Tag: Hearing

A pop-up display could help those with limited vision access the digital world. Meanwhile, a Cologne-based startup is offering the German-speaking deaf community, who also have difficulty reading, a similar opportunity: its avatar renders website content into sign language. Website administrators use an internet platform with a toolbox to arrange pre-defined blocks of text and tailor them to individual...

A digital pen can convert braille into text, while a glove does the same for sign language. A London-based startup, in turn, has developed a cloud-based platform to translate text, voice and video into British Sign Language. An AI-powered avatar does the signing. Training with data sets incorporated different dialects, contextual language and emotional tone. Comprising deaf members who use...

A Japanese startup is helping people see more clearly. But for people with limited hearing, following conversations can be a challenge. A battery-free hearing aid would be helpful. Now, a Boston-based startup is working on an alternative, creating glasses that use augmented reality to bring more clarity to conversations. Two microphones integrated into the frames continuously record what the...

Toddlers’ hearing can be checked by smartphone while future hearing aids could be battery-free. But people with tinnitus hear more than they wish. Help is at hand thanks to a research team’s app which uses a chatbot to help people train their brains to ignore the unwanted noise. Employing solution-focused behavioural therapy, users are encouraged to dispel negative associations with...

A computer game is raising childrens’ awareness of diabetes. Now, using smartphones, a research team from Washington University has developed a low-cost hearing screening system especially suitable for infants. Microphone probes are connected to standard earphones and coupled with an app. Two different tones are sent into the ear at the same time. All being well, a third tone...

Office noise can be soothing and silence liberating. Now, thanks to a New York startup’s new app, users can search for venues according to internal noise levels. Meaning our ears can be protected from undue strain or harm. Places are graded in four categories with anything under 70 decibels designated ‘quiet’ and anything over 81 as ‘very loud’. Data...

A placenta gene provides information on potential autism. Now, a research team from Northwestern University has discovered a different gene that is crucial to our ability to hear. Outer hair cells in the ear amplify sound for the inner hair cells. These, in turn, transmit vibrations to the nerves, enabling us to perceive sound. Age or medical treatment causes...

Not all electric devices need external power. Take this pacemaker. Or the battery-free hearing aid recently developed at China’s Huazhong University. Key to the device is a microporous membrane relying on piezoelectric and triboelectric effects, meaning it generates current when under pressure and an electrical charge upon frictional contact. Tiny nanoparticles are housed within the cavities of the finished...