I just discovered a LiveJournal site called "Hearing-Aid Hacking" which gives great do-it-yourself advice on using assistive listening technologies with hearing aids. It features tips and new technologies from real hearing-aid users, everything from how to work with the direct-audio-input (DAI) connections on your hearings aids (if they have them), to the latest on new Bluetooth technologies (especially for mobile phone users) and on the new bells and whistles that hearing-aid manufacturers seem to constantly announce. Here is the site's mission statement: "For high end users of hearing aids. We're frustrated that we're behind the technology curve and pay huge dollars/pounds/euros for good hearing aids that are unaware of and incompatible with anything resembling recent advances in consumer audio tech. We're willing to blaze our own path because no one will do it for us until they realize there is money in them thar hills." If you are a new or experienced hearing-aid user, there is probably something there for you.
Posted by David on Dec 18, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Why Don't Mobile Phone Carriers Offer Inexpensive Data-Only Plans?
Stone Deaf Pilots has a nice writeup about AT&T Wireless stepping in it when it offered a data-only wireless plan, but only for deaf customers. After complaints from the hearing community about discrimination, AT&T shelved the offer, promising to come back later with a wireless-only plan for everyone. It's crazy AT&T and all the other carriers for that matter don't offer inexpensive data-only plans for everyone. AT&T used to offer a very reasonable data-only plan with a nifty little device called the OGO. But that seems to have disappeared. T-Mobile is the only carrier offering a reasonably priced data-only plan for its Sidekick products. I have a Verizon family plan for the mobile phones and find text messaging useful, but I may actually get a T-Mobile account and Sidekick as well for email, instant messaging, and text messaging because, believe it or not, I think it will be less expensive than getting the data option added to my Verizon Wireless account.
Posted by David on Dec 14, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (7) | TrackBacks (0)
More Good News From WGBH NCAM: Easy Captions For Adobe Flash Videos
While I'm going on about WGBH NCAM's web video captioning success with its industry-wide coalition, I should also mention their recent introduction of a software utility that makes it easy to create captioned Adobe Flash videos. This gives me an excuse to brag: at my consulting company's site, Aquarius Advisers LLC, we've had captioning on our Flash videos for two years now. It wasn't easy back then, but we had the assistance of a brilliant digital animator, Dave Counts, whose far-left site TooStupidToBePresident.com has won him fame and infamy as one of the most creative digital animators and satirists in the country. He figured out how to put Flash captions on our site then, but WGBH NCAM has made it easy with its new software utility, so mere mortals can make it happen now.
Posted by David on Oct 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)
Stone Deaf Pilots Site Rocks With Hearing Assistive Technology Galore
I just discovered a GREAT site on assistive technology for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, Stone Deaf Pilots - The Deaf Tech Blog. It's authored by Kathryn Hill, a San Francisco-based photographer, and it's chock full of the latest and greatest assistive technologies for both profoundly deaf and hard-of-hearing consumers. Check out her posts on finding a deaf-friendly phone (she's looking at either the Sidekick or Blackberry), on video captioning for handheld devices, and on software that reads and writes your voicemail onto your handheld screen. I've got this one on my RSS reader now, plus a link on the sidebar of this page.
Posted by David on Oct 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Gennum Abandons Hearing-Aid Market With DSP Chip and Headset Spinoffs
Gennum Corp. of Canada, long one of the leading suppliers of digital signal processing (DSP) chips and other technologies to the hearing-aid and headset industries, is abandoning the hearing-aid market with the spinout of its hearing instrument design and manufacturing operations to a private equity group and the sale of its consumer Bluetooth headset business to a consumer electronics company based in Sweden. The Gores Group, LLC, a Southern California-based private equity fund, has purchased the hearing-aid chip business and is backing a management spinout that will be named Sound Design Technologies Ltd. And CellPoint Connect AB, manufacturer of the Flamingo Bluetooth, has acquired the Gennum nXZEN and nX6000 Bluetooth headsets that have won acclaim for their sophisticated DSP-based noise-cancellation technology. Gennum's retreat from the hearing-aid business isn't necessarily bad news for hearing-aid manufactrers depending on its DSP chips, because the equity firm is backing a group of managers already running Gennum's Sound Design hearing-aid business and presumably will help them more sharply focus on hearing-industry customer needs in addition to providing investment capital to further develop their technology.
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Posted by David on Sep 29, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Agilent Makes It Easy To Design Hearing-Aid Compatible Cell Phones
Now there's no excuse. Agilent Technologies has come up with a design system enabling manufacturers of mobile phones to easily ensure their handsets meet all the hearing-aid-compatibility (HAC) standards mandated by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The news release and associated product material on the new Antenna Modeling Design System (AMDS) are worth looking at because they give a tutorial on electro-magnetic radition and the shielding technology required to assure your hearing aids are actually able to hear the sounds coming out of your cell phone. "By February 2008, all wireless carriers in the U.S. must ensure that 50 percent of their phones are hearing-aid compatible," says Agilent Product Marketing Manager Erwin De Baetselier. "Today, we are leading the industry by offering HAC compatibility tests in our EM simulation environment, ensuring that designers of wireless devices will be able to meet these important and rigorous specifications." I've written before about the foot-dragging by mobile phone manfacturers unwilling to put the extra effort into designing hearing-aid-compatible phones, and it's good to see a leading supplier of components and design services taking the FCC mandate seriously.
Posted by David on Sep 11, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Future Cochlear Implant Patients Might Preserve Some Residual Hearing
Researchers at the University of Michigan have developed a new, less-invasive means of implanting electrodes into the cochlea that may ultimately do less damage to hearing nerves in the cochlea and preserve more residual hearing in the patient. The new electrode is thinner and can be inserted with a new device that enables doctors to monitor their progress and avoid doing the kind of damage that currently results in most implant patients losing most or all of what is left of their natural hearing. Because cochlear implants directly stimulate the auditory nerve they are able to bypass the hairlike cilia hearing cells that line the cochlea. And because it is designed to go deeper into the cochlea, it may provide more stimulation of low-frequency sounds, which could significantly improve the hearing of implantees. The new electrode is being tested on animals and would not be available for human patients for at least four years. But when it arrives, because it is made with the same materials used to make semiconductor chips, it will bring implant patients one step closer to true "Bionic Man" status that Michael Chorost has written about in Rebuilt.
Posted by David on Aug 16, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Sebotek Patent Infringement Suit Challenges Big Hearing Aid Companies
Sebotek's patent infringement suit against several of the world's largest hearing-aid manufacturers is a David-and-Goliath challenge to protect its intellectual property. It also throws a big element of uncertainty into a significant and fast-growing segment of the market for open-fit behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids. Sebotek was first to market with a "receiver-in-the-ear" (speaker-in-the-ear) hearing aid featuring a nearly invisible wire from a small behind-the-ear sound processor to a speaker situated deep in the ear canal. Separating the microphone from the speaker, which is usually integrated into the same behind-the-ear device, made the hearing aid smaller, reduced feedback and made the BTE's far more cosmetically appealing. Subsequently, other manufacturers jumped on the bandwagon with their own "receiver-in-the-ear" designs, and now Sebotek is crying foul.
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Posted by David on May 5, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Oticon Integrates Wireless Bluetooth Receiver In New Epoq Hearing Aids
Oticon’s latest new technology is whiz bang, integrating a Bluetooth receiver inside its new Epoq family of hearing aids. Epoq also provides wireless binaural communication between right and left hearing aids to make stereophonic sound more natural. But to me the most exciting innovation is the integrated Bluetooth, which enables mobile phone reception directly by the hearing aids. I get that benefit currently with a pair of Hatis silhouettes which plug directly into my cell phone and hang behind my ears next to my behind-the-ear hearing aids. They work well but require that I be tethered to the phone in addition to taking them on and off and constantly making sure the silhouettes are set properly next to the telecoils in my hearing aids. Getting phone reception directly into the aids through a wireless Bluetooth connection is the holy graille. But the nifty new solution isn’t without its drawbacks.
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Posted by David on Apr 19, 2007 | Permalink | Comments (9) | TrackBacks (0)
Buy Or Build? Starkey Turns Semiconductor Design Over To AMI
Buy or build? That's a question that always confronts system manufacturers. It makes sense to buy standard components, but you want to own the designs for components that give your product a performance edge. Starkey Laboratories has answered the question about a major component in its hearing aids by selling its chip design group to AMI Semiconductor, Inc., which produces DSP chips for a number of hearing aid manufacturers around the world. Standard products can be produced in high volumes that help lower the cost of the system, whereas the propriety components, while they are more expensive to build, can help the system manufacturer command a higher price because they give a competitive advantage to the end product.
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Posted by David on Jul 20, 2006 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Digital Clarity Power From Clarity Products Is Chock-Full Of Digital Signal Processing Performance
Several weeks ago I complained that Clarity Products hadn't adequately explained the enhanced Digital Clarity Power (DCP) technology it was promoting as the latest and greatest innovation for its cordless and amplified telephones. Clarity was quick to answer my questions with comments on the blog post. And now on their website they've unveiled the technical background information they promised. DCP uses a digital signal processing chip and sophisticated algorithms borrowed similar to those found in hearing aids to improve the performance of its amplified phones. DCP has three main features: Multiband Compression, Acoustic Echo Cancellation and Noise Reduction. Multiband compression uses proprietary algorithms to determine what incoming sound is the human voice, then provides more amplification to the voice signals while suppressing other sounds. Acoustic echo cancellation elminates the feedback that happens when amplified signals from the speaker are picked up by the microphone. And noise reduction reduces the hiss, static and background noise found on many connections, which amplified phones often exacerbate. The technology is featured in the company's new amplified Clarity Professional C2210 corded desktop phone and in its new amplified cordless portable phone, the Clarity Professional 4205. Other than the new cordless and corded amplified phones from ClearSounds, I haven't seen any other manufacturers delivering such advanced technology in full-featured office phones for hard-of-hearing consumers. In addition to its updated website, Clarity Products has been turning on the public relations machine. This past week, BusinessWeek magazine featured the Plantronics subsidiary and its new DCP technology in a major feature article.
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Posted by David on Nov 17, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
In Memoriam: Jack Kilby Made Today's Hearing Aids Possible
It's a little-known fact that Jack Kilby, the inventor of the microchip, was also a hearing-aid pioneer. The Texas Instruments engineer and Nobel Prize winner's death yesterday at the age of 81 has spurred a slew of stories about the invention of the integrated circuit and the dawn of the computer age. But Kilby's first job out of college in the 1950s was with the Centralab Division of Globe-Union Corporation in Wisconsin, where as a young engineer interested in "miniaturization," he helped develop what the Smithsonian Institution calls one of "the first consumer products of the electronic age -- the transistor-based hearing aid." Later, he won fame and fortune with his work on the first electronic calculators, on the first thermal printers, and then for his breakthrough proving it was possible to integrate a large number of transistors on a single piece of silicon to create the first semiconductor chips. Kilby shared the honor of "father of the chip" with Robert Noyce of Intel Corporation, who most likely would have shared the Nobel Prize with Kilby had he lived long enough. After they developed the first memory chips, Intel and Texas Instruments raced to develop and commercialize the first microprocessors. Intel took the lead in microprocessors powering personal computers, while TI took the lead in developing the digital signal processors (DSPs) used in many communications devices, including today's digital hearing aids. So in addition to his early work miniaturizing the amplifiers used in the first generation of analog electronic hearing aids, it's fair to say Jack Kilby also helped make possible today's amazing digital hearing aids. May he rest in peace.
Posted by David on Jun 22, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
A Plug For Earplugs (And For Newsweek, Too)
Okay, maybe I was a trifle harsh in my criticism of the Newsweek hearing-loss cover story (May 30: "I Guess Half A Loaf Is Better Than None At All"). I probably should have noted that in addition to the deficiences I mentioned, the story was also the biggest, most complete and most prominent coverage of this vital issue in the 21st century so far. I should have also noted that, with nearly half the story devoted to the many simple steps people can take to prevent hearing loss now and in the future, Newsweek actually made the deadly dull topic of prevention interesting -- a near-impossible feat. Trust me, I know. When prevention works, nothing happens -- there is simply no news to report. One of my day jobs is Chief Marketing Officer of Outside The Classroom, Inc., developer of AlcoholEdu, a hugely popular online prevention program that has been taken by more than a quarter million college and high school students over the past three years. Sure, the media run plenty of headlines when young people kill themselve binge drinking. But when prevention works, how often do you see a headline that says, "Student Lives After Deciding Not To Drink 21 Shots On 21st Birthday"? About as often as you see a headline that says, "Aging Baby Boomer Uses Earplugs: Hearing Still Fine." So in addition to its other merits, the
Newsweek story is especially valuable because it makes an airtight case for prevention, and does it in such an interesting and readable way. Which brings me to the topic of this post. An ounce of prevention truly is worth a pound of cure, and 50 cents for a pair of earplugs is well worth the $50,000 you will save when you don't need a cochlear implant later in life. And if you spend a little more for a pair of high-tech earplugs, you might even enjoy wearing them.
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Posted by David on May 31, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
California Dreaming About Hearing-Hair Replacement
Let's talk hair-replacement therapy. No, I'm not talking about premature baldness, Rogaine or Hair Club for Men. I'm talking about the 15,000 hair-like cells we have in each cochlea at birth that are responsible for translating sound waves from the ear drum into electrical signals the brain can decode as speech, music, a baby crying and all other sounds. When these cells die due to natural aging processes, trauma, or exposure to too much noise or otoxic drugs, we experience sensorineurial hearing loss, the most common form of hearing impairment. Human cochlear hair cells don't regenerate, but a few years ago scientists discovered that they do in birds. Now stem-cell gene researchers are looking for ways to make the hair grow back in humans, too, which could be a potent cure for the most common form of hearing loss. Last year, California voters approved $3 billion in funding for stem-cell research, bucking the President's go-slow approach and instantly making their state a magnet for the world's best stem-cell researchers. This week, Stanford University scored a huge recruiting coup when it stole from Harvard Dr. Stefan Heller, a world-leading researcher investigating stem-cell enabled regeneration of "hearing hair."
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Posted by David on May 26, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Bluetooth Bandwagon Builds Momentum, But Where Are The HOH Products?
Every week it seems we hear of another new product for hard-of-hearing (HOH) consumers utilizing the Bluetooth wireless communications standard. In addition to my post last month on Sound ID, I've recently discovered that Starkey Laboratories, Micro-Tech Hearing Instruments, Sonomax Hearing Healthcare, and Gennum Corp. are also getting into the act. And I'm sure there are more. My only comment on all these efforts is, "Sounds great, guys, but when will we actually see (and hear) the products?" I've said before Bluetooth will be the bridge between the glittery world of consumer electronics and the stodgy old hearing-aid industry. I can't wait to see all the cool new wireless earpieces for cellphones and other applications providing custom hearing enhancement for people with and without hearing loss. But every time I go to the web sites of hearing equipment manufacturers talking about Bluetooth plans, I can't find a product that's actually available. A good example is the announcement in this month's Hearing Review of the world's "smallest audio Bluetooth device," a tiny new transmitter/receiver that marries technology from Micro-Tech and Starkey.
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Posted by David on May 18, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
MedBio Announces Real-Time Voice Recognition
Last week I posted a note about my dream of a speech recognition system that could be mounted on a pair of eyeglasses and project real-time captions. This week I see MedBio Research Centre in Hawaii has announced just such a system. The MedBio "Speak 'n Read" system integrates speech recognition into a Sony hand-held computer that records the speaker's voice and immediately displays captions on both the computer screen and a small projector on a pair of eyeglass frames. The company's web site lists plenty of qualifications on how well it works under what conditions, but it's impressive there's a commercial product out there now. Distribution will be through audiologists and other hearing professionals.
Posted by David on May 16, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
ScanSoft: Will Speech Processing Go The Way Of The Kurzweil Reader?
I frequently entertain myself with a futuristic vision of high-tech eyeglasses equipped with a tiny microphone, a tiny speech processing chip, and a tiny holographic projector that can transcribe everyday conversation in real time and project it in front of my eyes like the closed-captioning system on my TV. Believe it or not, all the technologies required to create such a product are known -- it will only take another 10 or 15 (okay, maybe 20) years of development before we see such a device. Ray Kurzweil, the irrepressible inventor and serial entrepreneur, had a similar vision more than 20 years ago of a digital Reading Machine that would scan written words and speak them in real time, so that blind people could read normal text again. The good news: Kurzweil invented the technology and sold it to Xerox. The bad news: Xerox used the technology instead for more lucrative business applications and put the product for the blind on the back shelf.
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Posted by David on May 11, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Sound ID Has A Sound Idea
Sound ID is a Silicon Valley start-up that is finally breaking down the barriers between consumer electronics and the hearing aid industry. It is developing a Bluetooth-based product that will make it easier for everyone -- consumers with normal hearing and hearing-impaired people alike -- to understand voices on the other end of their cellphones in noisy environments. The Sound ID Personal Sound System™ will provide a wireless link from Bluetooth-enabled mobile phones to a Sound ID EarModule™ . The earpiece will improve the cellphone signal to make it easier for people with normal hearing to understand. And, for anyone with a hearing impairment, it can be tuned to match the user's particular hearing profile. The founder and CEO of Sound ID is Rodney Perkins, M.D., a famous Silicon Valley otologist and inventor who previously founded ReSound Corporation, which grew rapidly into one of the top seven global hearing aid manufacters and now sells its products under the GN ReSound name as part of GN Great Nordic Corp. By integrating advanced DSP-based hearing-aid hardware and software with the Bluetooth digital communications standard for wireless consumer communications products, Perkins and company are finally crossing the divide between the world of hard-to-use hearing aids and the promised land of easy-to-use consumer audio products.
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Posted by David on Apr 29, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
Why Don't They Lock the 'Off' Switch?
Here's a small gripe. I recently bought a SoundWizard personal microphone and amplifying system from Hi-Tec. It's a very cool multi-purpose device. It's got two 3.5 mm plugs for your neckloop, earpods or headphones. It's got directional and area microphone settings that amplify either an individual or the entire room. It's got an attachment to amplify a standard telephone. There is an RF receiver attachment and separate transmitter that can be connected to the TV so you can broadcast your favorite shows right into your hearing aids. There is also an optional additional microphone that can be wired to the unit for use on a conference table. And it also comes with a compact carrying case with straps and pouches so you don't lose the various pieces. Pretty nifty.
But it's got one drawback that I've experienced with other battery-operated equipment: there's no lock for the "off" button. That means when I've got the thing in my pocket or my briefcase, the slightest bump or jostle presses the green button and turns it on. Several hours later, when I'm ready to use it, the batteries are drained. Scrambling around for replacement batteries is a pain in the neck when you want to use the device NOW. Plus it's an environmentally unfriendly waste of the displosable batteries you need to run it. I've had the same problem with other devices that turn themselves on. It's especially vexing with rechargeable devices that require a power outlet and time before you can use them again. So here's a question for the product designers out there: why don't you put a simple locking mechanism on the "off" button?
Posted by David on Apr 9, 2005 | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)
