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Pierpaolo Vittorini, coordinator of the European project TERENCE (funded by the Seventh Framework Programme with the participation of BISITE), continues to work with us in the development of medical technology.

Research professor at the University of L’Aquila (Italy) and member of several scientific committees and conferences such as MIS4TEL or PACBB, his research focuses on the field of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) and that of e-HEALT. As a professor, he teaches various classes on computers, medical informatics and computer systems, having received the "Giuseppe Carruba" award for Best Professor of the Faculty of Medicine and Surgery during the 2006/2007 academic year.

Auditory problems as a starting point

Within the TERENCE project (international consortium of 12 universities and different companies) we developed a platform for children between the ages of 7 and 11 with auditory problems to improve their reading skills and, by extension, their overall school performance.

At present, we are developing a platform that includes hardware and software for measuring hearing levels. The device consists of a hearing aid and a bone transducer that sends stimuli and returns information on the condition of the cochlea, which it makes possible to know if the nerve is damaged.

The result is a hearing test in which the ability to hear sounds is evaluated by bone conduction. During the test, sounds are produced at different frequencies (125 Hz, 250 Hz, 500 Hz, 1000 Hz, 2000 Hz, 3000 Hz, 4000 Hz and 8000 Hz) and with varying degrees (from 20 dB to 120 dB). The data are presented in graphical format in the mobile application, facilitating the analysis of the hearing levels of each person.

For the analysis of information (bearing in mind that medical care is the most appropriate) we must take into account that the normal range of human hearing is about 20 to 20,000 Hz (human language is issued with a tone between 500 and 3000 Hz). As a precaution in terms of intensity, sounds greater than 85 dB, like those heard in a rock concert, can cause hearing loss within a few hours, and sounds exceeding 120 dB can produce pain and hearing loss almost immediately.