From Wikimedia
According to the WHO, over 466 million people worldwide have disabling hearing loss. Many of them can benefit from hearing aids. Hearing aids typically pick up sound and use speakers to amplify it and push it into ear canal. However, the quality of amplified sound is usually good only in mid frequency range and deteriorates in high and low frequencies. Consequently, the resulting sound is flat and dull, making it difficult to hear conversations in a crowd. Earlens, a medical technology company, developed a new solution with no speaker. A custom lens is put by a physician into the ear canal where it conforms onto the eardrum. An ear piece captures sound in the environment and converts it into pulses of energy that power the lens and in turn vibrate the eardrum. A much broader frequency range of sound is delivered with high sound quality. The rich and natural sound is particularly good for speech understanding. Better yet, people can even take calls and stream music with iPhone through Earlens.
Summary
Purpose
Help people with hearing loss to hear
Idea
Use a hearing aid that directly vibrates the eardrum
Further Possibilities
1. Use Earlens technologies to improve hearing for everyone
2. Use contact lens for augmented reality
3. Use contact lens or hearing aids for translation
4. Use technologies to capture sound of certain frequencies or certain characteristics
5. Put on artificial skin to receive the sense of touch
Questions
1. What might be all the ways to improve hearing?
2. What are the scenarios where we need to reduce hearing?
3. What might be all the ways to enhance our perceptions through the Internet?
