I’m not an engineer and I have no idea what type of hardware is involved in making a hearing aid, but from my layman’s point of view, it seems that the computing part of the device could be off-loaded to a smart phone. This would help make hearing aids cheaper and make it easier to upgrade functionality as better algorithms were developed or the software was upgraded to alter/improve functionality of the existing hardware. It seems that if this was done, then, the hearing aid could be reduced to microphones and a Bluetooth connection.

The other really big upside to this? You could have an app that would allow you to alter the way your hearing aid works. I’m not sure that this app could completely eliminate trips to an audiologist, but it seems that it could reduce them.

CC: Konrad Erlendsson, Jon Li, Martin Bergmann Michael Baloy Eva Pepe