Design of Artificial Ears for the Purpose of Studying Noise Mitigation and the Occlusion Effect of Ear Plugs Using MRI Imaging Abstract Every day, some 360,000 Quebec workers are exposed to noise levels that can lead to hearing problems. Personal hearing protectors are often used to address these problems, but their lack of comfort reduces the length of time they are actually worn and thereby their effectiveness. The aim of this study is to develop tools for the acoustic design of hearing protectors, with a view to minimizing the auditory discomfort they cause, while at the same time ensuring appropriate mitigation of noise levels. Examples of hearing discomfort are (1) deterioration in the quality of communication (hearing and speaking), (2) increased difficulty hearing machine noise and important warning signals and (3) the occlusion effect. The occlusion effect is characterized by an increase in low-frequency sound pressure at the eardrum created by sources inside the human body (voice, breathing, etc.).The research team wants to design 3-D digital geometric models of the outer ear, developed from live MRI imaging. It also hopes to create new, more realistic artificial ears for the purpose of measuring mitigation and the occlusion effect. Produced Under this Project Scientific Reports Design of Realistic Artificial Ears for the Purpose of Studying Hearing and Physical Comfort of Earplugs Research Report: R-1106 Scientific Publications Use of magnetic resonance image registration to estimate displacement in the human earcanal due to the insertion of in-ear devicesBenacchio S., Doutres O., Varoquaux A., Le Troter A., Wagnac É., Callot V., Franck SgardSource : (2019). Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 146(4), 2452-2465. doi: 10.1121/1.5126857An artificial ear to assess objective indicators related to the acoustical comfort dimension of earplugs: Comparison with attenuation and occlusion effect measured on subjectsBenacchio S., Poissenot-Arrigoni B., Martin L., Saint-Gaudens H., Franck Sgard, Doutres O.Source : (2019). Proceedings of the 26th International Congress on Sound and Vibration, Auburn, AL : International Institute of Acoustics & Vibration.Estimation of the ear canal displacement field due to in-ear device insertion using a registration method on a human-like artificial earBenacchio S., Doutres O., Le Troter A., Varoquaux A., Wagnac É., Callot V., Franck SgardSource : (2018). Hearing Research, 365, 16-27. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2018.05.019Application of a registration method on magnetic resonance images to evaluate the displacement field of a human subject ear canal due to various earplug insertionsBenacchio S., Doutres O., Varoquaux A., Wagnac É., Le Troter A., Callot V., Franck SgardSource : (2018). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 143(3), 1911. doi: 10.1121/1.5036224MRI investigation of the ear canal deformation due to earplugs: A first step toward understanding wearing comfortBenacchio S., Varoquaux A., Le Troter A., Wagnac É., Doutres O., Bendahan D., Callot V., Franck SgardSource : Communication présentée à Acoustics'17: Joint meeting of the Acoustical Society of America and the European Acoustics Association, Boston, MA, 2017 (p. 4024). The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. doi: 10.1121/1.4989266Modélisation numérique vibro-acoustique d’une oreille artificielle dédiée à l’étude de protecteurs auditifs individuelsBenacchio S., Doutres O., Franck SgardSource : (2019). Affiche présentée à JJCAB 2019 : Journées Jeunes chercheurs en vibrations, acoustique et bruit, Besançon, France. Other Project(s) You May be Interested in Development of tools and methods for better evaluating and improving workers’ personal hearing protectionDevelopment of a Voice-based Method for Objective Occlusion Effect Measurement Additional Information Type: Project Number: 2016-0020 Status: Completed Year of completion: 2020 Research Field: Mechanical and Physical Risk Prevention Team: Olivier Doutres (École de technologie supérieure)Franck Sgard (IRSST)Éric Wagnac (École de technologie supérieure)Simon Benacchio (École de technologie supérieure)