Wayne's World

FDA PSAP Revision Suggestion – Part III This is the final post on PSAPs from an article submitted to Hearing Health and Technology Matters by Miles Goldsmith, MD, opposing the Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff of November 7th, 2013.  In this post, Dr. Goldsmith builds on suggestions in his two previous posts as to why he

Are PSAPs Legal and/or Dangerous? This post on PSAPs is the second in a series of three by Miles Goldsmith, MD.  In Part I of this series he commented that he thought the recent FDA Guidance Document was overreaching, and threatened the viability of affordable hearing options – rather than protecting the consumer, the proposed FDA document would create a barrier to access. In

Editor’s comment:  Discussions of hearing aids versus PSAPs (Personal Sound Amplification Products) have heated up again since the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) issued its Draft Guidance for Industry and Food and Drug Administration Staff on November 7, 2013.  The Guidance Document was distributed for comment purposes only, and rapidly became a lightening rod for arguments both in favor of

by Wayne Staab and Steve Armstrong This post wraps up our six-part series on Bluetooth 101.  The purpose has been to provide a basic understanding of Bluetooth technology, in general.  For a detailed understanding, the reader is advised to seek more detailed expert interaction. As a refresher, Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard used to exchange data over short distances,

Cocktail Party Physics: A Hop, Skip, and a Jump (or, the Origin of Frequency Hopping) Wayne Staab and Steve Armstrong (Or, the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly – for an explanation, read the end of this blog) Frequency hopping has been discussed in this series of posts related to Bluetooth as its underlying foundation.  Several persons are credited with

Communication and Connection By Wayne Staab and Steve Armstrong Each Bluetooth system forms its own piconet (network) to “talk” between it (M –master) and its peripheral slave (S).  Keep in mind that essentially these Bluetooth-enabled devices are short-distance radios attempting to connect to each other (Figure 1). General steps follow: A Bluetooth-enabled device, when turned on, sends a signal (PAGES,

Strange as it may seem, this post on the Whisper Test was a Reader’s Choice post, among the top read articles on my blog this past year.   It is Amazing What One Can Find About Hearing Aids When Looking For Something Else In her post last week on the HHTM blog, Gael Hannan commented on the “whisper game” that

Dear Readers: Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  The Readers’ Choices are the posts published on each of our individual blogs that drew the most readers out of the 250,000 people who visited HHTM in 2013. During this holiday season, the editors at Hearing Health & Technology Matters (HHTM) are taking a week off.  However, we are not leaving you

By Wayne Staab and Steve Armstrong In Bluetooth 101 – Part II, the discussion introduced concepts of connectivity of Bluetooth to other devices.  This, Part III of the series, will expand on this connectivity: how it occurs, what is required, what happens when Bluetooth devices come in range of each other, and how they connect. Wayne’s background can be seen

In Bluetooth 101 – Part I, it was learned that Bluetooth is the global standard that enables convenient and secure connectivity for an expanding range of devices and services. It is built into an untold number of products, from cars and mobile phones to medical devices and computers.  Bluetooth technology allows the sharing of voice, data, music, photos, videos, and