Bells and Whistles: The Latest in Hearing Aid Tech
Hearing Loops and Telecoils continued...
"In an echo environment like a church or synagogue, you flip to the telecoil and, boom, you can hear like magic," says Cynthia Compton-Conley, PhD, director of consumer technology initiatives at the Hearing Loss Association of America (HLAA).
Loop systems have been around for years, but Compton-Conley says many people don’t know they exist or that their hearing aids can connect to them.And not all large facilities have them -- the installation can cost thousands of dollars. But more and more public places are making the investment.The HLAA has a "Get in the Hearing Loop" project to make the technology more widely available in the U.S. To know if a facility has a loop system you can link to, look for a sign with a shape like an ear and the letter T.
There are also smaller loop systems you can use at work or at home, like when you’re watching TV. They cost from $100 to $300.
The key is to make sure that your hearing device has a telecoil when you buy it. You can’t add it in later.
"Telecoils cost $50 to install and are so important it's like buying a car and forgetting to put the wheels on," Compton-Conley says.
The Roger Pen
This "pen" is actually a standalone wireless microphone in disguise. Going to a meeting? You can place it in the center of the conference table to pick up the sound all around the room. Need to focus on one person in particular? Point it in his direction. The microphone beams sound to receivers you put on your hearing aids.
"Patients love that pen," says Kathleen Cienkowski, PhD, director of audiology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs. It makes interactions clearer, and no one needs to know its true purpose.
FM and Infrared Systems
Frequency-modulated systems, like loop systems, can help you hear in settings like a classroom. They transmit sounds via radio signals. Infrared systems work in a similar way, moving sound through invisible light beams, like a TV remote.
There is an extra step involved. People who have a telecoil in their hearing aid or cochlear implant can access either system with a wire they wear around their neck, called a neckloop, or a device that goes behind their hearing aid, called a silhouette inductor. These convert the radio signal into magnetic waves that your telecoil can pick up.