4 ms·

Using AirPods as a hearing aid

27 points by chmaynard 3y ago

deafpolygon 3y ago
As a deaf person, I don't use Airpods. But I'm aware of hearing aids and their pricing. AirPods are far far cheaper than hearing aids for slight hearing loss and I'm hoping that Apple will do something in this area to improve actual hearing aids. Many hearing aids for profoundly deaf people (like myself at the 80-100dB mark in hearing loss) are just insufficient.
- rawland 3y ago
  Let's get in touch.
  - deafpolygon 3y ago
    For?
spicybright 3y ago
My mom tried the same thing with not much luck. It just amplified background noise too much according to her to be useful.
rawland 3y ago
Apple AirPods Pro 2 Detailed Hearing Aid Review: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gsTz1sSDE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gsTz1sSDE
- olliej 3y ago
  Cheers, this is vastly more interesting and informative than Gruber's post.
dusted 3y ago
A family member is always complaining that her hearing aids are crap, noisy, harsh and yet, not allowing her to actually hear very well.. Shes had them readjusted multiple times with no improvement. I tried putting some Beyer-dynamics 990 Pro 80 Ohm on her, and then plugging that into the line-out of a hand-held zoom recorder with the sensitivity turned up. She heard _EVERYTHING_ and she told that the sound was pleasant too.. This leaves me with the impression that hearing aids are way behind off-the-shelf consumer parts.. Maybe too much sound quality (you had ONE job!) is being sacrificed for size ?
- rawland 3y ago
  Yes. Size (= compute+battery limitation) and the ear also being a somewhat hostile environment for electronics. PS: Is that zoom recorder able to "beamform" (~= directional mics / mic modes inside?)
  - dusted 3y ago
    It's a two-track recorder, the "h1", so it has two microphones in there, with pretty good stereo imaging, I don't know about the directionality, it seems to pick up all around, but probably more in the human voice range. It really got me thinking, in a lot of situations, what would people prefer ? If the aids just looked like normal large cups, then you're just looking like a music freak.. I'd go for that any day, rather than having uncomfortable in-ears which aren't even working as well. There ought to be a product like that.. build some directional mics discreetly into some large cups along with amp circuit and batteries..
- sdflhasjd 3y ago
  I suspect battery life is a big one. Airpods are what, 3-5 hours? Hearing aids can last a few days.
- nikau 3y ago
  Sounds like she had either very low end hearing aids or they were poorly tuned. High end hearing aids don't just do band tuned amplification, they also filter out repeating noises like a fridge hum, and the left & right share microphone data with very low latency to isolate voices in noisy environments.
ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago
Gruber is reblogging someone else's post, which itself was guilty of the same thing. Credit where credit is due: https://toot.cat/@garry/110005074038777944 https://toot.cat/@garry/110005074038777944
- rawland 3y ago
  Thank you!
KeenanKeenan 3y ago
I'm on my 3rd hearing aid and unfortunately they haven't gotten much better for me in the past ten years, dispute the claims the technology has gotten so much better. I think it's because the signal processing challenges for single sided hearing loss is totally different for bilateral hearing loss. It's also a much smaller and there for under prioritized market segment. I'd be interested in a hearing aid project based on pinebuds pro https://pine64.com/product/pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capable-anc-wireless-earbuds/ https://pine64.com/product/pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capabl...

27 points by chmaynard 3y ago

As a deaf person, I don't use Airpods. But I'm aware of hearing aids and their pricing. AirPods are far far cheaper than hearing aids for slight hearing loss and I'm hoping that Apple will do something in this area to improve actual hearing aids. Many hearing aids for profoundly deaf people (like myself at the 80-100dB mark in hearing loss) are just insufficient.

rawland 3y ago
Let's get in touch.
- deafpolygon 3y ago
  For?

spicybright 3y ago

My mom tried the same thing with not much luck. It just amplified background noise too much according to her to be useful.

rawland 3y ago

Apple AirPods Pro 2 Detailed Hearing Aid Review: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gsTz1sSDE https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=x0gsTz1sSDE

olliej 3y ago
Cheers, this is vastly more interesting and informative than Gruber's post.

dusted 3y ago

A family member is always complaining that her hearing aids are crap, noisy, harsh and yet, not allowing her to actually hear very well.. Shes had them readjusted multiple times with no improvement. I tried putting some Beyer-dynamics 990 Pro 80 Ohm on her, and then plugging that into the line-out of a hand-held zoom recorder with the sensitivity turned up. She heard _EVERYTHING_ and she told that the sound was pleasant too.. This leaves me with the impression that hearing aids are way behind off-the-shelf consumer parts.. Maybe too much sound quality (you had ONE job!) is being sacrificed for size ?

rawland 3y ago
Yes. Size (= compute+battery limitation) and the ear also being a somewhat hostile environment for electronics. PS: Is that zoom recorder able to "beamform" (~= directional mics / mic modes inside?)
- dusted 3y ago
  It's a two-track recorder, the "h1", so it has two microphones in there, with pretty good stereo imaging, I don't know about the directionality, it seems to pick up all around, but probably more in the human voice range. It really got me thinking, in a lot of situations, what would people prefer ? If the aids just looked like normal large cups, then you're just looking like a music freak.. I'd go for that any day, rather than having uncomfortable in-ears which aren't even working as well. There ought to be a product like that.. build some directional mics discreetly into some large cups along with amp circuit and batteries..
sdflhasjd 3y ago
I suspect battery life is a big one. Airpods are what, 3-5 hours? Hearing aids can last a few days.
nikau 3y ago
Sounds like she had either very low end hearing aids or they were poorly tuned. High end hearing aids don't just do band tuned amplification, they also filter out repeating noises like a fridge hum, and the left & right share microphone data with very low latency to isolate voices in noisy environments.

ThePowerOfFuet 3y ago

Gruber is reblogging someone else's post, which itself was guilty of the same thing. Credit where credit is due: https://toot.cat/@garry/110005074038777944 https://toot.cat/@garry/110005074038777944

rawland 3y ago
Thank you!

KeenanKeenan 3y ago

I'm on my 3rd hearing aid and unfortunately they haven't gotten much better for me in the past ten years, dispute the claims the technology has gotten so much better. I think it's because the signal processing challenges for single sided hearing loss is totally different for bilateral hearing loss. It's also a much smaller and there for under prioritized market segment. I'd be interested in a hearing aid project based on pinebuds pro https://pine64.com/product/pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capable-anc-wireless-earbuds/ https://pine64.com/product/pinebuds-pro-open-firmware-capabl...