facilitating the assessment and the rehabilitation of hearing function in real world conditions
An advanced audiological system for hearing professionals and scientists
FEATURES
Real life environments
The standard clinical audiometric is usually performed in a sound booth where real life sound conditions are poorly represented.
Yet, everyday sound environments are often a major factor impairing speech and sound perception. And this is especially true for hearing impaired people.
From the recording and reproduction techniques offered by the Immersion 360 system, it is now possible to place patients in real life sound environments for clinical auditory assessment or rehabilitation tasks.
360 degrees sound reproduction
The Immersion 360 system allows professionnals to use a a multitiude of sound stimuli such as pure tones, everyday sounds, noises, seech and soundscapes that can be presented in an immersive environment on 360 degres arc.
An unprecedented diversity of tests involving auditory perception such as sound localization and speech recognition in real life conditions is now possible with this system.
All in one and user friendly system
The Immersion 360 system is a software/hardware solution that has been thoroughly and carefully integrated over many years of research / clinical / enterprise collaboration.
A highly visual and intuitive proprietary operating software interface makes the system easy to operate. Users have access to functions and parameters that are all displayed on the main screen, so mastering them is quite easy.
OUR VISION
"All in one" system
All the electronic devices are integrated in the main support ring, so you don't have to cope with a multitude of wires and connections. Only one USB cable to the computer and one cable for AC power are required for operation.
Great flexibility and ease of use
All testing parameters are easily available; no need for fastidious searches in the user manual! All parameters can be saved in personnal settings and conveniently recovered with one mouse click.
Helpful results
The localization test results are safely recorded and easily retrieved. The localization results window shows a visual and helpful representation of success scores and azimuth errors.
Custom configuration that will meet your specific physical requirements
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Access to the Immersion 360 system is configured according to the specifications of your audiological booth or standard room;
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It is possible to add two self amplified extra speakers in the Immersion 360 support ring to accomodate other existing audiological instrumentation for free-field testing;
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A specific section of the system ring can be mechanically lowered on request to avoid anny ostrcution of the monitoring window when the system is not in use;
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We can create and add any custom stimulus or environment to meet special assessment or rehabilitation needs.
ABOUT US
Immersion Technology inc.
Immersion Technology inc. is an emergent company focused on audiological innovation. It relies on :
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many years of know-how in the field of designing software for hearing assessment and rehabilitation
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strong technical expertise
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excellent knowledge of clinical requirements
The CEO, Mr. Bastien Bouchard, is a long-time specialist in sound design, multimedia and educational technology. He has developed software dedicated to clinical audiology in the last 20 years.
" We started from a clean sheet to develop a new free field audiological system more polyvalent and with fewer compromises than what is available in the market. From the beginning, we focused on ease of use and realism of sound reproduction..."
RESEARCH AND
NORMALIZATION
The Innovation - Desjardins 2017 Prize from the Ordre des orthophonistes et audiologistes du Québec recognize the exceptional innovation brought by the Immersion 360 system and his contribution to a better hearing health in the community.
Research
The Immersion 360 system has been developed from conceptual, feasibility and normalization studies completed by Pr François Bergeron, researcher at CIRRIS and full professor at Université Laval (Québec).
Initial experiments completed in 2012 showed that altered capacities for speech perception in hearing impaired persons could be observed in a virtual environment despite an excellent performance in a standard clinical setting at a similar signal to noise ratio. More, changing the environment affected the performance, even when signal to noise ratios were kept constant.
Pr Bergeron completed his doctoral studies in biomedical sciences at the Université de Montréal. He then did a postdoctoral fellow in health technology assessment at the Agence d’Évaluation des Technologies et des Modes d’Intervention en Santé (Montréal) and the Agence Nationale d’Accréditation et d’Évaluation en Santé (Paris). His research activities are focused on assistive technologies for the hearing impaired, notably on cochlear implants.
In 2001, he participated in the establishment of the master's program in speech-language pathology at Laval University. As a full professor, he is responsible of teachings in anatomy, physiology, audiology and interventions for the hearing impaired. Pr Bergeron is a researcher associated with the Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en réadaptation et insertion sociale (CIRRIS); he is also the scientific director of the Quebec cochlear implant program.
« With the Immersion 360 system it is now possible to incorporate the environmental factor in our experimental designs intending to assess the actual benefit obtained from hearing aid technologies. No other system offers this possibility. »
Normalisation
Subsequent work focused on the development and normalization of the Immersion 360 system. Data from this work served to define the normative values for sound localization and sentence recognition with the HINT and the AzBio in each environment. These values are included with the system.
Scientific publications related to Immersion 360 System
Bergeron F, Berland A, Fitzpatrick E, Vincent C, Giasson A, Cloutier D, Tremblay G, Hotton M, Leung Kam K, Puel JL, Ceccato JC, Bouchard B. An Ecological Approach To Assess Auditory Perception. Canadian Acoustics, 44,3, 216-7, 2016.
Berland A, Bergeron F. Environmental Sounds Perception in a Virtual Space in Cochlear Implanted Adults. 14th International Conference on Cochlear Implants and Other Implantable Technologies, Toronto, mai 2016.
Bergeron F, Leung Kam K, Puel JL, Ceccato JC, Piron JP, Bouchard B. The Immersion 360 system : an holistic approach to assess auditory perception. 14th International Conference on Cochlear Implants and Other Implantable Technologies, Toronto, mai 2016.
Cloutier D, Bergeron F, Tremblay G, Hotton M, Bouchard B. Normalisation of the Immersion 360 system designed to assess auditory perception in a virtual soundscape. 12th European Symposium on Pediatric Cochlear Implants, Toulouse, France, juin 2015.
Bergeron F, Fecteau S, Cloutier D, Hotton M, Bouchard B. Assessment of speech perception in a virtual soundscape. Adult Hearing Screening conference, Como Lake, juin 2012.
Bergeron F, Cloutier D, Tremblay G, Hotton M, Puel JL, Ceccato JC, Bouchard B. The Immersion 360 system : an ecological approach to assess auditory perception. 33rd World Congress of Audiology, Vancouver, septembre 2016.
Berland A, Bergeron F. Environmental Sounds Perception in a Virtual Space in Cochlear Implanted Adults. 14th International Conference on Cochlear Implants and Other Implantable Technologies, Toronto, mai 2016.
SPECIFICATIONS
System components
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Portable computer (Windows 10)
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Physical hardware and electronics : Aluminum support, 8 speakers, 8 channels amplification and USB audio interface
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Control software
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Frequently used stimuli : pures tones, warble tones, everyday sounds. Normalised AzBio sentences lists are optionnal and subject to a separate licensing.
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Environments
◦ Automobile (with radio)
◦ Automobile (without radio)
◦ Highway traffic
◦ Street traffic
◦ Kindergarten
◦ Restaurant
◦ Cafeteria
◦ Garage
◦ Gymnasium run
◦ Gymnasium ball play
Software features
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User friendly user interface
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Choice of a single stimulus or a bank of stimuli in random sequence
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Stimuli audio sources selection (16 sources on 360 degrees for 22,5 deg. azimuth accuracy)
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Environment audio sources selection (8 sources on 360 degrees for 45 deg. azimuth accuracy)
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Independant level setting (in LAeq) for stimuli and environment
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Test sequence (random or predetermined source selection)
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Manual or automatic stimuli presentation during tests
Technical specifications
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Frequency response : ± 3 dB within 100 Hz - 14 kHz
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Maximum level (each driver) : 100 dB SPL
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Calibration : 1 dBA between speakers (pink noise at 80 dBA on response range)
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Amplifiers : Signal/noise ratio : 105 dBA (weighted); .005% THD 20 Hz-20 kHz @ 30W (8 ohm) ; Frequency response : 5 Hz to 72 kHz; Power output : 40w RMS
CONTACT
Contact info
For any question about the system and possible applications or to obtain a quote, please, feel free to contact us :
Bastien Bouchard
Immersion technology inc.
Phone : 581 700-0438