Abstract
Occupational and recreational acoustic noise exposure is known to cause permanent hearing damage and reduced quality of life, which indicates the importance of noise controls including hearing protection devices (HPDs) in situations where high noise levels exist. While HPDs can provide adequate protection for many noise exposures, it is often a challenge to properly train HPD users and maintain compliance with usage guidelines. HPD fit-testing systems are commercially available to ensure proper attenuation is achieved, but they often require specific facilities designed for hearing testing (e.g., a quiet room or an audiometric booth) or special equipment (e.g., modified HPDs designed specifically for fit testing). In this study, we explored using visual information from a photograph of an HPD inserted into the ear to estimate hearing protector attenuation. Our dataset consists of 960 unique photographs from four types of hearing protectors across 160 individuals. We achieved 73% classification accuracy in predicting if the fit was greater or less than the median measured attenuation (29 dB at 1 kHz) using a deep neural network. Ultimately, the fit-test technique developed in this research could be used for training as well as for automated compliance monitoring in noisy environments to prevent hearing loss.
Highlights
Dangerous acoustic noise levels are encountered occupationally by 22 Â 106 workers annually (Tak et al, 2009)
Occupational and recreational acoustic noise exposure is known to cause permanent hearing damage and reduced quality of life, which indicates the importance of noise controls including hearing protection devices (HPDs) in situations where high noise levels exist
Occupational and recreational noise is known to cause permanent hearing damage and reduced quality of life, which indicates the importance of noise controls including hearing protection devices (HPDs)
Summary
Dangerous acoustic noise levels are encountered occupationally by 22 Â 106 workers annually (Tak et al, 2009). In the military, hearing protection devices are often not worn due to the fact that auditory situational awareness (e.g., sound detection, sound localization, and speech perception) may be reduced (Smalt et al, 2020). This in turn results in exposures that result in temporary and permanent audiometric shifts and possibly additional non-measurable damage to the auditory system (Hecht et al, 2019; Yankaskas et al, 2017). In the United States, manufacturers are required to label all HPDs with the NRR; because it is a laboratory-based test, the NRR is known to often overestimate the actual protection level provided in the field. Because of this overestimation bias, the NRR is often derated by 50% on a dB scale before calculating if a protected exposure is safe or not (Berger, 1996)
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