Using wireless telecommunication technology to promote tele-audiology

The purpose of this research is to investigate how wireless telecommunication technologies, more specifically Bluetooth, can be utilized in a tele-audiology assessment system to promote remote hearing diagnosis in the following aspects: supporting multiple hearing test modalities (e.g., pure-tone audiogram and speech test); providing a convenient communication means among three-party (i.e., audiologist, assistant and patient) involved in a typical test session with fairly limited software and hardware resources; and improving its reliability when unexpected scenarios occur during test sessions. This enhanced tele-audiology assessment system is composed of a web server, an integrated console device, and a Bluetooth-enabled audiometer. The console device is the portal to the users, which exchanges numeric commands and responses of various data types between the audiologist and patient, transmits audio and video data among the three parties, and introduces a reliability mechanism. Test results show that this tele-audiology assessment system can satisfy the requirement of clinical diagnostic hearing assessment.