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Communications Handhelds Hardware

Build Your Own Bluetooth Hearing Aid 161

Posted by michael from the volume-goes-to-11 dept.
CloudShape writes "I've been trying to find a way to make a mobile phone work with my hearing aids for some years now, and I finally managed it a few days ago. Although the procedure itself is pretty simple, the surrounding issues are good for quite a bit of discussion."
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Build Your Own Bluetooth Hearing Aid More

Build Your Own Bluetooth Hearing Aid

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  • The hooligans will have fun with this one (Score:5, Funny)

    by Samir Gupta ( 623651 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:46PM (#9657976) Homepage
    Imagine the possilbities for bluejacking! [bluejackq.com]

  • Cell phone RF bad... Bluetooth good. (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:46PM (#9657985)
    Bluetooth is an important add-on to cellular technology because as hearing aid users clearly realized right from the start, there's a lot of RF coming out of that little thing! We hear about all of these questionable health risks... why are we even taking the chances?
    • I wonder how the RF from this would interfere with the existing technology in hearing aids to "sense" the magnetic field from a telephone reciever as opposed to listen to the actual audio waves. (Know as a T-P switch on most hearing aids I believe). Also, wouldn't your hearing aid technically not be allowed on commercial planes. How many people have been yelled at for using 802.11 and bluetooth devices already.

      • Re:Cell phone RF bad... Bluetooth good. (Score:5, Interesting)

        by rohan_leader ( 731431 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @08:29PM (#9658140)

        I am a hearing aid user so I can comment on this. Being severely/profoundly deaf will get you exceptions in the rule.

        I'm certainly allowed to use my hearing aid on planes. Furthermore, I also own an FM system, basically a sort of wireless microphone that can speak directly to my hearing aid. Same 3 pin connector that the author refers to connect to a DAI shoe, btw. It is certainly handy on planes, and there are provisions in the rules that airlines have for disabled people.

        Personally, I've seen, as I've travelled with other deaf people, others use text pagers in the air to communicate. Definately, the rule is a little blurry when it comes to what technologies are allowed, but airlines do bend over backwards to accomodate us.

        And a word on the bluetooth issue. I heard from my audiologist that Widex www.widex.com [widex.com] is coming out with hearing aids with built in bluetooth. This was a while ago, so perhaps, they are out now. Not only can bluetooth be used to stream audio, but also to configure the hearing aid on the fly. Some hard of hearing people suffer from fluctuating hearing losses and used to have to visit an audiologist to get their hearing aid reprogrammed each time they wanted it changed. Now, we can use our bluetooth enabled devices such as PDA's and laptops to do this.

        • Re:Cell phone RF bad... Bluetooth good. (Score:5, Informative)

          by rohan_leader ( 731431 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @08:35PM (#9658162)

          edit:

          Seems as if Phonak [phonak.com] has their own deal called SmartLink [phonak.com]. No sign of a Widex version like I said earlier, but again, it's planned but may not exist.

          I'm going to be looking into this since I have a Phonak Claro hearing aid that I bought a year ago. Finally can use those cellphones now!

          For those of you who are wondering, hearing aid users experience an extremely loud crackling sound when using the cell phone normally. If we use the telephone switch which make use of built in telecoils in some cell phones, a loud buzzing sound overpowers the voice coming out of the phone. It's very annoying indeed. Some phones, amazingly, do not have these problems. I once tried my friends phone made by Samsung, and it was amazingly clear! Just a bit of advice, in case, anyone was wondering :)

          • I use a Kyocera 2035 [kyocera-wireless.com] without any problems. I'm profoundly deaf (HA model escapes me at the moment).

            The phone itself is a "brick" according to my friends that have new ones smaller then my thumb, but I'm hesitant to upgrade because it simply WORKS. I've used friends' fancy new Nokias and they just don't do the job. Crappy telecoils or something? I don't know, but my 3.5 yr old Kyocera keeps working for me...

            --Dave
          • Have you ever found a GSM phone that works with your aid? I have a Phonak AudioZoom. I want a GSM bluetooth phone, since Sprint and Verizon (who use CDMA phones, which I can use) are dragging their feet when it comes to Bluetooth.
            • [begin rant]
              What I'd really like to see is a divorce of phone provider and cell phone seller. It's a pain to have to get a new phone when you switch networks.

              Haven't these guys ever heard of standardization? It'd be nice if you could go pick your phone as the best for your needs, then tack on a provider, instead of having to choose from their models-de-jur!
              [end rant]
              • Can you imagine the tech support nightmare the customers would have to go through every time they had a problem with their phone/service? Having the service provider dictate the phones which may be used with their service at least means that I can call one number whether the problem is with the phone or with the service (especially if I am not sure which it is).

                I know the problems we have had with our DSL (Qwest provides the line in, a local ISP provides the bandwidth) have been handed off between the two
              • Technically, if the phone model speaks the same communication protocol and same frequency as the carrier you want to use it with, it doesn't matter who branded the phone initially. You CAN activate a Sprint phone on a Verizon network, if you know the program code for the phone. (It's a little more difficult going the other way around, since Sprint has a pre-approved ESN list, if they don't have the serial #, it can be virtually impossible to get it to activate) You can get phones for the GSM carriers, as
                • of course ... its not because they're using phones that don't have verizon specific firmware..
                  while they do use the same tech, there ARE differences in the implementations and specifics. so yeah, you can use a sprint phone on verizon for voice, but you can't use the rest of the features. sprint also frequently releases firmware upgrades, and verizon's phone have always been, in my experience, pieces...
            • I have hearing aids. I use a GSM Sony Ericsson T610. I've never found RFI to be a problem; rather, I've had acoustic feedback issues due to the microphone in the hearing aids and the shape of the earpiece.
        • Bluetooth aids sounds very cool, but I'm confused as to the original problem. I've got severe/profound loss and have never experienced the problem described. I've used nextel, cingular, and sprint gear. I'm wondering if it's only between certain phones and aids. Of course, in my better ear I can usually get away with not switching to T-Coil.

          • The problem is very dependent upon the combination of hearing aid and telephone models. My hearing aids unfortunately seem to be at the sensitive end of the spectrum, hence my need for the Bluetooth solution. If you have something that works for you, stick with it!

            Should you ever have to change, make absolutely certain that you comprehensively test your planned new setup before you part with any money. One good thing to try whilst testing is to find a location with poor mobile signal strength, so that the

    • Bluetooth is an important add-on to cellular technology because as hearing aid users clearly realized right from the start, there's a lot of RF coming out of that little thing! We hear about all of these questionable health risks... why are we even taking the chances?

      Hmm what's better... having 900Mhz or 2.4Ghz RF near your ear? I know several people who refuse to use
      bluetooth headsets because it makes their ear hot with extended use.

      • The Bluetooth headset radiates about 1mW at radio frequencies - even if the entire milliwatt were converted to heating your ear with 100% efficiency, you wouldn't feel it. Naturally, most of the RF radiates into space, otherwise Bluetooth wouldn't work. What you can feel is the heat generated by the headset circuitry - the audio transducer alone will account for tens of milliwatts.

        Also, a mobile handset in an area with excellent signal strength will radiate about 50mW of RF, rising to about 500mW in areas

    • There isn't an awful lot of RF coming out of a cellphone - 1W at the very most. That isn't enough to cause significant heating effects, and is not a health risk as numerous studies have shown.

      The reason it interferes with a hearing aid is the same reason it interferes with some speakers: The amplifier in the hearing aid picks up a small amount of noise and amplifies it by 80dB or so!

      • All handheld cell phones are 300 mW, except for Nextels, which I've heard they managed to pay off the FCC enough to allow them to bend the rules and make 1W handheld transmitters, or perhaps even more.. (you ever hold a Nextel a few inches away from an incandescent light bulb, and key the mic? scary)

        • Next to an incandescent lightbulb? wow... I can see you getting something from a fluorescent bulb, but I'd be surprised at lighting a normal filament lamp.
          • It's freaky. Virtually anything that lights up, will light with a Nextel keyed near it. Had a friend with a Nextel that would demonstrate this by going near a place in a mall that sold the flashing antennas.. and when he'd get near the display, and key the mic, every one of the antennas would go crazy.. like a foot away.

            at least the older ones...

  • Obnoxious Friday reply, please disregard (Score:5, Funny)

    by TheDarkener ( 198348 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:48PM (#9657997) Homepage
    Can I hear you now? Wait, did I load the kernel module? Hello? DAMN IT!

  • And the CIA can *really* radio voices to you... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:49PM (#9658001)
    You'll actually need that tinfoil hat.
  • Now some punk kid can bluejack your ear.

    The potential for fun is boundless...

  • You insensitive clod! (Score:3, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:50PM (#9658009)
    I can't read this article, I'm blind!
    • Uh huh. I wrote that page with no frames, no divs, no tables, in short, no fancy-format crap. To the best of my knowledge, it should be fine with a screen reader or Braille line - even the images at least have a little ALT text.

      Why? Some causes of deafness take your eyesight down too...

  • Great Work! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Mad Martigan ( 166976 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:51PM (#9658015) Homepage
    What a neat project. I've been thinking about the same problem for a while because my Great-uncle is going deaf. He takes out his hearing aids when he talks on a conventional phone (remember back in the day when you used to be able to get those big bowl-looking things that fit over the ear-piece to help make up for the abscence of the hearing aid?), but using a mobile phone is impossible becaues of the RFI.

    He is pretty old, so we would feel a lot more comfortable if he could have a phone with him at all times. I can't wait to try to build one of your devices for him.

    • woes of hearing aids (Score:3, Interesting)

      by zanzibuz ( 107145 )
      I have a moderate hearing loss, and have found that using cellular phones with my hearing aides is nearly impossible. I look forward to this technology and hope that it will eventually lead towards my being able to use my hearing aids and cell phone simultaneously. There are a few things that I have found work moderately well to compensate for the interference. I have a clamshell cell phone, a Samsung x-427. The clamshell design helps keep the antenna another couple of inches away from the hearing aide,

      • try this! it works! (Score:1, Informative)

        by EaterOfDog ( 759681 )
        For the hearing who wonder what exactly we are talking about, telecoil is a magnetic link with the speaker of the item you are listening to. The microphone is shut off. Most cell phones crank out a lot of magnetic noise. I have this problem with my $2,000 (each!) digital Interra AV MM's and my Nokia phone. I simply use the included headset that comes with the phone and loop the small speaker behind my ear close to the hearing aid, then switch to telecoil. The sound I get is so good, I prefer to use my cell

  • Where's a standard where we need it? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by LostCluster ( 625375 ) * on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:52PM (#9658023)
    Effectively, this solution is working because bluetooth uses a much lower power RF signal so the wire is not interfered with... he's just built himself a custom connection so that a hearing aid can be connected to the bluetooth tranciever.

    So really, all that really needs to be on the market for this to be a mainstream solution are A: Bluetooth adapters that connect to the phone and have a standard 2.5 mm output, and then B: an adaptor to convert that to a hearing aid-friendly conector. It'd have the side effect of letting all of us also connect our favorite handsfree piece to the phone by Bluetooth

  • the new fad in the U.K (Score:3, Funny)

    by phaetonic ( 621542 ) * on Friday July 09, 2004 @07:52PM (#9658024)
    toothing [wikipedia.org] with your ear piece! ouch.
  • When my AT&T TDMA Cell phone rings or I am on a call in my house, all the speakers in my house including those on my computer, TV and Surround Sound system get a large amount of interference. There is even a "blip" of interference when I send a SMS message. Because I also have a Verizon CDMA phone and my wife has a AT&T GSM phone, I know that these phones do not cause the same interference. I wonder if the TDMA protocol puts out signifigantly more RF Interference than others or if that interfere

    • I once worked for a cell phone company in Phoenix. I'm not a cellular engineer, so the theory and such is a bit over my head, but I was offered a simplified explaination on how the CDMA system worked, and how it differed from other forms of cellular access. This was several years ago, so hopefully I remembered it correctly.

      Analog cellular works much like standard radio. A signal is broadcast on a particular channel and your phone negotiates with the cell towers to broadcast on a that channel; each user has

      • Both GSM (World) and TDMA (USA) are TDMA systems. That means that access to the channel is time sliced among the various users. Each channel is divided into 8 time slots, which are used in a round-robin fashion. That is the source of the annoying buzz in hearing aids and other devices that are sensitive to RFI. CDMA has the advantage of using lower peak power and a pseudorandom spreading code, which makes the signal look like continuous white noise. GSM/TDMA look more like radar systems, sending out periodi
    • F*ing A. my phone does that too. i usually fall asleep with the stereo playing a short playlist off my computer. It's a very rude awakening when i get an early phone call. I can also usually know when i have a call because the stereo buzzes for a second before the phone actually rings.

      Some of the brighter /.'ers can check out the wireless communication specs [rfcafe.com]. Some carriers are slowly switching over to the 800/850 band, but not my carrier. They're mostly at 1900MHz. Here's another article [howardforums.com] that's a bit more i

      • If your phone does this sort of thing, it's time to get a new phone. You've probably got some serious problems. I've never seen a cell phone ,except for Nextels, which are at higher RF output power, cause interference like this, when tuned properly.

        However, I did have a phone that anytime it would ring if it was near my bathroom, the electrical circuit wired to the bathroom would overload, causing the breaker that provides power for that area of my house to trip. After that happened twice, I took the ph
        • It also doesn't seem to matter what the volume is set at. Could it just be that my (very old) stereo just has poor shielding? Same story with some old computer speakers [hardwarecentral.com] I had around. It only happens when the phone is in relatively close proximity.

          I tested this poor shielding theory on a much higher class Stereo/Reciever and a diff stereo of a slightly more recent vintage, but with a much more compact design. Both barely gave off a hum.

          Update: I really do think it involves poor shielding. I just waved it aro

          • ya know, i suppose that could be an answer too.. but you might want to have your phone checked to see if it is in spec.. i've never had any buzzing on anything i've ever owned, though, and i don't have any really expensive stereo hardware or anything.. (except with my phone that i mentioned elsewhere that would blow the circuits in my bathroom)

    • I have the same problem, but with my GSM phone.

      There's nothing like setting your phone down on top of your desk and having your PC speakers or your keyboard synth start shouting in the middle of the night.

      DEET-DE-DEET DEET-DE-DEET DEET-DE-DEET. BZZZZZT.

      Oddly, my TDMA/CDMA phone never did anything like this.

  • I also wear a hearing aid... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by antdude ( 79039 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @08:45PM (#9658188) Homepage Journal
    I don't wear those standard/common ones that go on the ears. Mine is the bone conduction type [google.com] with a headband since I do not have ear canals. I wonder how difficult it is to do this for this type of hearing aid.
    • Those are interesting, I hadn't seen them before. Email the guy and ask him, bet he would like to help. Good luck!
    • I've never seen a bone-conduction aid, although I've heard about them. I'd need a lot more information before I could say much that was useful, though. For example, when you use a fixed-line phone, a portable CD player, or an FM lecture theater microphone, how do you get the audio into your aid?
    • Sorry, I missed the image link the first time round... Some of those aids look like they would accept DAI shoe connections - if so, then my style of Bluetooth conversion should work, in theory. Unfortunately, the only way to find out is to try, and a serious mistake could fry your hearing aid. That's why I wouldn't make one for someone else, because I don't want to assume that kind of risk.
      • Also, my brand is from Oticon [oticon.com]. I was only curious if it was possible. I guess I *could* try the OLD models that I still keep as backups in case the newest/current one needs a repair.

        And yes this one gets RFC interference from cellular phones, radio stations at a close distance, and many other unknown sources like at work, classrooms, etc.

  • Great idea... (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Critical_ ( 25211 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @08:46PM (#9658191) Homepage

    I was wondering if this guy has considered selling/giving his idea to the manufacturer of the bluetooth headset. This could always lead to a nice job offer later.

    On another note, does anyone know where to get that faceplate for the T68i in the following picture?

    http://www.gfern.com/btha/btha-complete.jpg [gfern.com]

    • Yes; I deliberately wanted to spread the information so that as many people as possible would know. Slashdot is a key site for that, incidentally. I'm hoping that people will start thinking about the basic idea and making the devices commercially. Someone might even come up with related ideas or extensions I didn't think of, which could be a big win for me and deaf people like me.

      That's a 2-year old T68, by the way, I don't think you can get that style anymore. I'm not even sure if the faceplate can be cha
  • And for those you you who are reading impaired and only like pictures: http://www.gfern.com/btha/

  • What's going on here? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by 1000101 ( 584896 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @09:01PM (#9658239)
    34 posts and not one response on how he was originally designing this for 50 pounds for patentable hardware?!?!? This is /. isn't it?

    • In the UK prices work a bit differently. Kids spend 1125/year to go to college and even that sets them back for a few years afterwards. The problem is that costs are rising so they plan(ned) to raise tuitions to 1900 with the possibility of making it 3000.

      Anyways, 50/4450 comes out to 1.12% of his 4 year tuition. That might seem like chump change to an American, but I bet that went a long way in the UK. FYI those are all in pounds. /. doesn't seem to like the symbol.

    • It's not just that he designed it for 50 pounds -- but that Ericsson had a program that asked employees to come up with new patentable ideas, and only rewarded them with a 50 pound bonus. I'm sure this kind of 'bonus program' wasn't part of the daily schedule, but something the employees were asked to do on their own time.

      The irony is that they were asking this of R&D geeks that were supposed to be intelligent. This does not speak highly of the quality of Ericsson's HR staff. I wonder if their hirin
      • GBP50 (Roughly US$90) is quite a bit for a patentable idea that isn't good enough to actually get developed. Remember, what's shown on this site isn't the actual patent concept... the idea of hooking wires together to convert one interface format to another is not good enough to get a patent. He had to have come up with some unknown enhancement beyond that for that program... and I doubt it was terribly useful seeing that this unpatentable idea that his new invention depends on hasn't been rolled out by an
      • Well, there might be multiple reasons for developing patentable ideas for 50 pounds.

        First of all you get 50 pounds for an idea that you would not have made any money out of anyways. Or better still, get 50 pounds for something you have worked on during the weekends AT A LOSS and is now sitting idly on a shelf in your garage/workshop. Another reason might be for getting more recognition from the boss/company. This might help later on if your department is going to be downsized.

        And finally, what are the cha
      • At first when I read the article I figured that this guy was really kind of taking it to Ericson. There is definately a hint of anger at Ericson for not developing the idea further. I really thought this guy was trying to do something noble.

        As I think about it though, he basically helped a company with no interest in developing the product, obtain some IP that could prevent other companies from selling an apparently much needed product. I wonder if the lack of BT equipped hearing aids is a result of
    • I think the article says the bluetooth hearing aid proposal wasn't patentable?
  • This is pretty cool, but what is really the minimum possible size for a Bluetooth device? Could one really fit into a earplug sized device. In high school I had to do a lot of memorized poetry recitation for English classes and fantacized about such a thing. :)
  • The converted headset has worked perfectly for me so far. As long as my handset is at least two metres away, I cannot hear any RFI whatsoever.
    Whoa - this guy has really long arms!
    • No, he just has bluetooth installed...
      • Doens't matter what magic wireless technique he is using... 2 meters is still an incredibly long distance to have a phone from your ear. Unless you are say, in your car, or at your home...

        The best bet, would be to strap it to your ankle. Assuming the phone doesn't get smashed too quickly,, It should cut down on nearly all of the interference...
    • This guy's phone or hearing aid is really fukt up. I deal in cell phones, every day, and most days involving at least one or two people with hearing aids. No one has ever complained to me about the phone causing interference, or even having to take their aids out to use their cell phone.

      Nokia makes a device that will connect to any of their phones, and interface it directly to any LoopSet compatible hearing aid.

      You could easily use an earpiece that doesn't go "in the ear", with almost any hearing aid, a
  • I wear two Resound Canta 7's HA's and the speaker phone on my treo 600 is usually good enough. Kind of sucks if you're in public and want to keep some measure of privacy though.

    This looks neat too.
    The world's first Bluetooth for hearing instruments:

    http://www.gn.com/gn_magazine/2002/november/the _ wo rlds_first_bluetooth_for_hearing_instruments

    Bluetooth in the HA's themselves would be pretty neat. I could zot MP3's straight into my head.
    Might be asking a bit much given the space restrictions though.
  • It would be a cool idea. No more getting the headphone cord tangled or accidently yanked. Especially for portable music players etc. Anyone know if such a thing is available anywhere? And ironically using them at loud volumes may eventually lead to the bluetooth hearing aid.

  • Induction Loop? (much cheaper) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by truefluke ( 91957 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @09:46PM (#9658406) Homepage
    You didn't mention whether you were aware of an existing technology, but there's something known as an "induction loop".

    Being hearing-impaired myself, I obtained an induction loop that jacks into the cell phone. The signal is clear as day. Of course, you have to deal with batteries, but an advantage is, hands-free mode. There's a microphone portion where the cord forks into a 'Y'. :D

    I imagine the local Bell cell-phone store would carry it (that's where I got mine).

    Good luck.

    • He mentions in the article that induction loops don't work well because of EM interference, lack of clarity, etc. I can attest to this myself - try using your induction coil while sitting in front of a large monitor and you'll see what I mean.
      • Aha I glossed over that, however un-intentionally. I know what you mean though, anything that kicks off enough RF could be annoying, but the loop can help in other situations, I imagine, just not stationary in the office (often I use induction loop in my car. Try THAT with a laptop and WiFi ... welcome to constant wardialing much?)

        I just proffered as an option. Not saying mine is the bonafide end-all solution.

  • Am I missing something? (Score:3, Insightful)

    by LoadStar ( 532607 ) on Friday July 09, 2004 @10:14PM (#9658530)

    Can someone clarify one thing for me - why bother with Bluetooth for this application? I'd think it'd be easier just to use a cell phone that has a standard 2.5mm jack.

    Take any "hands-free" kit with a microphone in the cable and a 2.5mm connector. Snip off the earpiece, leaving the microphone behind, and replace the earpiece leads with a 3.5mm mono jack. Use the 3.5mm to hearing aid adapter as shown in this story, and you're done.

    If you're going to have something clipped to your belt and a big cable, may as well carry the cell phone on your belt and have the wire going directly to the phone instead of a wire to a wireless link.

    • No doubt you haven't read the article. The RF problems run up the line aswell, still causing disruptive static..
    • maybe he wants to hear when he's not using the phone? That's probably why he did it, as a switch,also, bluetooth has less human audible interference than the straight normal cellphone transmission carries, the wire propogates and interferes with the hearing aid circuitry and operation.

      It's in the article, unless I am reading this wrong.
    • RTFA - "No amount of extension cable will make a wired hands-free usable - the wire always conducts enough RFI to cause trouble, regardless of any filters that might be in place." Wires really transmit. I used some spare wire to wrap around my wireless to boast the signal.
      • RTFA - "No amount of extension cable will make a wired hands-free usable - the wire always conducts enough RFI to cause trouble, regardless of any filters that might be in place." Wires really transmit. I used some spare wire to wrap around my wireless to boast the signal.

        How about terminating the the cable from the cell phone to the hearing aid DAI with an opto-isolator?

        • The audio output from a cellphone is already electrically isolated from the RF circuits. The problem is that _inductively_ isolating it from high frequency RF energy is very hard and I doubt an optoisolator would help. Another possible solution is to use fibre optic cable instead of copper cable to connect the phone and the earpiece together - separating the devices by a metre of fibre optics would probably do the trick.

          Having said all that, I must congratulate this guy on a good idea. With circuits get
      • Using wire to boost your wireless. Oh, the irony.

  • pun (Score:1)

    by 7*6 ( 258602 )
    "the surrounding issues are good for quite a bit of discussion."

    ...pardon the pun

  • Hearing aids have become an exercise in digression. The newer hearing aids are getting smaller and smaller, becoming less and less obtrusive. Combine this with the fact that cell phone companies are striving to reduce the size of their phones (limited only by our fat fingers) and facilitate communications between bluetooth enabled devices. How long will it be until we see bluetooth wireless headsets shaped like hearing aids? (Practically) invisible wireless headsets that connect our ears to our phones.

    Bl
  • I've been wondering lately if one could have a hearing aid that uses bluetooth to allow the battery, DSP, etc all to be in a device separate from the what one wears in the ear (or on the ear in the case of the more powerful behind the ear aids).

    There's a few reason this would be useful. A key reason is that the unit in the ear could be made cheaply enough that it is virtually disposable. This is important when you realise that the device is exposed to sweat, rain, etc - all very bad things when your aid
  • you just build in some terabytes ram (Hey, dont look funny, it will happen soon enough!), an mp3 player, hook up the thing directly to my hearing nerves.
    Voila! Instant audio memory and playback!

    I am actually loosing my vibrating inner ear hairs, that translate soundwaves into nerve signals, as I dont have an eardrum on one side. When they are all gone ill be effectively deaf with that ear.

    When I get there, I want above mentioned gadget, and STILL be able to visit concerts..

    I wonder what that will mean to
  • My mother in law has a hearing problem too. I've been thinking about buying her a Nokia GSM phone and the induction loop device that'll talk to the T option of her hearing aid.
    Does anyone have experience with that? Her hearing disability is very high.
    Thanks.
  • But this [ebay.co.uk] is really cool.
  • I use a simple phone adaptor which has a neck microphone and a small inductive loop. Sound quality is excellent (there is a very small rattle in my car which has the VW Pump Duese engine, but it is hardly noticeable when someone is speaking) and I have had no interference problems. What is more, the battery life is about 3 months, the additional drain on the phone battery is unnoticeable, and I can use the same loop with both hearing aids (I have a Widex for sports and outdoors and a larger Siemens with bet

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