1(n)) sound signal, or 2) a second output (y2(n)) from an outer-ear normalized least-mean square (NLMS) adaptive filtering of the outer sound signal (x2(n)) to get an outer-ear noise reduced OAE signal (e2(n)) being a second input signal based on the first inner (d1(n)) sound signal;
• c) performing a noise rejection of the second input signal with either 1) a second output (y2(n)) from an outer-ear normalized least-mean square (NLMS) adaptive filtering of the outer sound signal (x2(n)) to get a outer-ear noise reduced OAE signal (e2(n)) being the OAE signal, or 2) a first output (y1(n)) from an inner-ear normalized least-mean square (NLMS) adaptive filtering of the second inner sound signal (x1(n)) to get an inner-ear noise reduced OAE signal (e1(n)) being the OAE signal (s(n)), respectively;
• and
• d) providing the OAE signal (s(n)).