Auracle: A mobile phone based Hearing-Aid
In collaboration with the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design(CIID)
Introduction
The ongoing project is an attempt to make health care devices more accessible and scalable by breaking away from the conventional mode of health care delivery. The current project “Auracle” is an endeavor to demonstrate the viability and the potential of building medical diagnostic tools based on mobile phones.
The device in development is a Hearing-Aid that plugs into the audio jack of the mobile phone. The mobile phone uses an app to perform an audiometry test. It then uses the data obtained to program the Hearing-Aid. In the context of the Hearing-Aid , being able to perform in-situ diagnostics is an important factor due to the necessity of frequent adjustments to suit the users preferences. Thus the current system would allow for the user to adjust and reprogram the hearing aid on his own.
By merging the prosthesis and the diagnosis into a single system we are allowing the system to be a complete package.By leveraging the ubiquitous presence of the mobile phone we envision devices could be deployed to work in remote locations where physical access is hard. These devices can then perform preliminary diagnoses in the absence of a doctor, generate quantitative reports, communicate the data to a serve for remote diagnosis and much more.
Status
Currently we are testing out the prototypes in the field to get feedback from the users. We intend to develop the prototypes further customizing them till they can be field tested on a significant user base.
