The successful treatment of hearing loss depends on the individual practitioner’s experience and skill. So far, there is no standard available to evaluate the practitioner’s testing skills. To assess every practitioner equally, the paper proposes a first machine, dubbed artificial patient (AP), mimicking a real patient with hearing impairment operating in real time and real environment. Following this approach, we develop a multiple-input multiple-output auditory model that synthesizes various types of hearing loss as well as elements from psychoacoustics such as false response and reaction time. The model is then used to realize a hardware implementation, comprising acoustic and vibration sensors, sound cards, and a fanless personal computer. The AP returns a feedback signal to the practitioner upon perceiving a valid test tone at the hearing threshold analogous to a real patient. The AP is derived within a theoretical framework in contrast to many other solutions. The AP handles masked air-conduction and bone-conduction hearing levels in the range from 5 to 80 dB and from – 20 to 70 dB, respectively, both at 1 kHz. The frequency range is confined within 250 and 8000 Hz. The proposed approach sets a new quality standard for evaluating practitioners.

中文翻译：

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纯音测听人工病人

听力损失的成功治疗取决于个体从业者的经验和技能。到目前为止，还没有可用的标准来评估从业者的测试技能。为了平等地评估每个从业者，该论文提出了第一台机器，称为人工患者 (AP)，模拟在实时和真实环境中运行的真实听力障碍患者。按照这种方法，我们开发了一个多输入多输出听觉模型，该模型综合了各种类型的听力损失以及心理声学中的元素，例如错误反应和反应时间。然后使用该模型来实现硬件实现，包括声学和振动传感器、声卡和无风扇个人计算机。AP 在与真实患者相似的听力阈值处感知到有效测试音时，将反馈信号返回给从业者。与许多其他解决方案相比，AP 是在理论框架内推导出来的。AP 在 1 kHz 下分别处理 5 至 80 dB 和 – 20 至 70 dB 范围内的掩蔽空气传导和骨传导听力水平。频率范围限制在 250 和 8000 Hz 之间。提议的方法为评估从业者设定了新的质量标准。