Wayne's World

Ear Impression Block Placement – The Otoblock Myth Busted by Reality   Opening Salvo   Most documents that instruct individuals on how to take ear impressions provide some misleading information, especially when describing the purpose and placement of the otoblock/block/dam/otostop.  This series of posts is intended to show how the otoblok myth is busted by reality.  Let’s look at some

The Hear-Wear Patents   What This Series of RIC Patents Provides to the Hearing Aid Industry is a True Hearing Aid Disruption.   Background   Hearing aid development has traditionally been driven by three factors: (1) cosmetics; (2) technology and miniaturization; and (3) packaging, not necessarily concurrently. Patients have always sought hearing aids that were cosmetically appealing, meaning that they were as

The RIC (Receiver-in-Canal) Hearing Aid In 2001, two patented hearing aid designs were filed under the “Hear-Wear” name by owners of SeboTek Hearing Systems.  The result is that these, and subsequent patents by them, changed the hearing aid industry worldwide in ways never imagined.  The hearing aid disruption was based on the SeboTek PAC™ (Post-Auricular-Canal) hearing aid which was presented at

Very Low Viscosity – From Wayne’s Archives This is another post for hearing archives – information unpublished, but in need of being recorded somewhere as part of the hearing discipline.  In this post is information related to early low viscosity ear impression material.The ear impression material used to make ear impressions is generally of lower viscosity than used in the past.  In

The Origin of the CIC Hearing Aid – Part III   This post continues the paper trail story of the origin of the CIC (completely-in-canal) hearing instrument. Two previous posts traced the story from its beginning with deep canal fittings, then to the XP Peritympanic, and now to the CIC itself. These were three separate and distinct stages, with each

A.G. Bell  – An Analog Man Inventing Speech Riding on Light: Part 2 Christopher Schweitzer, Ph.D.   In Part I of “Light ‘em up Mr. Bell: Li-Fi,” Alexander Graham Bell proposed speech riding on light as a means of communication. It was also wireless telecommunication, and in the 19th century! Bell believed his light-operated method of talking across distances (Figure

Light Fidelity (Li-Fi) and Communication   By Christopher Schweizer, Ph.D. An enduring illustration of a creative ‘bright idea’ is a light bulb suspended over an inspired individual.  But to Alexander Graham Bell, the foundational hero of hearing technology, light was much more than an iconic metaphor.  It was the future of interpersonal communication, to be called light fidelity (Li-Fi).  

The zinc-air hearing aid battery (cell) of today has small holes in it.  Why is this? Background Hearing aid batteries currently are identified as zinc-air batteries (in hearing aids, actually a cell rather than a series of cells comprising a battery). The use of zinc-air cells for hearing aids was mandated in the U.S. by Big Brother in Washington, D.C.

Ah – Nothing like a neologism   Hearing Aids, Hearables, Wearables, Earables – Evolving, But in Which Direction?   New product trends related to devices at the ear have taken up some rather interesting names – hearables, wearables, and earables – in addition to the more traditional hearing aids. A hearable (Figure 1) as described by Wikipedia is “a wireless in-ear

by Barry A. Freeman, Ph.D. Battery Life Counseling – With Consideration of Rechargeable Batteries     The recent series of articles on batteries and battery life in Wayne’s World brings to light one of the least understood and, perhaps, most important patient counseling and management issues faced today by those dispensing and wearers of hearing aids—battery life counseling.  The technology