Back in 2008 Sørnes finally got to deliver his finished bachelor thesis, in which he had described a new clinical test equipment for performance of speech in noise tests. Back then free field audiology was the future of audiology. Bio-logic’s HINT pro system that was released the year before, introduced free field as an assistant for hearing aid fittings, using speech in noise tests.
Why is free field testing important? Because of the discrimination ability, the ability to focus on one signal (normally speech), in a noisy environment. Two people with the exact same hearing thresholds can have a totally different score on discrimination tests. This can be due to many factors, but the important thing is to measure it properly. I actually believe that this score is just as important as the pure tone threshold themselves.

Today this is normally tested through headphones, where the clients repeat words and numbers presented to them. Using headphones limits what we can measure, and for audiology to progress we need better test equipment for this kind of tests.

A free field clinical test equipment opens for endless possibilities, some of them very vital. A test system like this will allow clients to be tested with and without hearing aids in close to real world noise conditions. This allows audiologists to see how much better the client can hear with the hearing aids than without.

Actually only research is needed to develop a free field threshold test. It's actually pretty weird that audiometry today is very similar to how it was in the birth of audiology in the years after WW2. The lack of progress I believe is due the fact that doctors traditionally have been the only ones that could innovate audiology, they however never test hearing, they only interpret the results.

For progress in the field of audiology we need better and more accurate test equipment. We need tests that says something about how the clients can hear in noise. We need a clinical equipment that truly can test the innovations hearing aid producers come up with. We need a to move out from the stone age and into the future.

Hearoll medical’s test equipment can be the future of audiology. It has near limitless potential. Clinically we can test directional hearing, features of modern hearing aids and give clients a chance to be fitted in a close to real world noise condition. With research free field threshold testing can be performed, maybe future audiometry is a mix of Bekesy-audiometry and free field testing? Only research can give us the answer. The only thing that is certain is that audiology is ready for disruption.