Think those
noise-canceling earbuds are hot stuff? Imagine if said technology was applied to an advanced type of implantable hearing aid, and you'll have an idea of exactly what Earthlings with severe hearing loss now have to look forward to. For
years now, we've watched as
cochlear implants became more effective in lab tests, and up until recently, we've had
strict medical testing procedures to thank for the inability to actually get one. Now, one Colin Hughes will soon be amongst the first Australians to enjoy a "new bone-anchored hearing aid designed to adjust to noisy environments, quiet conversations and the varying rhythms and pitch of music." Due to a birth defect that left him with atypically narrow eustachian tubes, Colin was never able to take advantage of traditional hearing aids for any length of time, but now these $12,000 (per pair) devices are promising a new life for the 70-year old bloke. Our favorite feature? MP3 players can be directly (and discretely) attached, enabling old geezers to tune out old hags without them ever noticing.
[Thanks, Mike]
posted Aug 10th 2009 8:03AM
What's up with his hand?
Who cares? This is really quite awesome!
I wouldnt want him crawling about in MY ears.... ;)
Nice...dont think i would need one anytime soon though..but its good to see these developments.
Enjoy them while they last.... if the feds take over medical operations it may be some time until we have people motivated and funded enough to make new things.
@andir3.0
Go back to your bunker.
That procedure is from Australia where they have a National Health Care System
andir it must suck being incredibly ignorant.
"Our favorite feature? MP3 players can be directly (and discretely) attached, enabling old geezers to tune out old hags without them ever noticing"
win
This sounds like the military technology implemented in the Motorola HX1 Endeavor if I'm reading this correctly.
"discretely"...i wonder how
The wire comes up from the back of your pants to behind your ear.
My boss has had this for at least 6 months.
Your boss has been a damned lier for at least 6 months.
:P
My son has been deaf since birth...this sounds great!
super-excellent pun? or super-excellent accidental pun?
either way, awesome!
include bluetooth and we're looking at a winner
I'm deaf and have both a BTE digital hearing aid & cochlear implant however I don't see the benefits of this for me. I was born with profound/severe hearing losses. It's good that developments are still happening anyways.
There must be a mistake.
The article says Australia...
But they have government run health care systems.
So they could not be on the fore front of anything.
They must be busy killing old people and babies with birth defects...
The logic they must do this is irrefutable.
Just ask Sarah Palin.
And that's why people that live in countries with national healthcare live approximately 2-3 years longer? ;)
Hey! according to the Republicans, everyone in the US already has access to free health care. Therefore, I'm sure this technology has already been available to everyone here for free for quite some time. We invented it here anyway, just like all other useful products the rest of the world enjoys.
The US leads the way in all things! Don't believe us? Just ask us!
I suppose the fact that it was developed in "St Vincent's Hospital and [Northwest] _Private_ Hospital" totally blows your mind then? A private hospital that can accept and operate on private healthcare?
@Andir
If you are saying a private hospital or private funding is operating successfully within the government run medical system in Australia then that must wrong.
I have gotten e-mails about it and such...
There is no way all that stuff could thrive under government health care.
Aside from the irrefutable logic showing this could not happen... it is socialist... so god hates them.
I don't know what you think you are seeing in the world.
But I have been assured it could not be happening.
These have been available for quite some time. This is nothing new. They use to just use bands rather than post implantation. The system is called the BAHA and has been available from Cochlear Americas for quite a few years.
Why is Chow Yun Fat doing the operation?
I'm sure that it's safer than it sounds, but you'd think attaching a foreign device straight to the bone that also happens to surround a particularly important organ in a man who has chronic ear infections with bugs now resistant to most antibiotics would be asking for trouble...
"I can hear again! I can hear the bacteria eating my brain!"
I actually have a cochlear implant, Nucleus ESPrit 3G to be specific. I must say this sounds very interesting. I wouldn't be able to take advantage of this as my cochlear has no hair cells, which is unfixable this method in the article.
However on the topic of plugging MP3 players into the device. I have been able to do this more than 10 years ago with mini discs and walkman. With my cochlear I can plug in the ipod with a different lead, then I can choose whether to have the music sound 100% cancelling out any other noise, or I can turn up the volume of background noise, e.g 50% ipod 50% noise, or 25% ipod 75% noise. The volume of the ipod is changed using the ipod itself.
Campbell : Just as I expected. You'll have to take the elevator to the
surface. But make sure that nobody sees you. If you need to
contact me by codec, the frequency is 140.85. When you want to use
the codec push the Select button. When we need to contact you the
codec will beep. When you hear that noise push the Select button.
The codec directly stimulates the small bones of your ear, no one
but you will be able to hear it.
Snake : Got it, okay, I'm ready to go.
This is for people with conductive hearing loss (the middle ear - hammer, stapes, etc, the amplifier if you will), not for people with sensorineural loss (cochlear damaged, etc). People who would benefit the most are those with congenital conditions (Treacher-Collins, etc), those with single-sided deafness, those with constantly blocked ear canals, etc.
The implant surgery to which this article refers is actually a titanium implant placed direclty into the skull, about 6 - 8cm back from the ear itself. The BAHA hearing aid attaches to this titanium screw and bypasses the skin & epidermal layers to hit the bone directly, from whence the signal is transferred into the cochlear for processing.
Studies have shown that even those with bilateral conductive deafness benefit enormously from two of these implants, one on either side of the head, and can often achieve hearing at a level approximately the same as a single-sided, regular-hearing person.
And unless I'm missing something, BAHA surgery has been performed since the late 1970s, nothing new about it except the actual hearing aids themselves, which are freakin' fantastic (look up Entific for those of you in the US).
@xenoterranos - I see it everyday sticking out of his head. It's your day dude, it's your day.
It sucks to be born with narrow eustachian tubes, but it's worse to have a narrow urethra!
I wonder if these guys can do seomthing about that.
This will never beat what was pitched on Shark Tank last night. Way better!
Definitely have a guy at work with these. no idea how long he's had them. Looks like Australia's just catching up. Kinda freaky, but if I was deaf, I'd be all over these bad boys. Modern medicine, man... crazy stuff.
HALO: Geezers V. Hags
This article is somewhat misleading and should probably be clarifed.
The BAHA has been around for at least the last 4 years and is not a fully implantable device, nor does it use noise-cancelling technology in a manner similar to noise cancelling headphones (although air conduction hearing aids do use similar technology in their feedback cancellation systems).
The BAHA consists of a titanium screw and abutment which is implanted into the skull. Titanium is capable of osseointegration, which basically means that the screw is integrated into the bone when it heals, while the skin grows around the abutment. After the healing process is complete, an external processor is then clipped to the abutment. An external processor allows for regular maintainance, and easy removal and adjustment and battery replacement.
That the manufacturer is touting the 'noise-cancellation abilities' of their new device is more a reflection of the fact that advanced signal processing is now possible with the updated processor, unlike their first generation device. On the other hand, noise cancellation technologies are touted as being the greatest thing sinced sliced bread by every hearing aid manufacturer, yet no peer-reviewed studies have shown any more than minor improvements in speech understanding with noise cancellationt technologies, and these improvements have been limited to very specific listening laboratory testing situations that tend not to generalise well to everyday life.
Also, the comment that cochlear implants (CIs) have 'become more effective in lab tests' suggests that they aren't already in widespread usage. As of 2007 over 200,000 profoundly deafened individuals have received cochlear implants from Cochlear Ltd (makers of the BAHA) alone.
Their usage is restricted not because of strict medical testing, but because of their high cost (>US$30,000 per implant, each device is handmade) and current last resort status, as acoustic hearing is preferable to electrical stimulation with current speech processing strategies both in terms of the quality of sound (listening through a CI is very robotic) and outcomes (CI users typically perform at the level of individuals with a severe hearing loss, even with the implant).
CIs are not a magic cure, but rather welcome solution for individuals whose residual hearing is no longer capable of supporting 'good' speech perception.
A terrific BUSINESS to be in. With all the crazy-loud "music" the younger crowd is making, there will be an unlimted market. I lost most of my hearing long ago, as a teenager and now am paying the price with $3,600 hearing aids (for 2) that are nothing like having my hearing back.
Protect Your Ears, people!
AK,
Although you have most facts straight, you're wrong about one major point. BAHA CAN be used for people who have sensorineural hearing loss in ONE ear. My daughter was implanted with the abutment for her BAHA at age 6. She has profound unilateral hearing loss due to a misformed cochlea in one ear. She wears her BAHA on the deaf side and the BAHA picks up sound from that direction and conducts it through the bone in her skull to her good ear.
I got a Cochlear implant that make me hear the model is Fredom