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Apple Plans Hearing Aid Social Networking

Posted by timothy on from the hearing-aids-are-amazingly-expensive dept.

theodp writes "Apple may have killed off Ping, its attempt at a music social network, but the USPTO on Thursday disclosed that Apple has patent-pending plans for a hearing aid-based social network. So, if Apple's granted patents covering its Social Network for Sharing a Hearing Aid Setting and method of Remotely Updating a Hearing Aid Profile, will it use them to 'go thermonuclear' on Google when the search giant gets around to improving its current offerings for the hard of hearing?"

9 of 70 comments (clear)

  1. Remote updating of devices on your person? by feedayeen · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Why would people share hearing aid settings with others? Isn't this the type of device set by the operator's preferences?

    Having a short range communication between hearing aids and external devices has advantages in calibration, but I just don't get the social part.

    1. Re:Remote updating of devices on your person? by SilenceBE · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The only "social" part is - by reading the article - that people are able to share settings.

      The problem is that this summary is written by an idiot it seems - is this the infamous timothy which I seems some comments of now an then ? - and has nothing really to do with Google or even a social network in the typical sense when we speak about "social networks".

      The person written this summary has really mental problems as it seems he wants to abuse people with hearing disabilities to spread FUD about a scenario which really don't make any sense if I read the article. I don't even know what is has to do with subtitles on youtube.

    2. Re:Remote updating of devices on your person? by Hentes · · Score: 5, Funny

      Freemium hearing aids: you get it for free but it will whisper ads it downloads from the net in your ears constantly.

    3. Re:Remote updating of devices on your person? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I use my hearing aids in loop systems on a weekly basis at different churches. All of them have different levels on the loop system requiring me to turn the levels up and down on my hearing aids, since most of them aren't set to the (British) government standards (and of course, the output from different mixing desks are different). It would be great if there was a network to give me a baseline for the setup of the system that would work reliably, since hearing aid loops ARE set to the baseline.

  2. Location-based settings by MemoryAid · · Score: 3, Insightful
    I can see where it may be helpful to crowd-source settings at certain locations. Maybe the noise profile at a pub responds best to a certain setup for most people, but you don't want to twiddle with your hearing aid until you figure it out. A statistical analysis of others' settings, along with some rating of satisfaction with them, could help adjust a hearing aid more quickly.

    I'm sure Apple could come up with an easy interface on the iPhone to quickly adjust, rate and share settings. Maybe even store some info about each person's hearing loss profile to better match people with settings...

    Of course, I haven't read the article yet, so this could be redundant.

    --
    Language students: Don't try to learn English here. This ain't it.
    1. Re:Location-based settings by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Or, since many public facilities often offer induction loop capabilities for users with telecoil-equipped hearing aids, but the induction loop settings can vary wildly, it'd be nice to be able to see what settings other people at that location are using (or have used) to quickly and easily calibrate your own settings to work best with the loop.

      I'd rather have some "informed advice" to start with, instead of blowing out my eardrums because somebody calibrated an induction loop wrong.

  3. Re:Leave my Hearing Aids Alone by neBelcnU · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I've also paid a fortune for my hearing aids, 100% of my own funds because health insurance in the US doesn't cover any hearing-related expenses beyond the most basic testing.

    With that in mind, I do NOT want the "professionals" touching my hearing aids. Having watched them repeatedly, I'm certain that I can do a better job--even with Siemens' cripple-ware. In fact, there are a number of hacks I think would be really impressive: The software packages the 4 settings by default in a manner that requires 3x the button-pushes should they be arrayed in simple "loudness order". Or this one: the feedback defaults to a series of beeps: 1 per setting position, 1 beep=1st setting, 2=2nd, etc. There's an option to set the tone to one of 4 different frequencies, so in my first visit, I figured out we should select ever higher tones for the counts. (1=lowest/least, 4=highest/most) The "professional" was so astonished by the usability improvement of this, he was going to apply it to other customers.

    Oh, and see what I did there? I just socially-shared a trick that others may find helpful." I know it's a licensed job, they're not idiots, and they do have skills, but they do not wear hearing aids. I cannot stress that last enough, every "professional" I've seen all have perfect hearing. They may understand the physiology better, but they do not understand the electronics, psychoacoustics, or the limitations better than I do.

    Run the tests, start up the app, and head out for lunch, I'll take it from here. And you bet your sweet bippy I'm going to publish MY settings, and compare notes with other users. If you don't want to, fine, don't. But I'll pay to get out of the highest walled-garden in the world.

  4. Breaking the Hearing Aid Oligarchy by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    In the U.S., the many hearing aid brands are manufactured by a tiny number of original equipment manufacturers (OEM) who control patents and technology. The remaining OEM's have bought up smaller competitors and their patent rights. For the most part, hearing aids are sold through branded stores or via distribution to audiologists and hearing specialists. The retail markups are ridiculously high, so that many pay $2,000 - $5,000 or more for a device far simpler in design than most any comparable consumer electronic device. To add even simple improvements (Bluetooth, coatings for moisture resistance, multiple profiles for sound equalization, more sophisticated feedback protection, rechargeable batteries) adds hundreds or thousands to the retail price.

    If Apple or other major electronics suppliers can simplify and improve hearing aid technology, then bravo. My state-of-the-art aids are often flummoxed in large public spaces with complicated acoustics. If a crowd-sourced sound pattern would allow me to hear better, you bet I'd take advantage of it. But the real benefit for the long-term might be in standardization of hearing aid interfaces and protocols so that over time prices might come down. The overwhelming majority of hearing impaired people world wide have no access to aids. Apple and others may be able to bring better hearing technology to the masses.

  5. This is alarming news by mykro76 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Apple's design concepts revolve around a simple experience for the 80%, and accessibility support for the 20% has historically been a long time in coming. It took 3 years for captioning to arrive on their Apple TV platform, and the iPhone didn't get accessibility features until its third iteration. I can and have recommended Apple products to others, but for this reason I am unable to use them myself.

    I cannot think of a worse company to have a lock up on accessibility-related patents :(