Electroacoustic and behavioral evaluation of an open source audio processing platform

Hearing-aid (HA) research in academia is limited by the lack of wearable, reconfigurable, and reprogrammable audio processing platforms. We are developing such a platform, called the Tympan, which includes a Teensy 3.6 processor board that leverages the Arduino development environment while providing powerful computational capabilities. Custom-designed electronics are used for audio control, power management, and wireless communication. User-friendly software can be used to test the relative benefits of amplification variants. Users can also implement new algorithms and modify parameters of algorithms. This study evaluated an eight-channel HA implemented on the Tympan, relative to a commercially available HA. Gain was prescribed using NAL-NL1. Eighteen participants with hearing loss were tested. Electroacoustic tests included ANSI 3.22-2009 standard clinical measurements, the HA speech perception index, and the HA speech quality index. Behavioral tests included recognition of CASPA words in quiet and AzBi...