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Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

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Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#71

Post by mschuster91 »

observationist wrote: post #43
mschuster91 wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 mo…

> Fake hearing aids, or dangerous ones, would get rooted out quick.

Ah and here I think we disagree the most - because in everything else you say, I think we are in agreement.

IMHO, the only thing keeping Alibaba and their dropshipper "friends" on Amazon and eBay scamming off elderly people with worthless junk is the legal protection. The scam problem is massive enough that it's gotten really annoying to shop on Amazon, and I say that as a "digital native" - remove the paperwork and you'll get the digital equivalent of ambulance chaser lawyers in less than a month. Scam "hearing aids" would not get rooted out - they'd infest the world.

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#72

Post by emmelaich »

userbinator wrote: post #54

It appears that the Hearing Aid feature is actually an equalizer preset that is pushed to the AirPods and will replace your transparency mode. Apple could've just not marketed these as "hearing aids" or used the medical terminology, as every other TWS with parametric EQ and transparency mode can do the same thing, and they wouldn't have the regulatory hawks going after them. They only lose the marketing edge, but per…

Is that the only concern? That's good because Apple probably won't go and turn the feature off.

I was worried that there might have been some other regulatory concern, perhaps to do with volume. Though I can't think what that might be.

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#74

Post by jijji »

rkagerer wrote: post #73

Is the hearing aid feature unavailable if you use the AirPods with an Android?

I'm not a genius but it seems pretty trivial to take the input from a microphone and pipe it to the output of a speaker, the hardest part probably is the device drivers for the airpods (or any bluetooth ear buds for that matter). It looks like others have already done this in hardware [0] for $84.99 on amazon.com. There is also "Sound Amplifier" app for Apple iPhone [1] that amplifies the surrounding voice near the phone.

[0] https://www.amazon.com/Hearing-Seniors-Rechargeable-Bluetoot...

[1] https://apps.apple.com/us/app/sound-amplifier/id1615079093

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#75

Post by hoistbypetard »

tzs wrote: post #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).

Thanks for posting this. I recognized the currency symbol but was confused by the "L".

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#76

Post by JumpCrisscross »

hoistbypetard wrote: post #75
tzs wrote: post #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).

Thanks for posting this. I recognized the currency symbol but was confused by the "L".

The Indian numbering system marks odd power of ten, i.e. 10 ^ {1, 3, 5, 7}. Unit, thousand, lakh, crore [1].

Ours, on the other hand, does it mod 3, e.g. 10 ^ {1, 3, 6, 9}. Thousands, millions, billions, et cetera.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indian_numbering_system

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#77

Post by alistairSH »

mschuster91 wrote: post #35
observationist wrote: post #27

Earlier 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…

I don’t disagree, but it’s not like the cartel products are necessarily any good. My wife and father both wear HAs and both have had all sorts of issues, predominantly set-up tunings, absolute shit UX in the apps, and so-so hardware quality. It would be one thing if the devices were a joy to use, but they aren’t even close.

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#78

Post by avidiax »

thel3l wrote: post #46
enjaydee wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

You can use a microwave oven as a very cheap faraday cage. Just don't turn it on.

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#79

Post by staticfish »

avidiax wrote: post #78
thel3l wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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!

You can use a microwave oven as a very cheap faraday cage. Just don't turn it on.

I assume he needed it to have a small opening in the cage to shove the Raspberry Pi through it (to broadcast new SSIDs)

Re: Bypassing regulatory locks, hacking AirPods and Faraday cages

#80

Post by RobMurray »

Is this actually different from the custom transparency mode in accessibility / headphone accommodations that existed before they even announced the hearing aid feature? It can use an audiogram stored in the health app. sounds pretty terrible with custom transparency mode though, a bit like a comb filter.
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