Hearing Informed

Check out this screen shot from google trends for the search “hearing aids” (theres not a lot of specific numerical information here). Do your own search at www.google.com/trends. It would be interesting to see how this trend changes over the next couple years:

Karl Strom, Editor-in-Chief at The Hearing Review, has an interesting top 10 list- focusing on the big news for 2007 in in the hearing health industry. He knows these are cheesy USA Today Style but does them anyway. I’ll comment on some of these in later posts but here we go:

1) Sonova-GN deal is blocked, putting into question future consolidation. Announced in October 2006, the $2.6 billion purchase of GN’s hearing care divisions by Sonova (formerly the Phonak Group) represented the biggest acquisition in industry history that would have resulted in the industry’s largest company. Just when it looked like the deal was to be finalized, in March, a German court nixed it on grounds that it would have created a German oligopoly (watch for this new exciting game by Parker Bros coming to a toystore near you). The result: not only was the deal quashed, but it also complicates any further mergers or acquisitions between large companies with significant market shares in Germany. GN will retain its hearing care divisions.

2) Mini-BTE revolution continues. BTEs—thanks to open-fit, over-the-ear, and receiver-in-the-canal aids—now constitute half the US market (about 51%) after making up 26.4% of the market in 2004 and less than one-fifth of the market in the 80s and 90s.

3) Wireless and younger users. BTE hearing aids have not only become instant-fit devices, but are increasingly linked to a constellation of communication devices like cell phones, MP3 players, and even the other hearing aid in a binaural fitting. The big question: Will these devices (combined with mini-BTEs) attract a new, younger user population and/or reduce stigma-related issues?

(more…)

I’ve been wearing Resound Canta 7 hearing aids for three years now and I have nothing but praise to give them. However, I am in the market to check out the latest technology available in digital hearing aids and I’ll be trying out many different brands. Its usually an obsessive and vapid practice to check on the latest technology when it comes to computers, cameras, ipods, e.t.c. Its often the case that one can be perfectly satisfied with a first generation ipod or a tv that’s several years older. Steve Jobs would tell us otherwise. When it comes to hearing technology I feel differently- because they provide such a massive quality of life difference – I try the newest thing every three or so years to see if a tangible difference can be made with the “ latest cutting edge, smartest hearing aid ever!”.

There are several new (at-least in their honed conception) concepts that I’m very excited to try. One of those is called “transpositioning”. That’s a mouthful for those who don’t speak in esoteric scientific tongues. The gist of it: the hearing aid can take the higher frequencies, those that I don’t hear as well as lower ones, and shift them down an octave so that they are available to me.

(more…)

The 2007 biannual World Deaf Surfing Championships went down in Miyazaki of southern Japan. A nearby typhoon generated short-interval, dumping two- to four-footers for the duration of the event, but strong onshore winds and intermittent rains made for some challenging conditions for competitors from all over the world. The next World Deaf Surfing Championships will be held in 2009 in Hawaii. For more information and pictures, see deafsurf.org.

(more…)

Got your attention? Kathryn Hill, based out of San Francisco, runs a great deaf blog called Stone Deaf Pilots–In a post from a while ago she mentions a deaf owned porn company, DeafBunny. They found a hole in the pornography industry and they aim to fill it. The movies feature deaf actors that communicate with each other in American Sign Language. All the movies come with subtitles. They have one movie so far: Naughty Deaf Roomates.

Though I couldn’t disagree more with some of her arguments, I’m glad that Erin Biba, at Wired Magazine, chose to touch upon (with her limited perspective) some of the issues with hearing aid technology and their limitations, perversely high cost, and evolving stigma. The article is part of an expose called “Why Things Suck: The 33 Things That Make us Crazy”. I gave a response on at the magazine. I encourage anyone to share their thoughts and its nice to see the media taking on this issue when it does.

Interestingly, Wired Magazine has other articles that praise hearing device technology instead of trashing it. Like this one on hearing aids and their ability to work with MP3 players and phones. Or check out this report touching on how hearing aids reduce the effort that the brain expends understanding speech in noise.

A while back I was listening to a BBC broadcast in which the Bush regime gave its spiel on their latest Islamic bogeyman and dark horse, Mahmud Ahmadinejad. I immediately struggled with the name and its pronunciation. Since the American Occupation in Iraq, there have been a swarm of foreign names for places and people that I can’t get a handle on. I know that people with normal hearing would struggle with these- but for me it was an extra challenge. What to do?

Turns out there are some outstanding sources for tracking down phonetic guides and audio clips that give the proper pronunciations of tricky names and words:

Voice of America’s Online Pronuncation Guide http://names.voa.gov :

Although originally intended solely as an internal tool for VOA’s broadcasters, this publicly accessible site has found a broader audience. In addition to news bureaus in the United States and abroad, it has won a following at think tanks, at corporations and in higher learning.

Merriam-Webster Online http://www.m-w.com/

Provides audio clips for famous names but it doesn’t cover lesser-known names and places.

(more…)