Wayne's World

During my years as VP of Marketing and Sales at a hearing aid manufacturer, I had many people ask me how to evaluate the worth of a hearing aid practice – either to sell or purchase.  To me, there was no simple formula because many issues were involved, and some needed to be analyzed in ways directly related to the

Human Body as Future Hearing Aid Power Supply? Last week’s blog introduced the use of alternate energy to power hearing aids, and ended suggesting that perhaps the human body itself could serve as such a source, thereby possibly even eliminating the power cell (battery) altogether.  Of course, such a direction was not suggested as something imminent, but at the same

Introduction/Background Powering hearing aids has taken a number of turns over the years – from carbon microphones, through A and B batteries (heater and power battery), other different sized zinc batteries, and finally to cells consisting primarily of mercury, silver, zinc air, and now again, into rechargeable cells.  But, what does the future hold? As long as 30 years ago

International Speech Test Signal and Feedback   Background The International Speech Test Signal (ISTS) was developed to determine how speech is processed by modern hearing aids {{1}}[[1]] Holube, I., Fredelake, S., Vlaming, M. & Kollmeier, B. (2010). Development and analysis of an international speech test signal (ISTS). International Journal of Audiology, 49, 891-903[[1]].  The signal is based on natural recordings,

This two-part series begins here: My Battle With the Ear, No-See-Ums, and Textbooks, Part II Essentially all texts and articles related to cerumen (ear wax) state that it, along with ear hair, seems to “discourage” insects from entering the ear canal or to protect the ear canal from insects. Cerumen is said to protect the ear canal from drying out

How Should RIC Hearing Aids be Measured? Background When CIC (completely-in-the-canal) instruments became popular, manufacturers of hearing aid measurement equipment provided alternate couplers, and most often with software corrections, to account for the smaller residual volume of that instrument compared with other instruments that did not fit as deeply into the ear canal (traditional hearing aids at that time).  The

Do You Double Check Your Research Data? More on RIC In a previous blog, I reported on some real-ear data obtained when measuring various insertion depths of a RIC closed system into the ear canal (Figure 1). In response, I received a nice note from a friend and colleague, Dr. Mead Killion, who mentioned that while he believes the results

Prologue: Every now and then one has to release the nerd inside them.  This blog is one of those times.  However,   this venture turned out worse than I had imagined.  So, it might be helpful if I provided some background as to why I delved into this topic. As some of you might have noticed, a couple of my previous

ISTS – A New Measurement Standard Proposal Hearing aids are currently measured using stationary signals, which include sine wave  frequency sweeps and unmodulated noise signals.  These test signals allow for reproducible measurement conditions and are described in ANSI 3.22 {{1}}[[1]] American National Standards Institute (ANSI ). ANSI S3.22-2003. Specification of hearing aid characteristics. New York: Acoustical Society of America. [[1]]

Note: My blog for last week was a repeat of a previous blog and I hope that those of you who missed it initially were able to read it this time.  I was in the Eastern Mediterranean visiting ancient ruins in Istanbul, Pergamum, and Ephesus in Turkey, and Rhodes, Aghios Nikolaos, and Athens, in Greece, and did not have reliable