First-of-its-Kind Smartphone App Can 'Hear' Ear Infections in Children

According to the National Institutes of Health, ear infections are the most common reason parents bring their children to the doctor. The condition occurs when fluid builds up in the middle ear behind the eardrum and is infected. Now, researchers at the University of Washington  have created a new smartphone app that can detect fluid behind the eardrum by simply using a piece of paper shaped into a funnel and a smartphone’s microphone and speaker. The system sends a soft acoustic chirp into the ear canal using the smartphone speaker, and detects reflected sound from the eardrum using the smartphone microphone. The paper funnel helps guide sound waves in and out of the ear canal. Depending on whether there’s fluid inside, the reflected sound waves interfere with the original chirp sound waves differently. The app determines the likelihood of fluid present with a probability of detection of 85%.

Transcript

00:00:00 we present an accessible solution that uses speakers and microphones and existing smartphones to detect middle ear fluid no additional attachments are required beyond a paper funnel the system sends a soft acoustic trip into the ear canal using the smartphone speaker it detects reflected sound from the eardrum using the smartphone microphone a normal eardrum resonates to

00:00:24 create a broad spectrum soft echo as a result the shape of the acoustic dip is broad and shallow in a fluid or postural middle ear sound that what a vibrate at the eardrum is reflected back along the ear canal creating a narrower and deeper acoustic dip in a study of 98 patient ears we obtain performance comparable to tympanometry and pneumatic otoscopy parents of pediatric patients

00:00:52 demonstrated similar performance to trained clinicians when using the smartphone based system these results demonstrated the potential for a smartphone to be a low barrier an effective screening tool for middle ear fluid