Abstract

Since its discovery near 1980, the transient evoked otoacoustic emission (TEOAE) has been regarded as a noninvasive protocol to probe the signal reception capability of the inner ear. Typically, a click sound is delivered to the ear canal and we expect tiny "echoes", called otoacoustic emissions (OAEs), to come out from the cochlea within a time course of 1-15 ms. Combining the coherent-reflection and cochlear-amplification theory, it is predicted that the OAE would be present if the cochlea is healthy. However, 30 years of research has led to plenty of debates regarding how best to extract the OAE and how to interpret it. In this talk, I would like to tell a story about the discovery, the controversy, and my latest work on modeling the generation mechanism of TEOAEs. We will also discuss the potentials to use TEOAE for biometric and diagnostic/prognostic purposes.

People who are far away from the NCTS are also welcome to join the forum via Skype. Please contact Ms. Ejan Chen (02)33668816 ejanchen@ncts.ntu.edu.tw for participation via Skype.