New UK Study Suggests Long-Term Exposure to Traffic Noise May Impact Weight Gain
Transport noise is a major problem in Europe, with over 100 million people living in areas where road traffic noise exceeds levels greater than 55dB, the health-based threshold set by the EU. A new study by the University of Oxford and the University of Leicester has found a connection between traffic noise and obesity. Long-term…
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New Method for Predicting Speech Intelligibility Holds Promise in Hearing Aid Design
Since at least 1950 when Fletcher and Galt published a scientific paper on the Articulation Index (AI), hearing care professionals have examined the relationship between frequency-specific audibility and speech intelligibility. As most know, the current standard for quantifying this relationship is the Speech Intelligibility Index or SII. Although the SII has been around for about…
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U.S. Military Deploys 20,000 Smart Earplugs
WASHINGTON, DC — The US Department of Defense reports that half of all troops returning from Afghanistan and Iraq suffer from some degree of permanent hearing loss. A National Public Radio (NPR) broadcast on June 3 featured the development and deployment of a smart hearing protection system, called Tactical Communication and Protective System (or TCAPS).…
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Microsoft Claims Title to Quietest Place on Earth, Says Guinness Book of World Records
REDMOND, WASHINGTON – Within the walls of building 87, located at Microsoft’s headquarters near Seattle, Washington, you will find a very quiet room. The room is so quiet, in fact, that it was just deemed the Quietest Place on Earth from the Guiness Book of World Records. In two independent tests, the room measured an…
Read MoreSoundhawk unveils its “smart listening system”; insists it’s not a hearing aid
CUPERTINO, CA—Soundhawk, a high-tech start-up company with an impressive pedigree, began taking advance orders last week on its web site for a $279 “smart listening system.” According to Soundhawk’s founder, Rodney Perkins, MD, an otologist at Stanford University School of Medicine and founder of the California Ear Institute, the new system “is the culmination of a…
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Scientists test new technologies to conquer the hearing-in-noise challenge
MELBOURNE/BOSTON—As long as companies have been making hearing aids, the toughest and most frustrating challenge they have confronted is devising products that enable wearers to understand speech in noisy social gatherings, such as cocktail parties. While directional microphones and other technologies have helped a lot, it is still a rare hearing aid wearer who can…
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