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FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

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Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#251

Post by tengwar2 »

magicalhippo wrote: post #94
alias_neo wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think I've ever seen someone with a hearing aid and though anything negative of it, I get it people can be self-conscious, but for something like a hearing aid I think it's unjustified. On the other hand, I can't bring myself to keep earbuds (airpods or w/e) in my ears while talking to someone, regardless of if I can hear them properly, I just seems incredibly rude. My uneducated opinion, is that someone usin…

A buddy had a girlfriend who had reduced hearing. I noticed that people would raise their voice and really dumb down when speaking to her, like they were talking to a senile elderly. It'd happen before she'd said a word, so they clearly saw the hearing aid and assumed. She admitted she disliked wearing the hearing aids, due to such things. But the alternative was not following conversations, which meant she'd get exc…

It does seem to depend on the hearing aids as to whether people can see them. I have NHS hearing aids - made by GN Resound, I think. I really like them, but as they use sound tubes rather than wires to a speaker in the ear canal (the oddly named "receiver in canal"), they are fairly low end. Ok, so that means I have small tubes snaking in to my ears. I still had to tell a cousin four times that yes, I was wearing hearing aids, and no, I hadn't forgotten them. In fact that was how I got my mother to get hearing aids - I told her I'd been wearing them for three years and she had not noticed.

As to being excluded: one of my jobs is funeral officiant. Several times I've found the spouse of the deceased being left out of the funeral conversation because of hearing and I've even been told not to bother talking to them because they won't hear. Every time I've found that we can talk perfectly well - it just needed a bit of effort on my part.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#252

Post by tengwar2 »

righthand wrote: post #109
car wrote: post #66

With the AirPods now officially becoming hearing aids, it will hopefully reduce the stigma and attitude towards hearing aids and allow many more people to realize how bad their hearing actually is. I have been wearing hearing aids for a few years now (Phonak). I've also used the AirPods Pro with the accessibility audiogram feature (basically making them hearing aids), which is really good and has also been around for…

Most people don’t wear hearing aids because they don’t like how it looks and think their hearing isn’t bad enough to warrant social stigma from it. I don’t see how Airpods solve that problem as they are very unsightly, no matter how much pundits say they love them. In fact you mentioning how they are like hearing aids has made me justify never wanting a pair.

One reason I already use them as hearing aids is because I use Airpods for phone calls, and it's a lot easier to leave them in than change to my hearing aids. So the question of what they look like doesn't arise.

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#253

Post by gwern »

tomrod wrote: post #23
gwern wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Especially here. Expecting good faith in hearing aid regulation - from the FDA ?! Remember, Congress authorized OTC hearing aids back in the Trump administration, in August 2017 ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Over-the-Counter_Hearing_Aid_A... ). For perspective, GPT-1 didn't even exist yet. But the FDA slow-walked it so long that the Biden administration had to intervene (and is now trying to claim credit for it all…

If they hadn't intervened, would it have happened?

Hard to say. They could have fiddled with the rules to make it really unappetizing and kill the market, or slowwalk every last thing (how many vaping products have been approved?). It could have taken many more years and been a lot worse, which is a tragedy for the many, many old people who seriously need it.

(Like my grandfather. I also appreciate it, because while OTC hearing aids are - for now - too weak for my hearing loss, it's providing much more competition for the prescription hearing aid oligopoly and I'm benefiting indirectly. The jump between my hearing aids from 2017 to the pair I bought this year is the largest jump in quality I've heard in my hearing aids in like 20+ years.)

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#254

Post by BeetleB »

tengwar2 wrote: post #250
BeetleB wrote: post #213

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In contrast, the AirPods run out after a few hours and are also destined to become landfill due to their built in battery. Just looked up AirPod battery run time. Wow - that's short. I have Anker A40 earpods.[1] 10 hours, and the case has enough charge for 50 hours. 10 minutes of charging gives you 4 hours. They're a lot cheaper than Airpods, so you could easily buy a pair (for much cheaper) and be good! Not sure h…

Is there a way of setting an audiogram? That's basically a frequency response curve for your hearing, so it's the basic requirement for acting as a hearing aid. This is a setting which iPhones have for Airpods (as far as I know, you can't set it without an iPhone).

Yes. It's called HearID

https://www.soundcore.com/hearid

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#255

Post by car »

whatdidyousay wrote: post #246
car wrote: post #66

With the AirPods now officially becoming hearing aids, it will hopefully reduce the stigma and attitude towards hearing aids and allow many more people to realize how bad their hearing actually is. I have been wearing hearing aids for a few years now (Phonak). I've also used the AirPods Pro with the accessibility audiogram feature (basically making them hearing aids), which is really good and has also been around for…

How have the Phonak's been? I only learned of them recently - I've been wearing Oticons for a few years and have never been super impressed. I may be ready to drop $$ for my next pair..... do you work with an audiologist or did you do everything at Costco?

I got them through an in network hospital audiology department, so paid by health insurance. For out of pocket Costco looks good to me. They have special models that are a little less fancy than the top of the line stuff, from name brand manufacturers.

I also checked out earlens.com, a pretty cool concept that’s supposed to be superior in audio quality. But they are pricey, and need to be fitted by a doctor/audiologist with a transducer that sits directly on the eardrums (and stays in your ear canal) and is driven by induction. Ultimately turned off by cost ($12k/pair).

I think the technology in hearing aids has profited from the advances in chip manufacturing [1]. So the latest models may also be on 5nm and thus have more transistors for fancy AI and longer battery life. You may have a better experience nowadays.

[1] https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#256

Post by car »

car wrote: post #66

With the AirPods now officially becoming hearing aids, it will hopefully reduce the stigma and attitude towards hearing aids and allow many more people to realize how bad their hearing actually is. I have been wearing hearing aids for a few years now (Phonak). I've also used the AirPods Pro with the accessibility audiogram feature (basically making them hearing aids), which is really good and has also been around for…

For posterity wanted to add this interesting post [1] by TSMC about their work with Oticon (one of the established hearing aid manufacturers). It's a few years old (2021), so instead of 28nm, more recent models probably use even 5nm.

"Compared to the previous generation of Oticon Opn S™ which is powered by TSMC’s 65nm low-power technology and contains 64 million transistors, the newest model features one of the most advanced chips with AI sound processing and analysis capabilities. The migration to TSMC’s 28nm opened the door for Oticon to utilize DNN, which is trained with 12 million real-life sound scenes. This new feature allows hearing aids to mimic how the brain would hear sounds and aims to respond the same way as the brain. As more functions are added, more compute performance and improved power efficiency will be required to support future generations of hearing solutions."

[1] https://esg.tsmc.com/en-US/articles/106

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#257

Post by alden5 »

latexr wrote: post #62
herpderperator wrote: post #38

It's kinda crazy hearing Apple mention during their event that they expect FDA approval "very soon", and it actually happening 3 days later. I would have thought that governments can't promise timelines to anyone, especially something like FDA approval.

The event was prerecorded. It doesn’t seem farfetched¹ to think they already had the approval but legally couldn’t say it without the FDA making it officially public. But if the FDA had announced it before the event, it would’ve stolen the surprise. Not only of the feature, but that new AirPods would be announced. Apple would’ve hated that so they may have asked for the announcement to be delayed. ¹ Maybe it is. I’m…

apple actually didn't release any 'pro' airpods at this event, the feature is for the pro 2's which have been out for over two years now, was glad it wasn't made a feature only for a new version

Re: FDA Authorizes First Over-the-Counter Hearing Aid Software

#258

Post by tracker1 »

RHSeeger wrote: post #240
car wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Costco is great for this I found out. Free audiogram, and all name brand hearing aids. I used to be like your father-in-law, pride, vanity, stubborn, not wanting to be told what to do, whatever it was. And my dad was like this too (the hearing loss is heritable), I used to mock him about not wanting hearing aids before my own hearing declined. When I finally got fitted, it was shocking to me how much my hearing had s…

My hearing is on the border; the doctor told me hearing aids would help, but I don't "need" them. I've been resisting getting them because - I've always (decades) had issues with distinguishing speech when there's background noise. Even when my hearing was "perfect", my brain just had problems separating the two. This is _especially_ true in a crowded area (mall, restaurant, etc) where the background noise _is_ speec…

I have the same issue with noise spaces... If I can't see the person talking, it's impossible for me to distinguish anything but the loudest thing. I may as well be def in a noisy room.
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