Anthropometry of External Auditory Canal by Non-contactable Measurement

摘要

Human ear canals cannot be measured directly with existing general measurement tools. Furthermore, general non-contact optical methods can only conduct simple peripheral measurements of the auricle and cannot obtain the internal ear canal shape-related measurement data. Therefore, this study uses the non-invasive method, computed tomography (CT) technology, to measure the geometric shape of the ear canal to complete the anthropometry of external auditory canal. The results of the study show that the average height and width of ear canal openings, and the depth of the first bend for male are generally longer, wider and deeper than those for female. In addition, the difference between the height and width of the ear canal opening is about 40% (p＜0.05). Hence, currently the circular cross-section shape of the earplugs should be replaced by an elliptical cross-section shape during manufacturing for better fitting.