Category Archives: Language : English

Wishlist

Language : English, What sucks about hearing aids

In the last couple of months, I was often ask to list the things that I wish to be addressed by the hearing aid industry. This list got lengthy, but I figured I have to illustrate each point sufficiently. Thus, every point gets its own article.

This is my wishlist to audiologists and accousticians, hearing aid manufacturers, and the health care system. If you like to add something, share your experiences, or provide more information, I encourage you to submit a comment.

1. Better Signal Processing

2. Compatibility between vendors for hearing aids and peripheral hardware

3. Seamless compatibility between hearing aids and peripheral hardware to consumer electronics

4. 24/7 service and availability of replacement devices

5. Longer battery life and non-proprietary batteries in peripheral hardware

6. Affordable hearing aids and full insurance coverage for devices and peripheral hardware and maintenance costs

7. Open hardware and software standards

8. Tuning in realistic circumstances, legalize and support self-tuning

9. Legal certainty for situation related to broken hearing aids

10. Waterproof Hearing Aids

Subtitles for my 28c3 talk available now

Event, Language : English, Publication

Good news! With the help of some great people, I was able to provide subtitles for the recording of my talk at the 28c3 conference. You can watch the video on youtube and switch on the subtitles as explained in the following screenshot.

Just click on the “CC” button at the left bottom of the video.

How to switch on subtitles

If you have any problems viewing the video, please let me know. Also, I highly appreciate it if you have feedback for me. Just send me an email or drop a comment here. Thanks a lot!

Slides and speaker notes of my talk “Bionic Ears” at 28c3

Audiology, Event, Hacking, Language : English, Publication, What sucks about hearing aids

As promised, I provide the slides of my talk “Bionic Ears” at the 28c3 hacker conference in Berlin.

28c3 “Bionic Ears” Slides

I also offer a version with detailed speaker notes, because especially my hearing-impaired audience might need it to be able to follow. I had to downsample the images in this version to avoid the files getting too big. Please have a look at the “slides only” version for details in the images.

28c3 “Bionic Ears” Slides + Speakernotes

I played different audio samples during the talk, you can download them here:

Sad robot (original)

Sad robot (with hearing loss of high frequencies)

Sad robot (with hearing loss of high frequencies and tinnitus added)

Sound of Cochlear Implants

Update: If you want everything in one packet, you can get it here:

28c3 “Bionic Ears” (Slides, speaker notes and audio samples) (about 20MB)

Sound of my Hearing Loss

Audiology, Language : English, Music, Publication

At my talk at 28c3, I played a couple of sound files to show my audience how I hear.

The original file is a song “Sad Robot” by “Pornophonique“.

Sad robot (original)

This version has the high frequencies removed, which is typical for a hearing loss.

Sad robot (with hearing loss of high frequencies)

Additionally, I have a nasty tinnitus sound in the frequency range which is affected by my hearing loss. The following file has this sampled in. Since the tinnitus sound is similar to a feedback loop’s sound, you are advised not to play it too loud, because it could destroy audio equipment.

Sad robot (with hearing loss of high frequencies and tinnitus added)

The tinnitus sound is taken from a website which provides a collection of typical tinnitus noises: http://www.ata.org/sounds-of-tinnitus