Apple Inc has asked the FCC for permission to remove telecoil functionality requirements from its iPhone smartphones and instead recognize its MFi platform as a viable alternative to hearing aid compatibility (HAC) compliance.
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Beverly Biderman, author of the book, Wired for Sound: A Journey into Hearing, announced the birth of an opera based on her memoir of learning to hear with a cochlear implant. The new opera, “TMIE, On the Threshold of the Outside World,” premieres in English on February 25, 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal at O’culto da Ajuda.
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About 3,200 practice owners and industry guests attended the third biennial Starkey Hearing Innovations Expo in Las Vegas on January 20-23 where they were treated to information from Presidents Clinton and Bush, stars from the hit TV series Shark Tank, Magic Johnson, Ben Affleck, several bestselling authors, as well as some of the field’s best researchers.
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Northwestern University reported that Nina Kraus, PhD, a professor of neurobiology, physiology and otolaryngology, shed light on one of the brain’s most complex tasks–making sense of sound–during the Falling Walls Conference held November 8-9, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. Dr Kraus explained how she has devised a new way to measure what happens in the brain when it is processing sounds such as speech and music.
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Pivot Hearing, a Petaluma, California-based practice development partner that helps audiologists and hearing aid dispensers build sustainable private practices, announced that it has expanded both its team and the scope of services it provides to members.
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Starkey Hearing Technologies has announced it is joining forces with Bragi, maker of The Dash, to transform hearable and wearable technology. Starkey CMO Chris McCormick announced strategic partnerships with Bragi and Satjiv Chahil, Silicon Valley marketing pioneer, at the 2016 Hearing Innovation Expo, Jan. 20-24.
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The authors look back at a study from 2000 that showed short time constants and a large number of independent compression channels reduced the temporal and spectral contrast of speech when using technology of that period. Additionally, in subjective paired comparisons, long time constants, low compression ratios, and a small number of compression channels were preferred in the investigated technology configuration by normal-hearing and hearing-impaired listeners.
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The Speech Intelligibility Index (or SII) shows some interesting characteristics. The difference between 340 Hz and 3,400 Hz (coincidentally the bandwidth of the telephone) is fairly similar for continuous discourse, whereas there is a high frequency bias for nonsense syllables. That is, whenever there is a context to speech, there is a greater reliance on lower frequency sounds.
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Starkey Hearing Technologies’ former president Jerry Ruzicka has filed a whistleblower lawsuit against the company. Starkey says that Ruzicka is the person who is under investigation by the FBI and IRS, not the company.
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Researchers at the University of Illinois found that some patients who suffer from tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, use different brain regions when processing emotional information. While many tinnitus patients are forced to limit daily activities as a result of debilitating symptoms, others adapt to the condition. Why?
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Varibel has announced the launch of its new hearing glasses, the Varibel BLU, that are designed to help people both hear and see in comfort. To support its development, Varibel has been running a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo.com, which ends February 14.
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Pitch perception is not a skill unique to humans, say scientists from Johns Hopkins University (JHU), where a recent research study reveals that marmosets, considered to be “ancient” monkeys, appear to use auditory cues to distinguish between low and high notes associated with melody.
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Dr Steve Aiken joins Dr Marshall Chasin in a discussion of differing definitions of sound. Together they explore the scientific facts that help to answer the philosophical question: If a tree falls in the forest, but there is no one there to hear it, does it produce a sound?
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Doug Beck, AuD, interviews Dr David M. Baguley, head of Audiology/Hearing Implants at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Trust in England, and the author of more than 150 peer-reviewed publications. This interview focuses on Dr Baguley’s newest 2015 book, Tinnitus: Clinical and Research Perspectives, co-edited by Prof Marc Fagelson.
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MED-EL has released a new publication called Explore Magazine, which explores hearing loss-related topics. The latest issue focuses on hearing loss and children, while earlier editions focused on Music, and Ingeborg and Erwin Hochmair, the couple behind MED-EL. Readers can sign up for a free subscription or download a free digital version on the MED-EL website.
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