Introduction

audiometry_trainer is a software for practicing clinical audiometry. The software simulates patient’s responses loaded from case files, and allows practicing essential aspects of the procedure including air/bone conduction threshold search and clinical masking. Figure Screenshot of the audiometry_trainer interface shows the main window of audiometry_trainer. Online video tutorials are available on Youtube.

Fig. 1 Screenshot of the audiometry_trainer interface

At startup audiometry_trainer selects a random virtual patient case file (you can load other case files from the File menu).

Fig. 2 File menu

The S marker in the audiogram window shows the current stimulus frequency and level. The threshold search is more conveniently conducted using the keyboard rather than via mouse button presses. Press the space bar to play the stimulus (the Stimulus light at the bottom will light up). If the virtual patient heard the stimulus the Response light on the left side will light up. Use the up/down arrow keys to change the stimulus level. Once you’ve found the threshold, press the T key to mark it on the audiogram plot. Use the right/left arrow keys to move to another frequency.

You can compare the thresholds that you’ve estimated with the actual expected thresholds by using the Show actual thresholds checkboxes at the bottom of the left panel. Virtual patients are modeled via psychometric functions and the “actual” thresholds are computed via Monte Carlo simulations: they are the median thresholds obtained over a large number of simulations; 95% confidence intervals can be shown by checking the CI checkboxes.

You can move from right to left ear and from air to bone conduction stimulation by selecting the desired options in the drop-down menus for Channel 1 at the top of the left panel. Channel 2 is used to deliver masking noise. To turn on Channel 2 check the Chan. 2 ON check box on the right panel, a M marker on the audiogram window will indicate the masking noise level. You can use the Chan. 2 level box and the up/down arrows on its right to set the masker level. You can also lock the Channel 1 and Channel 2 levels using the Lock Channels checkbox on the right panel; when the channels are locked increasing/decreasing the stimulus level by a given amount will automatically change the masker level by the the same amount.

A detailed description of all the features of audiometry_trainer will be given in the next sections. Section Installation tells how to obtain and install audiometry_trainer. Sections Threshold search and Masking explain how to perform a threshold search and how to use masking, respectively.

audiometry_trainer uses psychometric functions to model virtual patient responses. Responses are not deterministic (always yes/no above/below a given stimulus level) but probabilistic, with the probability of a response increasing with the stimulus level. This adds realism to the software because in real life the responses of patients are not deterministic. Section Virtual listener details the psychometric function model used by audiometry_trainer.

audiometry_trainer allows you to create and use your own case files. This functionality can be accessed via the Generate case button under the File menu and will be described in detail in Section Generating case files. Some knowledge of the psychometric function model used by audiometry_trainer will be needed to create your own case files.

Section User interface covers in details all the user interface. Section Internals describes some of the internals of the software and is mainly intended for developers rather than for end users.