Hey! I'm Rithwik, one of the authors of the article, happy to answer questions etc!
Maybe I missed it but did you make or buy the Faraday cage?
Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
41–50 of 202 posts
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#42[flagged]
It would be illegal for them to sell AirPods in many countries without these lockouts. The sale of medical devices is heavily regulated in most places. Headphones: legal. Hearing aids: not. Blame the government, not the company that's following the rules laid down.
Blame governments for regulating medical devices? You're going to need a better argument than that. This is entirely on Apple not applying for regulatory approval.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#43Earlier quoted context omitted.
In the US, and nearly everywhere else this type of hearing assist tech is sold, the Hearing Aid cartel is responsible for lobbying and influencing and bribing officials to maintain a stranglehold on their cash cow. Retired, elderly people with extra cash get screwed over with markup rates of 40,000% or more (yes, that's the right number of zeros.) Hearing aid technology, along with DSPs and specialized high quality,…
> There is no valid, rational basis in fact for the medical device classification or the rationalizations used to justify it. I wouldn't be that certain. The situation with stuff like fakes and knock-offs is already bad enough as it is - at least for anything classified as "medical devices", be it condoms or hearing aids, the threat of the law is keeping bad actors reasonably at bay. You go and buy a hearing aid, you…
Fake hearing aids, or dangerous ones, would get rooted out quick. The function is the test of quality. There are laws that hold companies liable for material and actual harms caused by their products. There's no need for the FDA to be standing in the middle of this industry - there is no value add. Zero. Zip. Zilch. Nada. I have looked. I have tried to steelman its presence in the regulation of hearing devices for more than a decade. Nothing holds up to scrutiny. The closest you get to a plausibly legitimate reason for regulation is when it comes to children, but even then, it's flimsy as hell.
There are zero legitimate reasons among the swathes of paperwork put forth by this cartel. They are irredeemably corrupt and morally bankrupt exploiters of the elderly and disabled, and the method by which they accomplished that was regulatory capture via the FDA medical device classification. Given that as a platform, they perform a series of manipulative maneuvers and establish a bureaucratic framework, self sustaining, given the color and flavor of legitimacy with the government's stamp of authenticity.
They've been presenting Audiology programs as a legitimate medical field, when these are effectively sound system equalizer knob twiddlers in doctor costumes. Yes, there are legitimate medical professionals who go into ENT and such, but a large majority of audiologists are essentially salespeople for one of the 5 HA cartel members, whether they realize it or not.
They're getting away with a gross and vicious exploitation of some of the most vulnerable people among us; so no, there is no valid, rational basis for the medical device categorization and regulation by the FDA of hearing aids. The disability can absolutely destroy someone's quality of life, and this is an insidious and evil market. But hey, it's Starkey and Oticon, they do good things and charity for kids, right?
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#44Earlier quoted context omitted.
Does it look like a duck? Does it quack like duck? In-ear devices with speaker and mic that look like hearing aids that perform hearing aid function for those with hearing loss? Hearing aids. Phones, that look nothing like glasses or contacts, and don't serve the same purpose? Obviously not. Don't be silly. Judges aren't.
I really wasn't trying to be silly. I feel like other medical things in the US are regulated differently based purely on how they're marketed. How about an Apple Vision Pro with optical zoom on the exterior cameras?
> I feel like other medical things in the US are regulated differently based purely on how they're marketed.
They aren't. Different classes of medical or medical-adjacent products in the US have to be careful how they market so they aren't making claims that they are not allowed to make, but the absence of those claims alone doesn't make a regulated device unregulated.
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
Fair enough - that certainly explains the situation in the US, where they were allowed. It just seemed surprising to me that every country in the world has medical device certification for anything that calls itself a hearing aid, forcing apple to restrict it to just 2 or 3 countries. You'd think in some it would be linked to what's covered by state medical care, or sold with a particular emblem or... Actually, could…
In the US, and nearly everywhere else this type of hearing assist tech is sold, the Hearing Aid cartel is responsible for lobbying and influencing and bribing officials to maintain a stranglehold on their cash cow. Retired, elderly people with extra cash get screwed over with markup rates of 40,000% or more (yes, that's the right number of zeros.) Hearing aid technology, along with DSPs and specialized high quality,…
Is the certification required for things labeled as hearing aids, or for things that perform hearing-aid-like functions?
Could you sell a "heering eyd" or an "in-ear sound amplifier that lets ornithology enthusiasts hear faraway birds better", which incidentally functions as a (non-insurance-covered) hearing aid, at least for those who can Reddit?
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#46Hey! I'm Rithwik, one of the authors of the article, happy to answer questions etc!
Maybe I missed it but did you make or buy the Faraday cage?
We built it ourselves actually!
The first prototype was just aluminium foil, tape and hope, but we wanted something more solid so we built one out of n°100 copper mesh and some 2020 aluminium extrusions!
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#47> Hearing aids typically cost anywhere from ₹ 50,000 to upwards of ₹ 8L depending on the correction capability
For those who don't recognize the ₹ symbol it is the symbol for the Indian Rupee and an "L" after a number means 100,000, so ₹ 8L is ₹ 800,000.
At current exchange rates that puts hearing aids in India from $600 to upwards of $9,500.
AirPods Pro 2 are ₹ 24,900 ($295).
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#48[flagged]
Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#49Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely ignorant question, but what does it come down to? What if I released this feature but didn't call it "hearing aid", nor positioned it as medical device? Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
A malfunctioning hearing aid/earbud can potentially cause permanent hearing damage. Unless it explodes, a misbehaving phone can't damage your vision.
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Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
Completely ignorant question, but what does it come down to? What if I released this feature but didn't call it "hearing aid", nor positioned it as medical device? Is a phone with optical zoom, a "vision-enhancing device" and regulated like eye wear?
A malfunctioning hearing aid/earbud can potentially cause permanent hearing damage. Unless it explodes, a misbehaving phone can't damage your vision.
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