다양한 자극음을 이용한 모바일 이명 진단과 치료 시스템

A Mobile System for Tinnitus Diagnostics and Therapy using Various Sound Stimuli

Abstract

A common treatment for tinnitus rehabilitation is to use a device called a sound generator to continuously supplying the sound stimuli. The devices usually provides a sound called white noise, or pink noise, which are common in nature. In this paper, we developed a mobile system for tinnitus diagnostics and therapy using Android mobile applications. The first step for tinnitus diagnostics is detecting an exact tinnitus frequency of the patients, therefore we provide a bark scale tinnitus detection algorithm for fast and accurate diagnostics. Also, the system can provide various stimuli sounds including white noise, pink noise, brown noise, nature sounds, and binaural beats. Also we provides the therapeutic functions through questionnaires to solve existing problems of the patients.

Fig. 1. Ear anatomy[1-2].

Fig. 2. Frequency-specific processing locations within the coclear.

Fig. 3. Frequency and band relationship diagram of the bark scale.

Fig. 4. Various noise used on this paper (a) White noise (b) Pink noise (c) Brown noise (d) Narrow band noise.

Fig. 5. Two different frequency sounds and binaural beats. The summation of 100 Hz and 110 Hz pure tone sounds make a 10Hz sounds, which called a binaural beats.

Fig. 6. Sum of 100Hz frequency and 110Hz frequency, the sum of two frequency makes 10Hz fre-quency signal.

Fig. 7. Tinnitus diagnostics and therapy system diagram.

Fig. 8. Tinnitus frequency searching algorithm.

Fig. 9. System flow after hearing compensation,

Fig. 10. Screen shots of the tinnitus diagnostic, therapy and patient management system.

Table 1. Comparison of existing treatment methods and proposed systems