“Hearing aids are becoming a more and more interesting target not only to hack, but also simply to connect them to all kinds of consumer hardware and make the experience more seamless,” said Helga Velroyen, a Munich-based software engineer who has been at the forefront of efforts to modify hearing aids.

Her interest in the topic was sparked when her own hearing started to degrade a few years ago.

For some, this tinkering does not go far enough. Edinburgh-based engineer Martin Ling has set up a project to produce one in which all the parts and the code it runs would be accessible to anyone to work on and improve.

Mr Ling’s early attempts to hack a hearing aid involved dismantling one of his partner’s old ones and wiring it up to a laptop to watch how it handled sound. Now he is working on a design built from scratch.

“We could make a small number of these so we could get hardware in the hands of people that wanted to test it,” he said. “Then as the signal-processing ideas get pinned down we can start to work on miniaturising it.”

Dr Kevin Munro, professor of audiology at the University of Manchester, was sceptical about Mr Ling’s chances of producing a DIY device.

“They are not the sorts of things you can throw together in a garden shed,” he said, adding that hearing-aid makers invested hugely in research and development to produce the gadgets on sale now.

This is from a BBC article, looks like the idea of DIY hearing aids and making programme changes for yourself is starting to go mainstream. Interesting times ahead for the hearing industry!

David Peter is a 21 year old computer programmer at San Francisco-based startup 1000memories. He is also deaf and the company’s first deaf employee. David has written a thought-provoking blog post on what it is like to be deaf and how it affects both his professional and personal life.

He writes about things that are probably familiar to most of us with a hearing problem: the sense of isolation, problems with group conversation, communication and accessibility. He writes from the heart and you get a real sense of someone who is surrounded by people every day but still feels alone.

Being Deaf by David Peter.

In preparation for May’s NATO summit in Chicago, the city’s police force ordered a sound cannon to help them deal with the expected large number of anti-war protesters.

The cannon emits high-pitched sounds up to 150 decibels that can be heard up to 1,600 feet away, that’s about a third of a mile. A 150 dB blast from the cannon is louder than standing next to an aircraft taking off or someone firing a gun right next to you. The pain-threshold in humans is about 110 – 120 decibels, so this thing is going to hurt.

Karen Piper, a former visiting professor at Carnegie Mellon University who attended the G20 summit in Pittsburgh, sued the city after allegedly sustaining permanent hearing loss when the city used their sound cannon. “The intensity of being hit at close range by a high-pitched sound blast designed to deter pirate boats and terrorists at least a quarter mile away is indescribable. The sound vibrates through you and causes pain throughout your body, not only in the ears. I thought I might die,” Piper, now an English professor at the University of Missouri, said in a press release. “It is shocking that the device is being promoted for use on American citizens and the general public.”

Whilst the police obviously need to be equipped to control rioting, the use of sonic weapons is worrying, particular as they have a range of up to 1/3 of a mile – if a cannon is used against a hostile front-line of a crowd, many more behind them are going to suffer too.

Not only is permanent hearing loss a certainty for those hit, tinnitus will be a problem too. The NATO summit has already happened and from reports it looks like even though there was trouble, the sound cannon wasn’t used.

The quote above comes from a Better Hearing Institute press release and you can read more here.

This is lovely and for a good cause too.

The Jubilee Project makes films for good causes. This film was produced to raise awareness and support for the American Society for Deaf Children. There are two ways that you can support this cause:

1. Go to jubileeproject.bandcamp.com to buy the soundtrack for this video, “Peaches” by New Heights. You can also donate directly to the cause at this site.
2. Sign up to become a sponsor of this video. Each sponsor will be asked to donate 1 penny for each view this video receives in November. So if the video is watched 1000 times this month, sponsors will each donate 10 dollars. You can sign up to become a sponsor by emailing project.jubilee@gmail.com. All proceeds will go to the American Society for Deaf Children.

The American Society for Deaf Children is a non-profit organization started in 1967 that supports and educates families of deaf and hard of hearing children and advocates for high quality programs and services.

A few weeks ago my daughter asked me to teach her how to finger spell. It took me by surprise because she’d never shown any interest in learning to sign before. After about an hour of going through the alphabet she was signing words and short sentences pretty quickly.

Now, I’m as much of a proud dad as the next man and I’m sure my daughter is destined for greatness but she’s no child prodigy or anything like that. If she can pick up the finger alphabet in about an hour then presumably most other nine/ten year-olds can too. So why not teach them?

Obviously my daughter has a lot more exposure to hearing loss than many kids so she’s probably more inclined to want to learn more about hearing, signing, etc. What’s really nice is that during the rare times when I’m not wearing my hearing aids we now finger-spell short sentences to each other and it works really well.

So that got me thinking: could schools spend just one or two hours and teach nine/ten year-olds to finger-spell? Probably 90% or more of those who took the lesson would never use it again but it would be a nice introduction to an alternative form of communication, a little bit of exposure to deafness. Maybe kids could use it as their secret-code, a way to communicate without their parents knowing what they are saying – that would give it a bit of a cool factor. If nothing else, it would hopefully make signing seem less of a weird an unusual thing when they did come across it at some point in their lives.

If a class is doing a biology topic then it seems like a good way to spend an hour or two.

british-sign.co.uk is a great website for anyone wanting to learn BSL (including finger-spelling). It has an online BSL course and a nice little finger-spelling game where you have three minutes to correctly identify as many finger-spelled words as possible.

The Better Hearing Institute (BHI) has issued a warning to consumers about purchasing pre-programmed, one-size-fits-all hearing aids.

BHI points out that devices that are purchased over-the-counter or through the Internet without the consultation of a hearing healthcare professional may result in the devices not being accurately customized to the specific hearing needs of the individual, since hearing loss may be the symptom of a serious underlying medical problem. In addition, all 50 states require consumers to use a credentialed hearing care professional to purchase hearing aids, according to BHI.

“Today’s state-of-the-art hearing aids should be programmed to the individual’s specific hearing loss requirements in order to provide good levels of benefit and customer satisfaction,” said Sergei Kochkin, BHI’s executive director.

Kochkin adds that today’s hearing aid fitting process requires a complete in-person hearing assessment in a sound booth, and the training and skills of a credentialed hearing health care professional in order to prescriptively fit the hearing aids using sophisticated computer programs. He also advises that an in-person follow-up and counselling is also necessary to a proper fitting.

Very interesting article on the BBC website today about Neil Harbisson, a colour-blind artist who, with the help of a friend, created a device that allows him to hear colours.

Until I was 11, I didn’t know I could only see in shades of grey. I thought I could see colours but that I was confusing them.

When I was 16, I decided to study art. I told my tutor I could only see in black and white, and his first reaction was, “What the hell are you doing here then?” I told him I really wanted to understand what colour was.

While attending a university cybernetics lecture he met fellow student Adam Montandon, Harbisson asked him if there was anything that could be made to help him see colours – Montandon

He came up with a simple device, made up of a webcam, a computer and a pair of headphones and created software that would translate any colour in front of me into a sound.

You can read the full article here.

This is a Valentine’s Day-related study from Hear The World that looked into how hearing loss can affect relationships with loved ones:

It’s no secret that clear communication between partners is key to a long and lasting relationship and, following a new study, more than 60 per cent of UK hearing aid wearers say their relationship has improved since being fitted with a hearing device.

The new international study, which surveyed 4,300 people across the UK, Germany, France, Switzer-land and the US found that 81 per cent of partners without hearing loss welcome the fact that their significant other wears a hearing aid and say it has had a positive effect on their relationship. Furthermore, 40 per cent believe they are getting more attention from their partner since they have been wearing a hearing aid.

The study was conducted by Hear the World, a global initiative by leading hearing aid manufacturer Phonak, which calls attention to the importance of taking care of your hearing and highlights the social and emotional impact of hearing loss as well as the solutions available for those who suffer.

Relationship expert Professor Guy Bodenmann from the Psychological Institute of the University of Zurich, Switzerland, said: “Various studies show how important communication is for a harmonious relationship. The readiness and ability to adequately listen and respond to each other is one of the most important foundations of a satisfactory partnership. Untreated hearing loss can lead to a disruption in the dialogue between partners and cause misunderstandings and arguments. This can be positively countered by a hearing aid.”

According to the study, self confidence is also cited as a key area of improvement as 29 per cent of people with hearing loss said they feel more attractive and desirable since wearing their hearing aids.

Nearly three quarters (74 per cent) of people without hearing loss have no problem with dating someone who wears a hearing aid, while 59 per cent of hearing aid wearers say they find it easy to meet someone who is relationship material – more than the general population (51 per cent).

I like Hear The World, they are doing some great stuff to raise awareness of hearing loss and hearing care.

Tinnitus awareness week 2012, which is run by the British Tinnitus Association (BTA), runs from 6th – 12th February. The theme this year is Raising Awareness in Primary Care. The main goals of the week are to:

• Ensure GPs are more aware of tinnitus and have a better understanding of the services available in secondary care.
• Encourage interactions between audiologists and GPs.
• Get as many copies of their Ten Top Tinnitus Tips for GP’s guide to GP surgeries as possible.

A survey published in the Journal of Evaluation in Clinical Practice, May 2011 showed that around 750,000 people visit their GP each year with tinnitus and the advice they receive varies dramatically. The hope is that raising awareness among GPs will lead to more consistent treatments.

If you would like to help then you can print out a copy of Top Ten Tinnitus Tips for GPs and deliver a copy to your local surgery.

Related posts:

1. Help Deafness Research UK shape the future of tinnitus research

Deafness Research UK is inviting you to take part in a tinnitus survey which will help set the priorities for future research into this distressing and little understood condition.

Despite ongoing research in the UK and other countries there are still many unanswered questions about tinnitus assessment, diagnosis and treatment. By contributing your views you can help set the agenda for future research and ensure that scarce funds are used to address the questions that really matter to sufferers.

The survey is being overseen by the James Lind Alliance (JLA) and led by the British Tinnitus Association and the National Biomedical Research Unit in Hearing.

You can enter the survey online at Online Survey or click on the link –>survey download to download the survey.

Please return your completed survey by Tuesday 28 February 2012.

For more information please visit the BTA Website or contact Deafness Research UK at email Research or telephone 020 7164 2290.

Related posts:

1. Tinnitus Awareness Week 6th-12th February 2012