The overall goal of this study is to develop a head tracking procedure for the automated assessment of hearing in infants using Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA). The head tracking procedure will be incorporated into the Intelligent Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (IVRA) system from Intelligent Hearing Systems Corp. The IVRA system currently provides automated stimulus delivery, data recording, and reinforcement but relies on an examiner to judge the presence of responses. Because examiners can vary in their response criterion, current VRA and IVRA results include a certain amount of examiner bias, which can increase test variability and compromise test validity. The proposed automated head tracking procedure will allow for automated recording of response occurrence and reaction time as a function of stimulus intensity and frequency and eliminate examiner bias and increase the reliability, validity and availability of VRA. The Phase I clinical study will involve 30 infants.
Visual Reinforcement Audiometry (VRA) is an important assessment tool in determining the hearing status of infants. The implementation of the proposed automated head tracking procedure in VRA is expected to greatly improve the clinical reliability, validity and utility of VRA testing. As such, the proposed work will greatly impact public health by developing better VRA testing systems.
