US Hearing Device Patents in October 2016
“Hearing Health Matters have been charting granted patents in this area since 2012, updating their list every few months. It should be mandatory reading for any company entering this arena.” (Nick Hunn, The Market for Hearable Devices, 2016-2020) Hearing Economics is happy that an industry consultant of the likes of Mr. Hunn benefits from our…
Read MoreTech Giants Eye Hearing Device Industry as Target for Rape and Plunder
The last post described future ear-level devices as conduits for highly personalized, exquisitely targeted, near and far-field individual communication systems that work in real time. Such a vision combines past and ongoing R&D efforts in Hearables, Hearing Aids, and Augmented Reality (AR). As the media hypes it, these will not be your grandfather’s hearing aids…
Read MoreAre Hearables the Devices Formerly Known as Hearing Aids?
Last week’s Hearables post highlighted some emerging ear-level devices and left three rhetorical questions dangling: What groups decide which are medical devices and which are consumer devices? Who gets final say on who sells them and how they are sold? Will hearing aids morph into consumer electronic gadgets? Current thinking on that last question brings…
Read MoreWatch Out, Watch Out, Here Her Comes!
Her was first described at Hearing Economics in a December post as real-life version of Samantha, the ear-level, all-knowing operating system that whispered into Joaquin Phoenix’s ear(s) in the film “Her.” As the hearing industry enters 2015, Her is manifest in a variety of ear-level wearables of varying sophistication and application, collectively dubbed Hearables. The January 4-9,…
Read MoreIs “Her” Here? Can You Hear Her?
Yes, Her is and yes you can! And Her name is Hearable.1 What Is Her? Just in time, science meets fiction as life starts imitating art. Ray Bradbury didn’t name Her but he anticipated Hearables more than 60 years ago as binaural in-the-ear (ITE) devices: “a hidden wasp snug in its special pink warm nest…
Read More