Bone-Conduction Calibration

Robert H. Margolis; Gerald R. Popelka

doi:10.1055/s-0034-1390162

Seminars in Hearing, Table of Contents

Semin Hear 2014; 35(04): 329-345
DOI: 10.1055/s-0034-1390162

Thieme Medical Publishers 333 Seventh Avenue, New York, NY 10001, USA.

Bone-Conduction Calibration

Authors

Robert H. Margolis

¹Department of Otolaryngology, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minnesota

²Audiology Incorporated, Arden Hills, Minnesota
Gerald R. Popelka

³Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, Stanford University, Stanford, California

Abstract

The audiogram is one of the most powerful tests in health care. It is one of the few that can lead to a diagnosis on its own. Bone-conduction testing gives the audiogram its diagnostic power. Bone-conduction audiometry requires calibration methods that are expensive, cumbersome, and often misunderstood. Because the stimulus is a mechanical vibration, the quantities that are measured (force and acceleration) differ from the sound pressure measurements used to calibrate air-conducted tonal and speech stimuli. This article reviews the history of bone-conduction testing from its Renaissance beginnings, standard and alternative bone-conduction calibration methods, problems in current calibration standards, and the measurement of the performance of wearable and surgical bone-conduction hearing devices.

Keywords

Artificial mastoid - bone-conduction - calibration - mechanical impedance - tuning fork tests

Full Text

References

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