Design and Validation of an Ear Canal Simulator for EVestG Evaluation

Electrovestibulography (EVestG) is a novel neural diagnostic tool to identify various
neurological disorders. The signal amplitude of interest in EVestG recordings is in the sub ?V
range; therefore EVestG demands a very low noise signal acquisition protocol.
The proposed research is to design, develop and validate an artificial ear-canal that simulates
the electrical noise conditions that exist when taking EVestG measurements by associated
bio-signal amplifiers. Such a simulator will allow the rapid, rational and accurate refinement
of such amplifiers and tympanic electrode; it will also allow improvements to be made to the
developed signal extraction software algorithms. Furthermore a more qualitative approach to
identifying good from poor recordings when evaluating various operational scenarios will be
investigated, which subsequently will be translated to best practices in EVestG Clinical
Measurement protocols. Once the artificial ear-canal is constructed, ultra low noise bio-signal

Faculty Supervisor:

Zahra Kazem-Moussavi

Student:

Partner:

Neural Diagnostics

Discipline:

Engineering

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Manitoba

Program: