Contribution

Development of a measurement system to determine human ear canal wall mechanical impedance in situ: Method and sensitivity of early prototype

Authors

* Presenting author
Day / Time: 20.03.2025, 11:00-11:40
Room: Hall E, Poster Island H
Typ: Poster
Session: Electroacoustics and Audio Signal Processing (Poster Island H)
Information: The posters will be exhibited in Hall E north from Tuesday to Thursday, sorted by thematic context in the poster island indicated in the session title. The poster session at the specified time offers the opportunity to enter into discussion with the authors.
Abstract: Until now, the mechanical point impedance inside the human ear canal is unknown. The aim of this work is to develop and calibrate a miniature measurement device that could be used to measure the mechanical point impedance of the ear canal wall in-situ. The underlying method utilizes an electromechanical two-port model of an electromechanical transducer in order to estimate the mechanical load impedance that is attached to the measurement device based on the measured acceleration and the input voltage of the vibration exciter. For this publication, the simplest form of the measurement device, consisting of one acceleration sensor and one vibration exciter, is considered. For the calibration of this device, different pure masses are applied as mechanical loads. The impact of different loads on the measured transfer functions is investigated to obtain an estimate of the sensitivity of the measurement device.