The smartphone as the key to improving everyday objects

We tend not to think much about hearing aids, until either we, or somebody we know, needs one. And that is when we realize that while the technology behind them has improved over time, they still haven’t managed to incorporate the possibilities that come from the fact that more and more of us are walking round with computers in our pockets.

An interesting article in Fast Company, “An iPhone-connected hearing aid that will make everyone want one”, discusses LiNX, a hearing aid that is connected to a smartphone via Bluetooth (iPhones only for the moment), making it much easier to adjust them.

The advantages are clear: by their nature, hearing aids tend to be small, often making it very hard to include controls that can easily be manipulated, and that invariably means removing the device from one’s ear. Aside from the volume control that the user works by placing the finger behind the ear, any other functions are severely limited by the design of the device itself.

So what happens when we supplement the hearing aid with the screen and interface of an iPhone? Suddenly we have a device that can be handled much more easily, and that can also take advantage of the other functions an iPhone offers. Obviously we can control the volume, but we can also fine-tune the sound, turning up the bass or the treble…