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$1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

sciencemag.org

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Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#111

Post by tobtoh »

jiofih wrote: post #102
tobtoh wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm about to trial a replacement for my current HA (about 5 years old) for the Phonak Paradise (the just released successor to the Marvel). The bluetooth connectivity has been a big reason why I want to upgrade - the work from home situation this year with constant phone calls and Zoom meeting requiring headsets has been a constant annoyance. I use an Airpod in my right ear and leave one HA in my left for those situa…

> The new IOS14 feature where I can tailor the Airpod audio response to my hearing frequency loss is simply amazing! What feature is it? Can’t the same be achieved with EQ?

https://support.apple.com/en-in/HT211218

I'm not sure ... i was under the understanding the that EQ function on iOS only applied to music. I guess the other advantage is that audiogram function makes it a one-click accurate configuration of the 'EQ' based on a hearing test.

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#112

Post by ygjb »

boogies wrote: post #92
etskinner wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

More than just a connector, it also needs a charging circuit, which would also take up space.

Does that charging circuit need to be inside the hearing aid, and not in the charging cradle/case/dock thing?

Generally, yes. The circuitry for power does more than charge the battery, it provides power regulation to prevent over discharge and reduce the likelihood of short circuits (among other things)

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#113

Post by danjc »

I get that this product is about super low cost but seems to me that with a custom firmware, the AirPods Pro could do a brilliant job of noise cancellation and amplification of specific frequency bands. Ostensibly, you could even employ some ML to enhance clarity of spoken words, etc - like Krisp

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#114

Post by ygjb »

snegu wrote: post #85
patorjk wrote: post #46

As an aside, there's a lot of exciting regenerative work going on related to hearing at the moment. Sometime soon we may no longer need hearing aids. There are some neat drugs either in clinical trials or about to begin clinical trials that will re-grow hair cells and broken synapses in the cochlea (ex: FX-322, OTO-413, OTO-6XX).

Are any of these supposed to work on congenital hearing loss, or only when hearing loss is caused by damage/age?

It depends on the nature of the hearing loss, for example, FX-322 and OTO-6XX appear to work by triggering regeneration of hair cells, while OTO-413 appears to work by triggering regeneration of synaptic connections (both of which are probably egregious oversimplifications because I am a security nerd, not a medical researcher :P)

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#116

Post by Waterluvian »

rini17 wrote: post #7

Hearing aids (nor cochlear implants, for that matter) do not "restore hearing", except for light hearing loss. They are only like crutches (not even wheelchair). For example, to follow conversations or phone/skype with multiple people is very exhausting even with fancy device, because in most cases the "bandwidth" to the brain just isn't available. That said, the hearing aids vendor lock-in is really atrocious and ca…

This all sounds similar to my experience with CPAP machines.

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#117

Post by shariqm »

pontus wrote: post #84

With all the advances in tech, why does it seem that hearing aids are still from the 80s? I guess ultimately you're limited by your interface to the brain (something maybe neuralink could address?), but even still shouldn't there be some "magic" machine learning stuff going on in this space? Not at all an expert in audio processing, but I would imagine that we could do a decent job distinguishing voices from backgrou…

I agree! We're working on this at AudioFocus (YC S19). You can see an old demo here: https://www.audiofocus.io/demo

There are a lot of challenges with putting this in a hearing aid: low latency inference (10ms), small power budget, consistent performance, fault tolerance, etc. Still a fair amount of R&D to be done, but change is coming.

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#118

Post by dcassett »

tyingq wrote: post #14

At first, it seemed like a laudable effort. I hate it, though, when someone makes a github repo and sticks a single zip file in it: https://github.com/bhamla-lab/LoCHAid-2020-PLOS-ONE So I found the pdf in the zip file where you can see what it is. It's a MAX 98306 amp. The only peripherals are the typical filter capacitors, resistors, volume pot, microphone, etc. So, it's basically this: https://www.adafruit.com/pro…

I was surprised to see a git repo consisting of one zip file. And that zip file itself contains a zip file.

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#119

Post by nicoburns »

libraryofbabel wrote: post #95
mdw wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having a brightly coloured hearing aid as an adult doesn’t look professional. Are these marketed towards younger people?

Why not? People wear brightly colored jewelry or “statement” eyewear in a professional context all the time. Are you saying that it’s “professional” to hide your disability if you have hearing loss? If so, then I strongly disagree. It’s a personal choice.

Indeed, to make an even more direct comparison: brightly coloured glasses are very common these days. They seem to be treated like neckties: it's acceptable for them to standout even in very formal situations.

Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss

#120

Post by criddell »

bagacrap wrote: post #93
sputr wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Damn that link made me happy. Was wondering if anyone has done to hearing aids what they did for glasses. We just brought my father progressive glasses for 100usd (would be 400+usd here at a 'normal' store). Now he needs a hearing aid and we're dreading the multi-hundred payment on top of what is covered with insurance for a basic device. So.. What's the catch with these cheap hearing aids? Why would we not buy these…

quality? doesn't this question apply to every cheap Chinese product? My mom has had poor hearing for decades and always spent thousands on her hearing aids for marginal improvements in quality (e.g. noise cancelling, size, noticeability). The only thing that really made a big improvement was when she finally got a cochlear implant.

> doesn't this question apply to every cheap Chinese product?

The question is always valid but the answer isn't always the same.

I'm thinking specifically of cheap eyeglasses.I've had nothing but good experiences buying glasses that cost 10-20% of what I would pay from a local store.

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