Wayne's World

Acoustic Feedback Solution #9 – Adaptive Feedback The last blog on hearing aid acoustic feedback was several weeks ago, with promises of a continuation on this topic.  However, a couple of separate, unfortunate deaths to two audiology/hearing aid industry icons resulted in blogs about them.  This blog will continue with the acoustic feedback discussion. Acoustic Feedback in Hearing Aids Because

It is with sadness that I am interrupting my normal blogs to report on another hearing discipline leader’s passing. Robert J. Briskey Robert J. Briskey, December 4, 1924 – May 12, 2012, was the elder statesman in leading audiology into the hearing aid industry.  It was Bob, more than any other audiologist, who pioneered the role of audiology in the

Editor Note:  I have a couple of friends, Darrel and Marilyn Miller, of Scott City, Kansas, who are avid trapshooters.  Each winter they gather certain belongings and head for the warmth of Arizona to spend about three months competing in different trapshooting events, and visiting with friends they have accumulated over the years. As one can surmise, there is substantial

My scheduled blog related to adaptive feedback methods is delayed for a week in order to report on a sad event, the passing away on May 3, 2012 of a good friend and colleague, Dr. Robert E. Sandlin of San Diego, CA. Remembering Robert E. Sandlin – An all-around good guy All of the superlatives that have been used to

This series of blogs has focused on the topic of acoustic feedback as it applies to hearing aids and attempts to manage feedback over the years.  This series is designed to introduce the basic concepts.  The serious reader should consult more detailed references. Acoustic feedback solutions that have been presented up to this point include: Overall gain reduction High-frequency gain

Hearing Aid Acoustic Feedback Solution #5 – Notch Filtering Because acoustic feedback is not evident at all high frequencies, it would appear appropriate to reduce gain at the specific frequency or frequency range at which it occurs, without affecting significantly adjacent frequencies.  A technique to perform this is the use of a notch filter.  A notch filter (more appropriately called

This blog is a continuation of last week’s blog that focused on hearing aid acoustic feedback.  That blog provided general information about feedback and ended with a discussion about acoustic feedback solutions in hearing aids.  The intent was to review solutions to feedback that have occurred over the years in somewhat of a chronological order. The first two solutions presented

The tuning fork has a long history in hearing differential diagnosis, but what do we know about its origin? The table fork is supposedly the precursor of the tuning fork.  However, my investigation shows that the table fork, as a kitchen utensil, was known to the Greeks and Romans and to the Germanic Tribes of the Great Migration.  For eating

Note:  This blog is a continuation that explores the early history of the discipline that we now call audiology.  This blog continues the historical development, and identifies the significance of discovering the phenomenon of bone conduction hearing and its preliminary utilization as a tool in the differential diagnosis of hearing disorders. Much of this information comes directly from an English translation

As originally used, the term “audiology” concerns itself with hearing assessment.  The more “modern” aspects grew from the collaborative efforts of physics, physiology, experimental psychology, and otology.  There seems, however, to have been a continuous thread that represented a logical sequence even as early as 1550 BC, long before our “pioneers” in modern-day audiology were a gleam in their parents’