EarEcho: Using Ear Biometrics to Unlock Your Smartphone
BUFFALO, NEW YORK — Visit a public space. Chances are you’ll see people wearing earbuds or earphones. The pervasiveness of this old-meets-new technology, especially on college campuses, intrigued University at Buffalo computer scientist Zhanpeng Jin. “We have so many students walking around with speakers in their ears. It led me to wonder what else we…
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Massachusetts Eye and Ear Taps Dr. Kevin Franck as Audiology Director; RemotEAR Names Dr. Tom Powers as Partner
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS — Massachusetts Eye and Ear announced the appointment of Kevin Franck, PhD, MBA, as Director of Audiology. He will oversee the audiology department at Mass. Eye and Ear as the hospital continues to grow its clinical and hearing research programs, and he will also serve on the faculty of the Harvard Medical School…
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Phonak Announces New Audeo B-Direct Hearing Aid, the First to Connect to Android or iPhone
STAEFA, SWITZERLAND — This spring, Sonova confirmed that it would soon be releasing 2.4 GHz direct-to-iPhone hearing aids and cochlear implants. However, in recent weeks there have been rumors that the technology about to be released by the company was going to be “game-changing” for the industry and somehow different than Sonova’s major competitors, like…
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Washington University-based Company Launches Auditory Training Website
Audiologists have touted the virtues of auditory training, but for decades numerous attempts at popularizing these programs have been plagued with low patient uptake. A St. Louis company, using an NIH grant, hopes to make inroads by using gaming technology. Washington University-based start-up venture clEAR™ (customized learning: Exercises for Aural Rehabilitation), LLC has officially released…
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Recent Report: Apple is Pushing Further into Healthcare
CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA — The morphing of medical devices with consumer electronics continues as, according to a recent report in Med Device Online, Apple has filed a patent for a wearable device capable of collecting electrocardiographic (EKG) signals from various points on the body. This patent may lend credibility to rumors surfacing in early August that…
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Will Samsung’s new IconX, and Apple’s Rumored Wireless Earpods, Disrupt Hearing Aid Industry Further in 2016?
Last week the world caught its first glimpse of Samsung’s new IconX hearable device. The leaked images, but scant details, spread across the tech world like wildfire. It appears that Samsung is ready to go toe-to-toe with Apple if the tech giant decides to make the rumored, but radical, decision to ditch the headphone/audio jack…
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UPDATE: GN ReSound Wins Default Judgement Against Oticon in German Court
UPDATE: “On January 7, the Oticon vs GN Resound patent war came to an end with scarcely a shot fired. Settling a “slew of patent disputes” was good news for Big 6 bottom line solidarity and uninterrupted technological innovation.” —Holly Hosford-Dunn, January 12th, 2016, US Hearing Devic Patent Activity for November-December 2015. DUSSELDORF, GERMANY — a default judgement…
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VEST is designed to allow deaf people to feel what speakers are saying
By David H. Kirkwood HOUSTON—David Eagleman, PhD, and his graduate student Scott Novich at Baylor College of Medicine are working alongside a team of engineering undergraduates at Rice University to develop a high-tech garment known as the VEST (Versatile Extra-Sensory Transducer) that would enable people who are deaf in both ears to understand speech…
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Institute of Medicine panel seeks ways to make hearing care more accessible and affordable
By David H. Kirkwood WASHINGTON, DC—As part of an ambitious, two-year study to identify ways to make hearing health care (HHC) for adults more accessible and affordable, a 13-member ad hoc committee of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) will hold a daylong open session on Monday, April 27. IOM, the health arm of the National…
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“Hearing” with your tongue: Will it make cochlear implants obsolete?
Readers of Holly Hosford-Dunn’s blog Hearing Economics have learned recently about some highly innovative “hearables” that have entered or may soon enter the market. Following is an even more futuristic product—or at least potential product—that may some day improve life for people with hearing loss. An ITM (in-the-mouth) device FORT COLLINS, CO—A team of…
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