Estimating Gap Detection Threshold and Comodulation Masking Release (Uncomodulated Noise Bands) on Android

According to the World Health Organization, around 466 million human beings worldwide are affected by hearing impairment [1]. Early diagnosis and treatment of hearing-impaired patients is critical. While many auditory processing assessment techniques exist, they are limited to being used in sound-proof rooms in laboratories. The laboratory equipment used for such tests is expensive and complicated. An inadequate number of accessible sound-proof laboratories, along with problems like long test durations, lack of motor ability (in old people), financial constraints, dissuades people from visiting test centers and undergoing hearing assessment tests. This paper describes a mobile application that can conduct two psychoacoustic tests: Gap Detection Test (GDT) and Comodulation Masking Release - uncomodulated noise bands (CMR-UCM) Test. The application determines the test-taker's Gap Detection Threshold and Comodulation Masking Release Threshold. These values are used by doctors to assess whether the test-taker is hearing impaired or not. The threshold results obtained from the application were compared to the results obtained from the program used in the laboratory. For GDT, the Cosine Similarity between the app and the lab program was found to be 0.994 and the Correlation Coefficient was found to be 0.951. For CMR-UCM, the Cosine Similarity between the app and the lab program was found to be 0.994 and the Correlation Coefficient was found to be 0.732. Mobile application implementation increases portability of these tests and they become accessible to a much larger audience. It also eliminates the need for expensive equipment, sound-proof laboratories and allows for faster diagnosis and treatment of hearing-impaired patients.