iSound: A smartphone based intelligent sound fusion system for the hearing impaired

Abstract

High quality hearing aids can come with a premium price tag. As a result, it can be challenging for a hearing impaired individual to obtain a hearing aid. Without such a device, the individual may struggle to communicate with others. To address this challenge, we aim to develop a smartphone-based hearing aid application (termed as iSound) that can serve as an alternative option for hearing impaired individuals. The iSound app is designed to have the capability to adapt to various scenarios with different requirements. Specifically, iSound can utilize both gain (volume) increases and frequency compression techniques as required. We implement iSound on an off-the-shelf Android-based smartphone. The current implementation of iSound is demonstrated to be able to compress signals to a desired range of frequencies as specified, with some distortions and delays. We believe iSound can be a viable alternative for hearing impaired individuals.