From what I have read, any modern iPhone has more computing power than what NASA used to put the first human being on the Moon.
If this is the case, is there any company that is using that computing power to sample exterior sound and delete that by using out-of-phase technology (just as an example) and feeding the resulting signal to a simple in-ear Bluetooth device? Or using that same tech to sample the conversation I want to have (using the microphone) and processing the signal so I can hear a conversation in a noisy environment?
I’m sure my question is completely naïve, but I cannot see why the microphone and computing technology in an iPhone is not being used to power a genuine hearing aid, rather than putting all of that tech (including frequency shifting) in a device which sits behind your ear – in my case as someone who drives a rescue boat offshore in bad conditions regularly, this simply cannot work because it’s too vulnerable to being dislodged.
And if I’m wrong, and this tech. exists, I would love to be apprised of this.
Actually Apple is falling behind in Bluetooth connectivity. I have the Samsung S23 phone with my Oticon INTENT1 aids that connect with Bluetooth le audio and the sound is great.
To add to your question will iPhone 16 with A.I. features play some role with hearing aids or Apple glasses in the future? Apple seems to circling the wagons around iPhone with air pods and future glasses, etc., but who knows if it will all fit together. And if so when.
So if you don’t have your phone on you or your is out of battery you end up with no hearing aid? Or the fact that you would need to strap the phone on your forehead to be able to handle the different sounds as having the phone in your pocket or bag make no sense to handle where the sounds are coming from? Or the fact that handling this by Bluetooth would mean using Bluetooth at 100% all of the time which would kill both your phone and your hearing aids batteries? And there is also latency by using a wireless protocol to handle this?
An iPhone has around 100.000x the computing power than the guidance computer that went to the moon. It weighed 70 pounds!
It sounds like you are talking about the Airpod Pro 2s. That is pretty much what they do and the H2 chip is in the Airpods making 42,000 calculations per second.
Two downsides at the moment is battery life and they are only good enough for mild to moderate hearing loss.
Not the case. Whisper did this with a separate processing unit in your pocket rather than your phone. Sound was received in your hearing aids, transmitted to the in-pocket processing unit, & then transmitted back to the hearing aids on your ear. It’s very doable. If you didn’t have the processing unit with you, the hearing aids still worked, processing sound within the hearing aids themselves but just with a less powerful sound processor.
And the fact that many countries, like Australia and the UK, cannot access the hearing aid features.
I was not thinking about the AirPods Pro 2s when making the original post. I do have a pair of these. I am thinking of reimagining the whole hearing aid landscape, and using the immense computing power that is available to do live audio processing in the phone itself, perhaps even using its microphones.
Re. battery life: buy a second pair—still far cheaper than standard HAs. I have been quoted $4,000 AUD each for a pair of top-pf-the-range Oticons here in Australia. The APP2s are $300 AUD here.
You can already do that with Airpod Pros and an iPhone. It’s called Live listen. If you are in a restaurant you set it up and place your iPhone in the middle of the table.
The microphones in the iPhones augment the microphones in Airpods. It works up to around 40 feet away, not that you would need that sort of distance unless you are a spy!
I didn’t know about that. I just played with it, and I could hear my wife’s voice well (and I turned away, so no capacity to lip-read), and control the volume in the usual way. There is latency, but perhaps useable. I will try this in a noisy situation some time and report back.
There are some active people on this forum who’ve found ways to secure their hearing aids. Post a thread with that question and I’m sure you’ll get answers.
My understanding of the original question was can any hearing aid use the computing power in an iPhone to reduce noise. My take is no. The example of Live Listen and Airpod Pro 2s is mentioned but I think the noise reduction in the Airpod Pro 2s is in the device themselves and Live Listen just works as a remote microphone. If I’m wrong, please cite a source. Thanks.
Everything, of course! I can look this up myself, but if you can head me in the right direction (I was thinking searching on “whisper” is going to show a LOT of irrelevant results!), I can find what I need. E.g., was the company called “Whisper Hearing Aids”, or something else?
@MDB: your understanding is accurate, AFAIK. What my original question was pointing to was a complete reimagining of the HA landscape, using the computing power of a smart phone rather than jamming all the expensive tech. into the standard behind-the-ear package. That tech. is expensive for two reasons: it is miniaturised, and it is controlled by near-monopolies.
I agree. I think it would be a great idea. Downsides I can think of (besides needing your phone) would be possible lag and phone CPU may not be optimal for working with hearing aid. Also phone manufacturer may not want to put research dollars into a device with wide market appeal for the specialized market of HA users. But, yes if they had such a phone/HA combo that fully took advantage of the phone’s CPU, I’d want one.
I can look this up myself, but if you can head me in the right direction (I was thinking searching on “whisper” is going to show a LOT of irrelevant results!), I can find what I need. E.g., was the company called “Whisper Hearing Aids”, or something else?