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Music Apple

Apple AirPods Can Work As More Affordable Hearing Aids, Study Finds (gizmodo.com) 46

Posted by BeauHD from the relatively-cheap-and-accessible dept.
A new study has found that Apple's wireless earbuds can serve as a more affordable and accessible sound amplification device than medical hearing aids. Gizmodo reports: Inspired by a feature called Live Listen released in 2016 by Apple, which allows an iPhone or iPad to be used as sound-boosting microphone, researchers from the Taipei Veterans General Hospital wondered whether the performance of AirPods 2 and the original AirPods Pro using this feature could compare to medical hearing aids. Apple does not position Live Listen as a tool for those dealing with hearing loss but as a way for users with normal hearing to boost desired sounds, like the calls of a bird. However, the researchers found that, in some situations, consumer-level personal sound amplification products faired quite well against pricier medically prescribed solutions, and given the popularity of products like Apple's AirPods, there's no stigma associated with wearing them.

The researchers tested the $129 AirPods 2 and $249 AirPods Pro paired with iPhone XS Max smartphones running iOS 13. They compared these against the $10,000 OTICON Opn 1 behind-the-ear hearing aids and a more affordable alternative, the $1,500 Bernafon MD1. The four options were tested with 21 participants dealing with mild to moderate hearing loss, who were asked to repeat short sentences read to them by the researchers in varying environments. In a quiet setting, the AirPods Pro were found to perform as well as the cheaper hearing aids and almost as good as the premium model, while the Air Pods 2 performed the worst of all four tested devices but still helped participants hear what was being read to them more clearly than not using a sound-enhancing device at all. In a noisy environment, the AirPods Pro performed even closer to the premium hearing aid model, thanks to their built-in noise cancellation, but only when the distracting noises were coming from the sides of the participant. When the noise was coming from the front, alongside the sample sentences being read by the researchers, both wireless earbud products failed to help improve what was being heard. "Hearing aids remain the best option for those dealing with hearing loss, but for those who don't have access to them for whatever reason, a cheaper product like Apple's AirPods Pro could provide noticeable improvements in hearing and clarity for those dealing with mild-to-moderate hearing loss and could serve as a useful alternative until over-the-counter solutions are more readily available and affordable," concludes the report.

Earlier this year, the Food and Drug Administration decided to allow hearing aids to be sold over the counter and without a prescription to adults, a decision that "could fundamentally change technology," said Nicholas Reed, an audiologist at the Department of Epidemiology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Sony's first OTC hearing aids were announced last month.
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Apple AirPods Can Work As More Affordable Hearing Aids, Study Finds More

Apple AirPods Can Work As More Affordable Hearing Aids, Study Finds

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  • Also any other wireless ear bud (Score:3, Insightful)

    by narcc ( 412956 ) on Wednesday November 16, 2022 @09:37PM (#63057060) Journal

    They're not magical. They're just over priced.

    • They are similarly priced when you throw in the iPhone they used. The stigma part however, I can understand. Apple is not trying to create a listening enhancement device though. I do wonder if the microphone array and software processing could be focused for that market. Of course though, that would mean the device had to go through FDA approval. Unlikely Apple would submit it. That process is a bitch!

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Guspaz ( 556486 )

        The transparency mode on the Air Pods Pro and Pro 2 is extremely good, particularly on the Pro 2 (dramatically better than what Bose and Sony have in their full-sized headphones), so I don't see why they couldn't amplify the volume (and possibly filter some frequencies?) to serve as hearing aids without the need for a phone. With the Pro 2, transparency mode is very close to sounding like you don't have anything in your ears at all, so I'm not sure what the $10,000 hearing aids are doing that the $250 airpo

        • They could. But to call it a hearing aid would subject it to the FDA.

        • There is a big difference between hearing aids and hearing amplifiers. Hearing amplifiers just amplify the volume of all frequencies. They can be helpful to many people if their hearing problem is consistent across low, mid, and high frequencies.

          Hearing aids, on the other hand, are more selective and usually tailored to the specific hearing problems of each individual. Many individuals with noise induced hearing loss have lower hearing sensitivity around the 4 kHz-6 kHz frequency range, which is at the t

          • [...] if Apple were to introduce a version of their AirPods that could be configured to amplify certain frequency bands as needed by each individual, possibly configured by a simple sonogram app on the iPhone, then they could look like normal AirPods without the normal stigma associated with wearing "hearing aids".

            According to Apple [apple.com] AirPods 2nd & 3rd gen, AirPods Pro & AirPods Max (and a few others) already have this capability. You can use various tools to create an audiogram in the health app, and then use what they call "headphone accommodations" to adjust the AirPods accordingly.

            Here's one user's experience [atomicobject.com] with using this feature for hearing loss. Apparently with iOS 14 you can import a clinical audiogram directly.

            • I've been expecting Apple to start selling hearing aids for a while now. There's a lot hearing-aid related stuff built into the accessibility bits of the iPhone already.

            • [...] if Apple were to introduce a version of their AirPods that could be configured to amplify certain frequency bands as needed by each individual, possibly configured by a simple sonogram app on the iPhone, then they could look like normal AirPods without the normal stigma associated with wearing "hearing aids".

              According to Apple [apple.com] AirPods 2nd & 3rd gen, AirPods Pro & AirPods Max (and a few others) already have this capability. You can use various tools to create an audiogram in the health app, and then use what they call "headphone accommodations" to adjust the AirPods accordingly.

              Here's one user's experience [atomicobject.com] with using this feature for hearing loss. Apparently with iOS 14 you can import a clinical audiogram directly.

              That is way cool!

              Great article, too.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Kisai ( 213879 )

        When you consider that an XS is already old. Repurposing an old phone could mean you spend $300 on it.

        The problem I see with this article is that there should be no need for the phone at all. Apple could make a slightly better "Pro" version that doubles as a hearing aid by having a slightly bigger battery and chip to allow it to operate independently in this mode.

        • The problem I see with this article is that there should be no need for the phone at all.

          Using a phone means: You have HUGE processing power. More than 90% of all laptop PCs sold. Not what you can fit into tiny EarPods. Plus all the AI stuff in a modern iPhone can be used. Plus you can have a normal sized UI. And most people have a phone in their pocket anyway. And you sell ten times more phones than hearing aids, so the cost goes down.

          And for setup, instead of going to some health company that needs to charge tons to measure your hearing, the right software - on a phone - can do that as wel

      • They are similarly priced when you throw in the iPhone they used. The stigma part however, I can understand. Apple is not trying to create a listening enhancement device though. I do wonder if the microphone array and software processing could be focused for that market. Of course though, that would mean the device had to go through FDA approval. Unlikely Apple would submit it. That process is a bitch!

        There are already a bazillion Hearing Enhancement Apps on the iOS App Store. I wonder if their more flexible EQ and dynamic Compression and noise-gating can be used to make the Airpods even better for this application?

        Maybe an App specifically designed to work in harmony with the Airpods Pro could achieve results that even surpass "real" (that is, real expensive!) hearing aids?

    • Or wired headphones / ear buds. There's nothing special about wireless here.

      I refuse to have yet another device with a dead battery.

      • Wireless earbuds have delay. Wired and in ear devices have no delay. So any bluetooth type of thing will be bad compared to a cheap Chinese in ear device from Aliexpress or Amazon.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Bob_Who ( 926234 )
      Absolutely. They've made overpriced look relatively cheap compared to something else entirely.
    • No. The problem is latency. Apple pods have the lowest latency of the Bluetooth devices. In ear hearing aids have no latency and work best.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dhaen ( 892570 )
        Absolutely. Maybe they have the lowest latency but still enough to make them useless for this application.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by narcc ( 412956 )

        Apple pods have the lowest latency of the Bluetooth devices

        I have serious doubts about that. There are also wireless options that aren't bluetooth.

        Not that it matters. Even better that the lowest possible latency bluetooth junk would be actual hearing aids, which should drop dramatically in price as we see OTC products begin to appear on store shelves. AliExpress has had quite a few in the $10 to $150 range on their site for years. They have everything from generic amplifiers to proper programmable options.

  • Everyone knows hearing aids are overpriced for what they do, and the function is not unique or special in any way.
    The only real difference is that hearing aids are labelled for use as a 'medical device', which makes the cost reimbursable against some insurance plans.

    I recall there was some effort to change that category to make it more accessible to non-medical-device hearing aids, but since I don't use them I didn't follow it very closely. Probably got shot down, and I'm just basing that on the fact that m

    • Everyone knows hearing aids are overpriced for what they do, and the function is not unique or special in any way.

      Yes, and no. They are designed for a specific purpose and their functionality can be tuned to a users specific condition.
      A purpose-built hearing aid will provide the best experience for the hearing impaired, as long as they can afford them.

    • It was, in fact, quite recent [fox13news.com].

    • Actually, the most expensive hearing aids often still use analog circuits instead of digital, because digital inevitably adds latency, which messes up your ability to locate sounds. They're still massively marked up, but they're expensive to begin with... and then marked up even more. But even with zero markup, the best of the best hearing aids would still be expensive.

      That said, for someone who's poor, a cheap hearing aid they can afford is better than an expensive one they can't & would otherwise have

  • Younger people tend to have ear buds and such in for large hours of each day [yahoo.com]. As a result, they are more susceptible to hearing loss at a younger age than others. Using airpods and such as hearing aids creates a vicious circle. They have to turn the volume up to hear more clearly which in turn worsens their condition.

    • But look. It's ok. You can segue into using the product causing the problem to fix the problem - kind of like being run down by an ambulance.

  • I wonder if earbud manufacturers or Apple decides to make Airpods 3 replace the $10,000 OTIC.. I mean OTI-SCAM hearing aids which sound like a ripoff (pun just happened). Seems like an easy market to take over.

  • trouble. I know it from individuals who had to go through it. So it is great news for many young people.

  • Headline is, of course, a lie. (Score:4, Interesting)

    by drinkypoo ( 153816 ) <drink@hyperlogos.org> on Thursday November 17, 2022 @06:25AM (#63057590) Homepage Journal

    Airpods can NOT function as a hearing aid. Airpods PLUS a phone can be. The difference is significant.

    You would likely get better performance with a $100 pair of hunter's hearing aids.

  • Struck me as funny.

    Just goes to show just how ridiculously high the prices of hearing aids have been.

  • There's nothing special about the Apple brand, when it comes to finding lower-cost ways to help people with poor hearing. Pick any decent brand of earbuds, pair them with an Android phone. https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com] There are so many options, and most of them are significantly cheaper then Apple products.

    • There's nothing special about the Apple brand, when it comes to finding lower-cost ways to help people with poor hearing. Pick any decent brand of earbuds, pair them with an Android phone. https://play.google.com/store/... [google.com] There are so many options, and most of them are significantly cheaper then Apple products.

      I don't think that is correct.

      With the pandemic, came a wonderful large-sample ad-hoc "study" of voice quality on online news interviews. Video-Conferenced Guests using Everything from dedicated mics on boom stands to several different earbud/headsets, to laptop built-in mics were seen and heard on a daily basis.

      I am retired; so I watch a LOT of TV news.

      What I quickly noticed, being a musician and sound engineer, was that, regardless of the TV program or the acoustics of room the speaker was in, the guests

      • I see you're an Apple fan. I'm not surprised. I too work in audio/visual production in large venues, and I see a lot of Apple fans. I also see that they are often frustrated with Apple equipment, which they rightfully feel should work better for the price. They are loyal to Apple equipment because they are used to it.

        I don't dispute that Apple makes good products. It's also true that for those who don't want, or can't, do the research, the Android world is the wild west. You've got to know what matters and

        • I see you're an Apple fan. I'm not surprised. I too work in audio/visual production in large venues, and I see a lot of Apple fans. I also see that they are often frustrated with Apple equipment, which they rightfully feel should work better for the price. They are loyal to Apple equipment because they are used to it.

          I don't dispute that Apple makes good products. It's also true that for those who don't want, or can't, do the research, the Android world is the wild west. You've got to know what matters and who makes good quality gear. If you buy cheap Chinese earbuds from some Amazon seller called AMXDHW, you're not going to get good quality. But there are plenty of good names, such as Bose and JBL, that make excellent earbuds, many of which cost a fraction of the price Apple charges.

          Since when does Bose or JBL cost "a fraction" of what Apple charges?

  • "Grandpa, wow, you have AirPods Pro! You're really cool!"

  • These AirPods were apparently used without any specific software. Just amplifying outside sound and putting it directly into your ears, instead of having to listen at distant sounds.

    This could be very powerful with the right software. Right now the AirPods Pro can filter out outside noise, or actually amplify it (because the pods in your ears reduce the sound purely mechanical, and if you amplify outside noise you remove that effect).

    A HomePod takes 14% of its CPU time to filter out one voice, so that

  • my air pods lose their bluetooth connection in 5-10 minutes of connecting every time, no matter what it's connecting with. and no "solutions" work. and of course they are too light to be paperweights.

    I am growing weary of continually lowering my expectations WRT apple products.

    on the topic of the article. if I am losing my hearing, the LAST solution I would look to is f**king air pods

    did I mention my disgust for apple air pods?

    • my air pods lose their bluetooth connection in 5-10 minutes of connecting every time, no matter what it's connecting with. and no "solutions" work. and of course they are too light to be paperweights.

      I am growing weary of continually lowering my expectations WRT apple products.

      on the topic of the article. if I am losing my hearing, the LAST solution I would look to is f**king air pods

      did I mention my disgust for apple air pods?

      Since that is the exact opposite of what most people report, have you done anything too determine if something is wonky with your AirPods or whatever you are using them with?

      Jus' sayin' . . .

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