Detection of sensorneural hearing impairment by using DPOAE technique and classifiers

Both amplitudes and latencies of Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions (DPOAE) at 2fl-f2 are measured over the range 1-9 kHz and 1-6 kHz of f2 respectively, from 86 normally hearing and 13 hearing impaired human ears. First the normality ranges are determined for amplitude and latency of DPOAEs. Classifiers such as the K-means and Artificial Neural Network techniques have been tested and both have shown that the latency and the amplitude parameters must be used together to increase the rate of success in identifying the hearing impaired subjects with sensorineural hearing problems.