iPods Converge with Hearing Aids

The hearing aid world converges with the iPod world, and consumer electronics in general, as described in this article from the St. Paul Pioneer Press. The figure shows hearing aid earmolds attached to iPod earpieces, providing a comfortable and secure fit, reducing interfering sound from outside, and reducing leakage of low-frequency sound with the tighter fit. Small, low-power audio earpieces definitely have a market, and the possibilities here are interesting.

(Disclosure: I work for the company discussed in the article but am not working on the consumer technology described. I did that gig at Sound ID).

Comments

[Alan]

In-ear, low-power phones sound great. I carry Etymotic er6i phones, which also sound isolate (which is great for me given that I spend a lot of time on airplanes). I find I get better noise reduction with them than with much larger noise cancellation phones, and the sound is better (if a bit soft on the low end). Full review here.

Etymotic does a lot of work with hearing aids, and if you want to pony the cash, you can get your phones molded to your ear canal. The quality of sound and isolation from these is very high.

[bwedwards]

Thanks for the comment, Alan. I use the ER6i's as well (after having lost 2 ER4s over the past years!). I agree, the quality is excellent and I often use them on planes even when I'm not listening to music--just to reduce the plane noise. Also, I was amazed at how good airplane movies sound with the ERs--the only reason that they sound like crap normally is because of the cheap airplane headsets and the masking caused by the airplane noise.

I know Mead Killion well, the founder and head of Etymotic, and he's meticulous about recreating high-fidelity sound. Anything from Etymotic is a quality product, albeit pricy. Mead is definitely on the forefront of taking hearing aid tech to the general consumer (he was featured on the front of the WSJ a while ago after he petitioned the FDA to loosen their restrictions on selling hearing aids so that companies could sell aids unimpeded to hearing impaired users).

[Alan]

Let Mead know that if he needs any heavy business travelers who happen to publish blogs to review product ... I might be able to dig someone up.

;-)

[Richmond VA Hearing Aids]

Probably one of the most genius ideas I've ever heard. Thanks for the update.

[sildenafil]

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[Papero de Sabana Sur]

Oh so good !

[best hearing aids]

I work for a Starkey Labs (largest U.S. manufacturer of hearing aids) and we have just announced a product called GadgetTown. GadgetTown is a bluetooth add on to your hearing aid that allows for hands wireless communication to your bluetooth compatible phone.