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“ey’re people on their way to becom-ing hearing-impaired. We want them to become more aware of their condition. at was our starting point.”e current recommendation is to visit an ear doctor if you notice any de-terioration in your hearing. But people who fail to notice any impairment in their hearing obviously won’t go to a doctor. In e New Orange Plan formu-lated by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, hearing impairment is listed as a risk factor for dementia. With Japan’s rapidly aging society, we don’t have a moment to lose.“How can we get people to notice signs of deterioration in hearing?” recalls Kaori Sato. “When I thought about that, what came to my mind were the blood pressure monitors installed at Getting People to Notice Declines in HearingAs the percentage of the elderly among the population continues to rise in Japan, so does the number of those suering from hearing impairment. Despite this, only four out of ten people who are aware of their hearing impairment actually choose to visit an ear doctor. As a result, Japan has an outstandingly low rate of hearing aid use compared to other major developed countries.“We believe that there are many people who aren’t even aware that their hearing has deteriorated and who suer as a consequence,” explains Takeshi Nakaichi on the concept for the development of the Hearing Checker. Average hearing thresholds with age*The graphs show the average hearing thresholds with age for males and females based on the results of a survey conducted on approximately 10,000 subjects in Japan.facilities like training gyms. If a device like that existed that allowed you to check your hearing yourself, maybe we could turn the situation around.”Simple and Easy Self Hearing Teste ideal solution would be to let people check their hearing while having fun. What system could achieve this?In audiometric testing performed at ear doctors, patients are asked to listen to sound that gradually increases in intensity, and then to press a button when they hear it. is task is repeated and the minimum sound level the pa-tient can hear is determined to be their hearing threshold.“We wanted our system to execute the same process employed in audio-metric testing,” explains Sato, “but also to let our users have fun while doing it, as if they were playing a game. I exper-imented with various screen designs for operation and nally arrived at a user-friendly design for checking hearing.”e system had to be as easy to use as possible for the elderly. e texts were presented in large letters, and the operations were kept simple. It was also important to make it look entertaining. Aer a lot of study, she nally arrived at a system for checking hearing and Estimation of Hearing Age on the Basis of Averaged Hearing Thresholds Using A Hearing CheckerJapan Trak said that hearing aid adoption rate was 14.4% in Japan(2018). It belongs to lowest hearing aid penetration group. RION developed a simplied screening of hearing for the people who slightly aware hearing loss due to overcome that higher drop out rate.010203040506070801252505001000200040008000010203040506070801252505001000200040008000MaleFemale10-1920-2930-3940-4950-5455-5960-6465-6970-7475-7980-8485-8990-99(Age)Quiet soundLoud soundLow-frequencysoundHigh-frequencysoundFrequency(Hz)Low-frequencysoundHigh-frequencysoundFrequency(Hz)Hearing threshold(dBHL)Hearing CheckerHow Old is Your Hearing?Interview and article by Atsumi TakebayashiTakeshi Nakaichi (Ph. D)R&D Department, Technical Development Center. Since joining Rion, Mr. Nakaichi has worked on designing hearing aids. As a leader of the Kikoe (hearing) Project, he took part in the planning of a solution for the problem of the hearing impaired in Japan.Kaori SatoGroup 2, Component Technology Deve-lopment Department, Technical Deve-lopment Center. Since joining Rion, Ms. Sato has been in charge of medical test-ing equipment and has participated in the development of audiometers and other hearing testing equipment. In the development of the Hearing Checker, she was in charge of software design, in addition to assembling experimental systems for eld verication.IN THE BACKYARDOn the Front Lines of Technology 12