HealthEar

Problem

80% of children will have had at least one episode of an ear infection by the age of 2. Additionally, ear infections are responsible for 24 million office visits per year costing between $2 - 5 billion dollars annually.

Approach

The team went through an iterative process of designing the mobile app and performing user evaluations and functional testing to determine which features were important to users and commanded the highest priority.

Solution

Through a process known as acoustic reflectometry, a chirp signal is played through the earbud speakers from the mobile app, where it will reflect off of the tympanic membrane of the eardrum and echo into the microphone. The returning signal will differ depending on the amount of fluid in the child’s ear, and can differentiate between healthy ears and ears that are likely to be infected.

View the team’s poster (PDF)

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