Bone-anchored hearing aids finally ready for human implantation
…Mr Hughes will become one of the first Australians to use new bone-anchored hearing aids designed to adjust to noisy environments, quiet conversations or the complex varying rhythms and pitch of music.
On Friday Mr Hughes had tiny titanium screws drilled into bone behind each ear during a 90-minute operation under general anaesthetic. Once the wounds heal and the screws have fused with bone, abutments will be screwed into the implants, and the processors, about the size of a postage stamp, are clicked into place.
Older-style hearing aids amplify all sounds, making it almost impossible for wearers to hear conversations in noisy environments. They also interfere with frequencies used by mobile and fixed phones and often emit high-pitched whistling sounds. But the newer processors, costing about $6000 each, shut out background noise, giving users up to 25 per cent better hearing, and can be attached directly to MP3 music players or wireless headsets for talking on the phone, Cochlear’s territory manager, Katrina Martin, said.
Via engadget.com, photo and words from smh.com.au.
I have perfectly good hearing (well, up to about 18kHz – too much loud music) but I quite want one of these. I wonder, in fact, if it would be possible to make them tunable, so they could pick up utrasound and transpose it into human ranges for example?
@Seej500
I wonder, in fact, if it would be possible to make them tunable, so they could pick up utrasound and transpose it into human ranges for example?
Yes.
These + Mandibular Mic + Phone = Techlepathy v0.5