Let’s Boycott Super Bowl Advertisers Who Don’t Supply Captions
What do BlockBuster, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken and Expedia.com have in common? Their Super Bowl ads this year didn’t have captions. They must not want our business. Captionless ads have been bothering me ever since I began noticing how many advertisers don’t supply them, even after the first of the year when the FCC began requiring broadcasters to caption all their regular programming. The number of captionless ads on SuperBowl XL was especially disappointing. Read more
Varibel Hearing-Aid Glasses Integrate Eight Directional Microphones
Varibel Hearing-Aid Glasses
Oticon Introduces Kid-Friendly Amigo FM Assistive Listening Devices
Hearing the teacher’s voice without the stress and strain of speech-reading can mean the difference between long-term success and failure in school, especially for younger children. When hearing-aid manufacturers target school-aged customers, they do well by doing good. Read more
Apple Should Do More To Help Prevent Hearing Loss Among iPod Users
Ever since Apple was sued by a Louisiana man claiming his iPod caused irreparable hearing loss, I’ve been scratching my head about vendors’ responsibility to prevent hearing loss versus individuals’ responsibility to take care of their own health. Read more
Vortis Cell Phone Antenna Reduces Hearing-Aid Interference
A start-up company based in Glasgow, Scotland, has developed an innovative antenna technology eliminating the electrical interference that can make cell phones impossible to use with hearing aids. Dual-antenna array technology built into the Vortis Technologies Ltd. antenna radiates electrical signals in a figure-eight pattern out and away from the user’s head and hearing aids. Read more
Hyper-Vigilance Is The Price Of Independence For Deaf And Hard-Of-Hearing People
I can relate to Thomas Jefferson’s warning that eternal vigilance is the price of freedom. You need only look as far as the recent headlines about Miss Deaf Texas, killed by a train as she was distracted by text messaging while crossing some railroad tracks, to see why I regard hyper-vigilance as the price of my independence as a hard-of-hearing person. Read more
Sonic Innovations Jumps Into Open-Fit Fray With Ion Hearing Aid Family
Sonic Innovations has jumped into the booming market for comfortable “open-fit” mini behind-the-ear (BTE) hearing aids with its new Ion Open Ear family, which it touts as the smallest and most powerful in its class. Read more
Starkey ‘nFusion’ Hearing Aids Automatically Adjust To Acoustic Environment
With its nFusion hearing-aid architecture featured in a new flagship Destiny hearing-aid family, Starkey Laboratories has taken a giant step forward in the digital world. Read more
Introducing The Long-Awaited Convergence Of Hearing Aids And Consumer Electronics
Paul Dybala, Ph.D., the editor of both Audiology Online and Healthy Hearing, has filed a wonderful, comprehensive report on the convergence of hearing aids and the wave of consumer earpieces and headsets being marketed by cellphone makers and consumer electronics companies. In 1999, Dr. Dybala was among the first to predict the mainstreaming of ear-level hearing-assistance technology in the form of “Ear-Level Voice-Activated Systems” (ELVAS). Now he is declaring that “Elvas Lives.” Read more
Oticon Introduces High-Function, High-Fashion Behind-The-Ear Hearing-Aids
Last year the hottest innovation driving the fastest-growing segment of the hearing-aid market was the “thin-tube, open-fit” design for behind-the ear (BTE) aids. This year, will the hottest new products be RITE? Oticon will show its new Delta “Receiver-in-the-Ear” hearing aids featuring the RITE architecture at the American Academy of Audiology annual conference in Minneapolis this week. Read more