ExSilent, a Dutch hearing aid manufacturer known for its consumer-friendly designs, has developed a simple, free app that turns your iPhone into a hearing aid.
The HearYouNow app, available from the iTunes store, amplifies all the sounds within range of your iPhone, and a simple touch-screen interface lets you adjust volume and frequency settings for each ear. If you set up the phone on a conference table and use your earbuds, or place it on the table close to your dinner companion in a noisy restaurant, you will hear the conversation better.
There are a number of iPhone, Android and other apps that take advantage of the smartphone’s built-in microphone, headphone output and amplification capability to create an instant personal sound amplifier. And when the app takes advantage of the sound-shaping capabilities built into smartphones like the iPhone, you get performance equivalent to an entry-level hearing aid.
Apple is so serious about the fidelity of its iPhone audio that it has reached out to hearing aid manufacturers with hooks to the iPhone’s iOS operating system making it possible for them to market “Made for iPhone Hearing Aids.”
The ExSilent app also has a neat recording feature that lets you play back the last fifteen seconds of audio. The playback feature helps you adjust the sound settings more easily and also gives you a second chance to catch something you may have missed.
It would be great to see future versions extend the playback feature to provide access to the past few minutes of a conversation, which would be a real advantage in business meetings where it’s often difficult to catch everything being said the first time around.
Other smartphone apps are slated to provide more extensive hearing-aid-like functionality. SoundFest, a Boston-based startup developing a Bluetooth earpiece that works with your iPhone or Android phone to make it easier to hear speech in noise. Among other things on the drawing boards is the ability to input results of your audiogram, or hearing test, to match amplification levels to your measured hearing loss at each frequency.