Hands-Free Phone Calls Coming to Made For iPhone Hearing Aids

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#41

I was wondering with the ReSound One’s with the M&RIE mic in the ear, if that could be used for voice pickup, if the M&RIE mics would be exceptionally good for hands-free because the mic is “in front of the ear,”, not behind much of the pinna as the mics are is on most RIC HA bodies. OTH, ReSound says as the environment becomes noisier, the One firmware switches from using the M&RIE mics to, in a completely noisy situation, relying entirely on the two body mics on each HA behind the ear.

It will be very interesting to see if any HA OEM has a better solution than Phonak for hands-free as in reading Phonak reviews, the hands-free works pretty well, until it doesn’t. Having the mics on the HA bodies is not the greatest location in the world for a hands-free experience.

I would strongly encourage Dr. Cliff (hmm, can’t seem to “@” him) to do a comparative video of hands-free voice transmission on different premium HA brands when a sufficient number become available to compare to Phonak and, heck!, throw in the KS9 and KS10 hands-free experiences for comparison, too.

Edit_Update:

In fact, I was wondering if the real reason ReSound went for mics in the ear was for the hands-free experience in anticipation of BT LE Audio and the supposed better listening experience with a natural pinna effect was just an excuse to put the mics there. Since the ReSound One’s supposedly contain BT 5.2 and are supposedly BT LE Audio capable, it will be interesting to see what they can do when BT LE Audio is official and iOS 15 with improved? MFi is released. And I’m waiting for Phonak’s next premium HA before any new HA purchase!

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#42

It’s a bit of a worry that they’re still calling them ‘mfi’ which implies that they’re not made for everything else. That’s not good news.

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#43

Pretty sure there are various fees. Bluetooth is a trademark and you need their permission to use it. I don’t know the details. I’m sure it’s complicated.

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#44

Got this back from Oticon:

“Oticon More is future proof for LE Audio. The new big thing on the Polaris platform is the platform upgradability and the additional memory we have added to support this. We have actually already prepared More to support 2-way audio (whether that will be Apple’s LEA2 or LE Audio does not matter) to secure a stable and clear connection.”

I had not heard of LEA2, but I guess that’s a proprietary Apple version of Low Energy Audio.

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#45

Thanks. Sounds like Apple is going their own way again.

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#46

Huh. That the first I’ve seen of any mention of an Apple LEA2 something. I hope it’s LE compatible and just throws in a few extra features to justify rebranding, and not a whole alternative incompatible communications platform just to drive you crazy.

Edit; a quick check and it’s been around since 2017and apparently is a part of MFi and already in use with some cochlear implants. It was chosen by Apple to support Bluetooth LE as the platform so it’s just marketing buzz, not a whole new communication strategy.

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#47

Your Google-Fu is stronger that mine. I did a quick google of LEA2 and didn’t find anything… but maybe I needed to dedicate more minutes :slight_smile:

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#48

Here’s a quick link that gives you an impression of what they’re doing
Apple LEA2

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#49

I had a quick scan through that page and couldn’t find anything about LEA2. If the hand-free capability mentioned by Abram’s contact comes with LEA2, and LEA2 has been around since 2017, then wouldn’t we have seen hands-free mfi already?

#50

That’s a pretty big scoop for those who have bought Oticon More. Hopefully it means what it seems to mean, which is that current model Oticon More hearing aids have in-built hands-free capability.

#51

There’s are several paragraphs that refer to Bluetooth LE as being consolidated into MFI and meant to bring in support for more than just Cochlear 7 hardware.

“Apple’s work on Bluetooth Low Energy Audio, a new technology that streams digital sound directly to hearing air implants, enables people with hearing impairments to communicate and use their iPhone as mic via iOS 10’s Live Listen feature.”

“ Writing for Wired , Steven Levy has further detailed the engineering work behind the feature, which uses Bluetooth Low Energy to stream audio, a new technology called Bluetooth LEA, or “Low Energy Audio.”

BLE was developed for highly efficient data transfers to small devices with limited battery life, such as heart rate monitors. Apple adapted the protocol to stream audio directly from iOS devices to hearing aid implants, which rely on small batteries.”

We already have Live Listen in place (it works with my MFi Starkey Livio’s). It’s clear Apple is basing LEA off the Bluetooth LE standard. Extending that to LEA2 sounds more like additional features added to function beyond just HAs, but also products like AirPods and other Apple products that benefit from a low power consumption setting.

Again, Bluetooth LE was not built solely for HAs. It’s meant to improve communication with a whole variety of devices that use Bluetooth. It’s great that HAs are in that group to benefit. But it’s clear Apple has been looking at low power Bluetooth communications for several years, and if they do want to be inclusive of the variety of devices out there (beyond MFi compliant HAs), they’ve already begun to position themselves to serve the market.

#52

Sorry, I might be missing something, but that sounds like news from five years ago. MFi has always used Bluetooth Low Energy. It was the first time (afaik) that BLE was used for audio. I’ve never heard it called LEA before. That might be an internal Apple designation. The various terms we’re using are too similar to each other and too confusing eg Apple’s “LEA”- low energy audio- is not the same as the Bluetooth SIG’s “LE Audio”.

I’m assuming that LEA2 must refer to what this topic is about “Hands-Free Phone Calls Coming to Made For iPhone Hearing Aids”

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#53

Bluetooth Low Energy and Bluetooth Low Energy Audio are two quite different protocols. It’s not just a renaming or branding thing.

#54

Bluetooth Low Energy is a type of wireless connection. Bluetooth “LE Audio” is a set of protocols that use that connection. As is mfi a.k.a (I learnt in this thread) LEA, and ASHA.

Can we agree on that?

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#55

Sounds right. I think they keep relabeling to add to the confusion of what you’re actually getting for your money.

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#56

A cunning plan, and it’s working beautifully. :grin:

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#57

I guess this is why the marketing firms get paid the big bucks for their ability to fog our minds and become unquestioning bearers of credit cards. :smile:

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#58

No not really. BT LE Audio is quite different to BT Low Energy. Much lower power consumption for example. They are different, as I said before.

#59

Just to throw in more confusion, but wouldn’t BT LE audio be considered a subset of BT Low Energy functionality?

#60

I don’t think so. But don’t listen to me. Go and read some of the material the Bluetooth SIG has put out. Google will take you to any number of articles about it (check where they are from to decide which to believe).