Sound sensitivity as indicators of health conditions and directive to acoustic design requirements

A long-term study conducted by SoundSense has identified a correlation between a person's sensitivity to loud noises or specific tones that were often inaudible to others, and that person's state of ill health or a health condition. The subjects of the study ranged from people who hired SoundSense to treat a noise problem to patients who met with their doctor. Participants in this study from the doctors were all pursuing treatment at diverse types of medical practices, ranging from sports medicine to hematology and oncology clinics. Patterns of unusual noise sensitivity emerged anecdotally in conversations between colleagues, leading to a deeper investigation into how "noise sensitivity" was an unexplored symptom of multiple illnesses. Human error was considered while collecting data, as it was determined that some of the patient responses did not accurately reflect their lived experience with noise or frequency sensitivities. A device to monitor vital signs as sounds were played into a headset was developed to account for these discrepancies in data collection. The applications of this noise sensitive technology are far-reaching and will be presented in this paper.