Ah yes, the hearing aid 'racket', and it is indeed a racket hidden under medical device laws. One hopes this will change once that law passes. The hearing aid racket people are hard at work lobbying to block it.
$1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
171–180 of 200 posts
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#172Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
How many microphones do you need to do this filtering? I wear hearing aids myself and if you can do it that that level on a real hearing aid that would be amazing.
In this demo there is only one microphone on the phone. But we're working on stereo (2) microphones now. That will help make it more reliable, lower latency, and give you spatial awareness (awareness of the direction of sound).
Glad you're excited about it!
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#173Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Is it too difficult to ask for one that distributes the processes between phone/external device, rims of glasses and in the ear speaker. It will go a long way in addressing the issue of stigma and enabling more people to use it early.
A big hurdle for doing this is latency, every time you hop from one device to another you're adding at least ~10ms of latency if it's over anything like bluetooth. There might a clever way to do it, it's something I'm thinking about but it's too early to say.
For now it looks like it's going to be a behind-the-ear hearing aid. Maybe in 5-10 years it could fit in your ear canal.
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#174Earlier 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…
These are hearing amplifiers, not hearing aids. The difference being that hearing aids can boost certain frequency bands to compensate for hearing loss at those frequencies. The hearing amplifiers boost all the audio frequencies in a one size fits all manner. There's no signal processing going on. Maybe that is good enough for your father, maybe not.
"noise reduction" means these amplify the vocal range without amplifying the low or high, dsp, maybe not, but at least a lot and hof.
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
Multiple-decades of hearing aid wearing here. I agree with most of that. I ended up buying the programmer for my aids to do small tweaks (not the prescription/audiogram, just the program configuration where you can edit the level of DSP in various situations). I would say that this latest generation of hearing aids (Phonak Marvel) is the first generation where I've felt like they've got it right. Direct bluetooth con…
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…
> They are seriously pricey though - cheapest model is Aus$2700 (US$2000) and the top line model is Aus$8400 (US$5900)
I don't disagree that those are not cheap, but custom in-ear monitors for musicians are almost exactly the same price range.
It doesn't seem like the medical profession is actually gouging people in this instance.
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#176Hearing 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…
I think skype is exhausting not for this reason but because algorithms cut speakers out when someone else starts speaking for echo and feedback suppression. I wish there was true full-duplex mode that assumes everyone is wearing headphones, so there aren't any reverberation concerns.
+1, definitely.
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#177This is awesome news.
Public Service Announcement: If you're operating power equipment, wear your ear protection! I didn't, and now have permanent hearing loss. Be smarter!
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's a good place for buying these cheap eyeglasses?
I've only used Zenni Optical. Their glasses start under $10 but different frames and different lenses can change the price. My biggest complaint with Zenni is that shipping can sometimes be slow. I've waited 4 weeks for glasses to show up and other times it's only a week. I think it depends if they come from China or their US facility.
+1 for zenni. Have three pairs from them now, all of them good quality and spot on for my prescription. And the most expensive of them was $50 with lenses.
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#179At 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.
And not even a ReadMe file to accompany either ZIP file.
Re: $1 hearing aid could treat millions with hearing loss
#180Hearing 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…
Multiple-decades of hearing aid wearing here. I agree with most of that. I ended up buying the programmer for my aids to do small tweaks (not the prescription/audiogram, just the program configuration where you can edit the level of DSP in various situations). I would say that this latest generation of hearing aids (Phonak Marvel) is the first generation where I've felt like they've got it right. Direct bluetooth con…
This may be a dumb question, but could a phone app work for a good number of people? Not sure off hand how not to amplify your own voice, but otherwise a phone can easily do the DSP work can use wired or bluetooth headphones.