Your broad topic range is definitely my favorite part about this channel. From the economics of countries to genetic cloning to the hearing aid. Great work.
@@stevenjacobs2750 He could possibly be a Patreon supporter of Asianometry channel, and gets earlier access to the videos there, before they're uploaded to TH-cam or other platforms.
Side note: in the 20ies/30ies US, the need to shrink hearing aids lead to the development of miniature vacuum tubes. These miniature vacuum tubes proved extremely valuable during WWII for their application in proximity fuze. Quite funny to think hearing aids were key to the development of an high tech (at the time) military technology. It also demonstrates what is gained from a diverse economy, i.e the ability to combine technology and know-how across multiple fields.
Thank you for covering this topic! Most people don't really ever have to think about hearing aids until they're older, if at all. My dad has worn hearing aids since he was two or three (c. 1969). Just the changes since they went digital when I was a kid in the early 2000s are amazing, let alone the advances he's seen in nearly sixty years of daily wear.
12:24 Nice to see recognition of Nicolet's efforts, which fell short yet arguably were ahead of their time! (Pronounced "nick-o-lay," after a French explorer.) The parent company also pioneered digital oscilloscopes, under the direction of inventor Bob Schumann in Madison WI. 😎✌️
Hearing aid companies have bought up audio companies like Sonova buying Sennheiser and Demant buying EPOS. Medical device company Masimo also bought a handful of audio brands.
Got here because of the 2023 recap video! Can't believe I missed it! Technology and History, although seemingly distinct concepts, are a powerful combination. Thank you so much for your work, sir, and keep it up! All the best from Brazil!
I'm looking forward to more transcription glasses: smart-glasses that offer subtitles for real life. The Activelook Engo 2 is inconspicuous, and OpenAI's Whisper delivers world class transcription without sending personal conversations to the cloud.
I knew someone who carried a painted tobacco tin in his shirt pocket with a wire from it going up to his ear. He said didn't need a REAL hearing aid because everyone who saw what he had in his shirt pocket automatically shouted when they see it
Man, I remember what it was like as a kid watching hearing aid commercials in the 80s by a specialist called Ray Gauntlet. The tech was cumbersome looking but got the job done. Nowadays, it's hard to believe how far along things have gotten. Definitely much like the evolution of mobile phones.
I think a quirk about TI getting into silicon was that they were making silicon based gravitometers. They knew how to play with silicon and the idea crossed their experience and manufacturing base.
I had to get hearing aids due to a TBI where I have real trouble processing the audio (among other things) & it opened up the world for me to hear other people's speech around me. Amazing how it can filter background noise as well as it does with the DSP on board.
TBIs really change the way we live… I use a low cost, blue tooth, headset for watching TV. It helps separate out the back ground sounds that were easier to accomplish before the TBI. (A decade of recovery also helps) Thanks for sharing your experience…. 😃
Love your style asianometry. Great storytelling of these complex topics that also includes the research youve done to show how one technology went from point a to b Great content as always.
This was a good video... Since i was a kid in the mid 90's i always thought in ear hearing aids were a marvel. My grandfathers would get feedback in his every once in a while and i couldnt believe that tiny thing could be so loud.
I wore a hearing aid as far back as 1976. Even then, hearing aids were tiny. It was just a small rounded device that fit over the ear with a custom molded rubber piece that goes in your ear with a plastic tube that runs from hearing aid over the ear to the rubber piece.
Before the transistor hearing aids they also used micro electron tubes which where thick as a pen and soldered direct in the circuit instead of sockets. The cigarette box sized aid had an 22V and a 1,5 V battery for the filament of the tubes. Unfortunately I sold mine historically Braun aid on ebay, anyway I know what was inside.
The jump from transistors to relatively complicated integrated circuits at around 8:55 is quite steep. I'not sure about other manufacturers, but Philips released a simple hearing aid IC with an equivalent circuit of 3 transistors and a handful of resistors in the first half of the 1960's, the OM200. Also, before that they had some very reliable miniaturised germanium transistors, sizewise similar to SMD but with tiny wires sticking out of one end, proving that could be done as well.
John is an absolute master of the "interesting niche topic" game. It's worth noting that much of the early research into DSP and psychoacoustic processing techniques was foundational work for later consumer technologies such as audio compression algorithms. I'm sure much of that early research remained proprietary information for long time, but the increase in broad understanding of how our brains perceive sound and how we can beneficially manipulate audio signals to take advantage of certain biological quirks was absolutely essential for a bunch of tech that we take for granted today. Anything Aerospace related, consumer electronics and mobile devices, high-speed data/comms systems, industrial control and instrumentation, precision measurement tools, new media and preservation of old media, video games and VR/AR... Miniaturisation and DSP techniques are essential for all of it and much more.
Raytheon, from making transistors that makes hearing aids smaller to making missiles that can shatter your eardrums thus necessitating the need for hearing aid....
Great video as usual. It is of course completely true that early Raytheon transistors had reliability issues (7:12). But this is a problem with poor encapsulation and maybe other aspects of technology, and less with the germanium itself. Silicon does have many advantageous properties, but with improved technology, germanium transistors continued to be used, especially outside of the USA, for a very, very long time. Their reliability was good enough to allow their use even in computers. One of the best indigenous Soviet computers, BESM-6 used 60000 germanium transistors and 170000 germanium diodes. It worked quite well and was manufactured from 1968 all the way to 1987.
my mom's hearing aid does beamforming - and it's not the most sophisticated model. It costed 2,000USD. Sen. Elizabeth Warren did manage to get the devices to be sold on drugstores in the US for prices lower than 300USD, though. I don't know much about the legislation she proposed and manage to get support from both parties to approve it. The way she got that support is really interesting! EDIT: Sen. Warren's legislation is mentioned at the end.
Weird how some hearing aids were not Over The Counter (OTC products for years. Glad anyone can get them. Perhaps next tech video can be about how DJs and musicians use hearing aids?
00:02 Evolution of Hearing Aids from Hand Reflectors to Electronic Devices 02:05 Introduction of Electric Current Amplification and Separate Components 03:44 Working Principles and Components of Modern Hearing Aids 07:03 Transition from Vacuum Tubes to Transistors for Miniaturization 08:51 Integration of Circuits and Introduction of Digital Audio Processing 12:06 Introduction of digital hearing aids and companies in the market. 13:24 Hearing aid market dependent on technology innovations from other industries.
Another superb video! 👏👏👏 Im a hearing aid user and im certain that this technology will soon benefit everyone. In the near future, as both the hardware and software develop, hearing aid features will trickle down to regular headphones, offering everyone the opportunity to choose the WAY they hear. Modern hearing aids have upwards of 40 channels sampling sounds at any time, allowing more precise control over audio enhancement and reduction (just dont blow a gentle breeze at them though or they wil freak out, some improvements may still need to be necessary 😅), but by sampling the audo like this, and breaking it down, you can be VERY specific about what the end user actualy hears, and this will allow you to things such as improve safety in noisy areas with improved noise cancellation and speach focus (no more straining to hear anyone), reduce office background chatter (no more straining to NOT hear anyone!) or choose hyper directional sound focus so you can only hear whats happening in one direction (creeps!) the same tech will also improve call quality removing background noise more effectively, and audio collection and processing in the entertainment industry. The recent developments in ditial hearing aids have been huge, but software advancements and the use of AI to leverage the hardware are what i think are really going to make it an industry worth watch in in the next 10 years. Wait until premuim airpods have a function to make it easier than ever to either eavesdrop at huge distance, or ignore everyone at close distance, super hearing for a premium price, will soon be an offering... but bulkier units will no doubt be in service in military and policing applications sooner. Ever since I first popped in my hearing aids, I've thought the biggest flaw in current movies depicting future people is how they dont all have massively improved heaing due to personal digital audio enhancement devices, or whatever they'll market them as! 😂
Hey, nice video as always. It would be great if you can cover the latest room temperature superconductor topic. I'm sure everyone is going to love it. Thankyou for making awesome videos!!
You completely glossed over the cochlear implant! Cochlear implants were the absolute revolution in the world of hearing aids. In my country - Belgium - the cochlear implant had such a tremendous effect on enrollment of Catholic schools for the deaf, that said schools actively went looking for a new audience they could shoehorn into their existing schools. The shoehorn was classifying autism as a "mild contact disorder" and hey presto: all special education schools for autistic people with average to high intelligence in Belgium (in Flanders at least) are now or used to be mixed with deaf pupils. The cochlear implant is also a divisive topic in the D/deaf community, as there are D/deaf people who view their deafness as an integral part of their identity. A cochlear implant works so well, that many people who were born with a hearing impairment never even learn sign language. And there are D/deaf parents who do not consent to their children receiving a cochlear implant, as the ability to hear can be a great detriment to learning and remaining fluent in sign language. D/deaf culture and the secluded nature of this community is quite fascinating.
Apple AirPod Bluetooth wireless earphone/earbud already has "hearing aid" capability, as their customer getting older and needs hearing aid. AirPod can amplify music and cancel the ambient background noise, why not amplify voice? It is called "Live Listen" feature. It needs some setup on iPhone. It may not be as effective as dedicated hearing aid device for the deaf. But good enough for compensating mild hearing loss due to old age and way cheaper than dedicated hearing aids.
In fact, much of the technology used to shrink the size of hearing aids went into the modern wireless earbud headphones of today. The digital signal processing technology we saw in hearing aids since the 1990's is why the Apple AirPods sound so good for such a tiny device.
Everyone should own a good set of earplugs and a good set of earmuffs. Wear them whenever you are somewhere or doing something that is loud. Don't wait for "ow this is really loud", put in/on your hearing protection well before you get to that point. Don't think "this will only be noisy for a couple of minutes", put on those ear muffs for a couple of minutes. Mowing the lawn? Hearing protection. Driving a tractor? Hearing protection. Just making a few quick cuts with the table saw? Hearing protection. Going to see an action movie? Hearing protection. Noisy bar? Hearing protection. (Seriously, why do they make the music so loud people have trouble talking?) You get one set of ears in your life. Every bit of hearing that you lose is gone forever. Our vision might connect us to the world, but it is our hearing that connects us to each other. PS. If you are listening to music via earbuds but whereever you are is loud enough that you feel the need to turn up the volume, DON'T. That is your queue to _turn off_ the music. Or convince everyone/everything around you to be quieter, whichever is easier.
I wonder if the latest ones have some noise filtering, like the mic in the AirPods. I was thinking about buying one for my grandpa, who has hearing problems, but just wouldn't get a pair for himself, after he broke the first set. By the way, I would be interested in those water engineering videos you mentioned in the Dr. Cutress interview, if you have already recorded them. Maybe you could make a second channel to avoid tanking your main channel stats in case it doesn't get as many views?
The hearing aid’s I wear feature a processing algorithm that analyzes the soundscape to reduce background noise and boost voices. Makes it easier to follow conversation in noisy environments.
This is a well-done video on the history of a device that even I as a computer scientist, electronics hobbyist and hearing aid user didn’t know much about in terms of the miniaturization techniques used in today’s hearing aids. The chip on flex and the multilayer technology caught me by surprise. Naturally I’m not going to take apart my own hearing aids and the information is sparse given a lot is super proprietary so seeing a similar model with a breakaway pictorial display was amazingly helpful.
I'd really like if you cited your sources in the description of these videos. I enjoy them, but it's a bit harder to fact check when I don't know exactly what sources were user, so I still take these video with a few more grains of salt than other channels. The mostly empty video descriptions make them feel less trustworthy, idk.
Some sinister things I've noticed about deaf aids , it's they never have in their instructions the warning sentence: "high volume setting risk of hearing damage" Every single person I know using one has hearing loss
Very interesting. I’m 56 and I’m losing my hearing, as did my father and grandfather. My Dad has an acoustic neuroma, so it’s really bad for him. My grandfather never used his hearing aids, so he didn’t have to listen to my grandmother all day!
Are you sure transposing the speech to a lower range works? AFAIK, the problem with loss of high frequencies is the loss of consonant sounds that require the high frequencies from the bursts (or step functions). In the case of hearing loss on a range of high frequencies but not on the highest ones then it would work. Thanks! The video is excellent - as always!
Thank you Jon, for this well put together brief history of the development and advances in this field. After watching and thinking about my own hearing... I'd like to ask if some of this tech is being investigated for relief for those, like myself, suffering from varying degrees of tinnitus?... perhaps noise cancellation, or white noise, harmonic rendering or such.
Actually, yes. The manufacturer of my hearing aids also have made an app that has some potential for improving tinnitus which is almost invariably present with hearing loss. There's plenty of research that treating hearing loss directly benefits tinnitus symptoms, but results vary. As do results from the additional app.
Denmark used to be a major player with a number of manufacturers of hearing aids. It probably still is, but it is difficult to keep track of the many international acquisitions and consolidations. The Danish welfare system has a long tradition of providing support for aids to the hearing impaired. *GN Hearing* was founded in 1869 as *Det Store Nordiske Telegraf-Selskab* (Great Nordic Telegraph Company) , which early on was given the exclusive right to expand and operate telegraph lines in Russia, in exchange for the company connecting the telegraph network to China and Japan. The company continued to grow (skipping 2 world wars, the russian revolotion and post WW2 transition to wireless radio communication) with bud shoots in many directions in telecommunications, radio, electronics, etc. In the year 2000, the subsidiary GN Netcom acquired the French company Photonetics for $1.05 billion, with the expectation of becoming a leader in monitoring optical communication networks (DWDM systems).The investment failed completely, and GN's share was in free fall. The company then chose to concentrate on two core areas: GN Hearing (formerly GN ReSound), which manufactures hearing aids, and GN Audio (formerly GN Netcom), which manufactures headsets. *William Demant* (Oticon) founded in 1904, launched its first Oticon hearing aid in 1946. It was based on the Acousticon vacuum tubetechnology. *Widex* the world's first 100% digital in-the-ear hearing aid in 1995 is also danish. Those are 3 of “The Big Six” hearing aid companies (at least in 2016) : *Sonova* (Swiss) , *Sivantos* (Singapore), *Starkey Technologies* (USA), *William Demant* (Oticon), *GN Store Nord* (Resound) and *Widex* (Disclaimer that my information may be out of date or misunderstood. I have not worked closely with the industry.)
I'm excited for the opening of the hearing loss market to without-a-prescription options. I'm surprised there wasn't a louder push back from the doctors, though. Maybe they saw the end of that money printer and just rolling back onto actually having to research instead of cashing checks.
I wonder if there’s anything like modern hearing aids in reverse? Something that can muffle loud sounds without reducing the volume of soft ones or normal volume human speech? My hearing is a bit oversensitive, so loud sounds like being in a subway or especially loud movie theater really bother me, but earplugs just kind of muffle everything, and most of the ones I’ve tried are kind of uncomfortable. I’ve considered active noise canceling headphones, but that would mean I can’t hear much of anything, I think.
Try looking into active hearing protectors, I have several I use for shooting. Cut off sounds typically above 85dB and amplify sound below that. When waiting for deer I hear rustling better with them than without them…
Maybe try out Hearos High Fidelity ear plugs. They are rated at 12 dB noise reduction (they say "up to 20" but don't specify the frequency), reusable, washable, and almost forget you are wearing them comfortable. Of the ear plugs I have worn they introduce the least distortion. Things don't sound muffled, just quieter. I wear them at fireworks displays, any large noisy crowd events, fire alarm testing day in the building I live in, etc. I wouldn't wear them to a shooting range, but I have worn them all day at Champ/Indycar races (sitting by the pit exit where the drivers floor it). Put them in before I got to the gate in the morning, took them out when I left late afternoon. You know how when you've been in a loud environment for a while, then you leave and your ears just feel sort of... 'tired' for the rest of the day? Doesn't happen with these. I pop them out and everything is louder but within a few minutes it is like I was never at whatever loud place. If you take care of them (store them in their little airtight container when not in use) they will last at least a decade (I've had mine for 19 years now).
Thanks for covering this. I am near deaf on higher frequency sound. Recently, I bought a hearing aid, and I still find the cost prohibitive. Just saw at the end of your blog about Tympan open source hearing aid that might be cheaper. There might be a Cartel for the hearing aids industry as it is very expensive.
There's definitely a lot of consolidation in the industry, and key technologies have been subject to patent protections over time. Historically there has been a lot of regulatory gatekeeping that I think the current manufacturers have been taking undue advantage of, and hopefully the new availability of over-the-counter aids (in the US) starts to break that down somewhat. I think it's a fair question to ask any dispensing audiologist why they carry certain lines or if they have or get any benefits from meeting sales or unit targets. I worked in the industry for over a decade on the test and measurement side, and while I still marvel at the DSP and hybrid digital / analog designs that can run on a tiny zinc-air or rechargeable batteries, pushing people to purchase aids with four digit (US$) costs per ear vs older mature (and inexpensive) analog designs borders on criminal to me. I'm old enough to have presbyopia, and while I'm glad I can buy cheap reading glasses online or at the store, I still have an ophthalmologist who can perform a skilled vision test and write a prescription which may or may not be met by off-the-shelf readers. Hearing aids should be similar.
Apple could make the best hearing aids in the world if they dedicated resources. Really it’s mostly in the software. With AI, the sound could be better than anything on the market today.
I'm thinking a hearing aid is in my future - I can't hear cicadas according to people with me. I tell them I hear cicadas all the time. In the 60's and 70's we had Zenith products around the house - radios, stereo, I think a TV. We pronounced it Zee-nith.
15:43 - I am with you that the cost needs to come down, there is no logical reason to pay so much more for them. The vendors are shielded by the fact hearing aids are considered a medical device. The digital DSP block typically contains a lot of IP that prevents others from entering with similar features. Code-excited linear prediction (CELP) is known to be used to remove background noise. Medical tech is in desperate need of open source technology to drive down cost and increase access for all.
My parents bought me the Widex Tenso when I was in middle school. I hated it. Too noisy. My classroom was beside a busy street and I could hear engine noise, car tires and general ruckus over anyone trying to speak to me. It was too much of nuisance. For such an expensive product, I rarely used it if at all, but then again, I have single-sided hearing loss which makes noise isolation even more challenging and hearing aids even more useless. Today, in my 20s and worse hearing, I have ro use one, but tgey ridiculously expensive. Thank God we have bluetooth integration nowdays.
Bose makes a hearing aid that suspiciously looks like their Bluetooth glasses for about 250% of the price. Being a very satisfied user and advocate of the Bose Soprano glasses, I would be willing to give their hearing aid a shot if it was covered by my insurance.
in the future we're gonna have bioengineered ears, but it wont be as good as our ear at picking sound so they have to be bigger, it become necessary to stylize it as to not look like a grotesque mutation to the consumer. it looks so natural, and as good as our ears that the demand from the rich is high resulting in further research in manufacturing reducing the price further that electronic based hearing aid become obsolete that's how we get elf and catgirl
What is the difference between Airpods and hearing aids really has me thinking. If the stigmatization is so important why not just design hearing aids that look like headphones.
I believe Apple intends to introduce more hearing aid features to AirPods over time, I know they've been exploring that possibility. Would've potentially been worth covering that in the bit about AirPods at the end :)
Silicon shrank the hearing aid small Silicon shrank the hearing aid small In my ear and on the floor It's lost, too small, we've gone to faaaar. (Ooohaaaaaaaah, hearing aid smaaaaaaal)
Your broad topic range is definitely my favorite part about this channel. From the economics of countries to genetic cloning to the hearing aid. Great work.
I agree, plus his great research he does to tell these stories.
One of the areas of technology that gets far less attention than it deserves.
Thanks for covering it.
How did you comment on this 2 months before it was posted?
@@stevenjacobs2750 He could possibly be a Patreon supporter of Asianometry channel, and gets earlier access to the videos there, before they're uploaded to TH-cam or other platforms.
Yes, I am a Patreon supporter.
Feels like we barely hear any news about it
15:38 I was shocked to hear how expensive my grandma's hearing aid was, considering it's basically the same as a set of 50 bucks bluetooth headphones.
Side note: in the 20ies/30ies US, the need to shrink hearing aids lead to the development of miniature vacuum tubes. These miniature vacuum tubes proved extremely valuable during WWII for their application in proximity fuze. Quite funny to think hearing aids were key to the development of an high tech (at the time) military technology. It also demonstrates what is gained from a diverse economy, i.e the ability to combine technology and know-how across multiple fields.
Thank you for covering this topic! Most people don't really ever have to think about hearing aids until they're older, if at all. My dad has worn hearing aids since he was two or three (c. 1969). Just the changes since they went digital when I was a kid in the early 2000s are amazing, let alone the advances he's seen in nearly sixty years of daily wear.
Yeah, which is in part why I did the video.
It's crazy how excited this channel has gotten me about hearing aids - and my hearing is fine!!
12:24 Nice to see recognition of Nicolet's efforts, which fell short yet arguably were ahead of their time! (Pronounced "nick-o-lay," after a French explorer.) The parent company also pioneered digital oscilloscopes, under the direction of inventor Bob Schumann in Madison WI. 😎✌️
Hearing aid companies have bought up audio companies like Sonova buying Sennheiser and Demant buying EPOS. Medical device company Masimo also bought a handful of audio brands.
The content of your videos is so varied and good, makes me excited every time I see you’ve dropped a new video ❤
Got here because of the 2023 recap video! Can't believe I missed it! Technology and History, although seemingly distinct concepts, are a powerful combination. Thank you so much for your work, sir, and keep it up!
All the best from Brazil!
I'm looking forward to more transcription glasses: smart-glasses that offer subtitles for real life. The Activelook Engo 2 is inconspicuous, and OpenAI's Whisper delivers world class transcription without sending personal conversations to the cloud.
I knew someone who carried a painted tobacco tin in his shirt pocket with a wire from it going up to his ear. He said didn't need a REAL hearing aid because everyone who saw what he had in his shirt pocket automatically shouted when they see it
Man, I remember what it was like as a kid watching hearing aid commercials in the 80s by a specialist called Ray Gauntlet. The tech was cumbersome looking but got the job done.
Nowadays, it's hard to believe how far along things have gotten. Definitely much like the evolution of mobile phones.
I think a quirk about TI getting into silicon was that they were making silicon based gravitometers. They knew how to play with silicon and the idea crossed their experience and manufacturing base.
Another topic I didn't expect but that got me hooked all the way through.
I had to get hearing aids due to a TBI where I have real trouble processing the audio (among other things) & it opened up the world for me to hear other people's speech around me. Amazing how it can filter background noise as well as it does with the DSP on board.
TBIs really change the way we live…
I use a low cost, blue tooth, headset for watching TV. It helps separate out the back ground sounds that were easier to accomplish before the TBI. (A decade of recovery also helps)
Thanks for sharing your experience…. 😃
I was looking at my feed today, and realized that your videos always get my serious and sober attention.
I haven't even finished watching and I'm loving this topic. As always very well made
Every single one of your videos is super unique although always very interesting. By far one of my favorite channels on TH-cam. Keep it up!
Love your style asianometry. Great storytelling of these complex topics that also includes the research youve done to show how one technology went from point a to b
Great content as always.
Excellent video report. Many thanks!
This was a good video... Since i was a kid in the mid 90's i always thought in ear hearing aids were a marvel.
My grandfathers would get feedback in his every once in a while and i couldnt believe that tiny thing could be so loud.
I wore a hearing aid as far back as 1976. Even then, hearing aids were tiny. It was just a small rounded device that fit over the ear with a custom molded rubber piece that goes in your ear with a plastic tube that runs from hearing aid over the ear to the rubber piece.
Before the transistor hearing aids they also used micro electron tubes which where thick as a pen and soldered direct in the circuit instead of sockets. The cigarette box sized aid had an 22V and a 1,5 V battery for the filament of the tubes. Unfortunately I sold mine historically Braun aid on ebay, anyway I know what was inside.
The jump from transistors to relatively complicated integrated circuits at around 8:55 is quite steep. I'not sure about other manufacturers, but Philips released a simple hearing aid IC with an equivalent circuit of 3 transistors and a handful of resistors in the first half of the 1960's, the OM200. Also, before that they had some very reliable miniaturised germanium transistors, sizewise similar to SMD but with tiny wires sticking out of one end, proving that could be done as well.
John is an absolute master of the "interesting niche topic" game. It's worth noting that much of the early research into DSP and psychoacoustic processing techniques was foundational work for later consumer technologies such as audio compression algorithms. I'm sure much of that early research remained proprietary information for long time, but the increase in broad understanding of how our brains perceive sound and how we can beneficially manipulate audio signals to take advantage of certain biological quirks was absolutely essential for a bunch of tech that we take for granted today. Anything Aerospace related, consumer electronics and mobile devices, high-speed data/comms systems, industrial control and instrumentation, precision measurement tools, new media and preservation of old media, video games and VR/AR... Miniaturisation and DSP techniques are essential for all of it and much more.
You have great research abilities! Very interesting video.
Raytheon, from making transistors that makes hearing aids smaller to making missiles that can shatter your eardrums thus necessitating the need for hearing aid....
Great video as usual. It is of course completely true that early Raytheon transistors had reliability issues (7:12).
But this is a problem with poor encapsulation and maybe other aspects of technology, and less with the germanium itself.
Silicon does have many advantageous properties, but with improved technology, germanium transistors continued to be used, especially outside of the USA, for a very, very long time. Their reliability was good enough to allow their use even in computers. One of the best indigenous Soviet computers, BESM-6 used 60000 germanium transistors and 170000 germanium diodes. It worked quite well and was manufactured from 1968 all the way to 1987.
my mom's hearing aid does beamforming - and it's not the most sophisticated model. It costed 2,000USD. Sen. Elizabeth Warren did manage to get the devices to be sold on drugstores in the US for prices lower than 300USD, though. I don't know much about the legislation she proposed and manage to get support from both parties to approve it. The way she got that support is really interesting!
EDIT: Sen. Warren's legislation is mentioned at the end.
Excellent, as always! Thank you!
4:00 For some unexplainable reason I'm not surprised by your affinity for that Superman Mario moustache whatsoever.
Weird how some hearing aids were not Over The Counter (OTC products for years. Glad anyone can get them.
Perhaps next tech video can be about how DJs and musicians use hearing aids?
A quick history on the hearing aid wasn’t on my radar but I enjoyed it.
00:02 Evolution of Hearing Aids from Hand Reflectors to Electronic Devices
02:05 Introduction of Electric Current Amplification and Separate Components
03:44 Working Principles and Components of Modern Hearing Aids
07:03 Transition from Vacuum Tubes to Transistors for Miniaturization
08:51 Integration of Circuits and Introduction of Digital Audio Processing
12:06 Introduction of digital hearing aids and companies in the market.
13:24 Hearing aid market dependent on technology innovations from other industries.
Another superb video! 👏👏👏 Im a hearing aid user and im certain that this technology will soon benefit everyone. In the near future, as both the hardware and software develop, hearing aid features will trickle down to regular headphones, offering everyone the opportunity to choose the WAY they hear. Modern hearing aids have upwards of 40 channels sampling sounds at any time, allowing more precise control over audio enhancement and reduction (just dont blow a gentle breeze at them though or they wil freak out, some improvements may still need to be necessary 😅), but by sampling the audo like this, and breaking it down, you can be VERY specific about what the end user actualy hears, and this will allow you to things such as improve safety in noisy areas with improved noise cancellation and speach focus (no more straining to hear anyone), reduce office background chatter (no more straining to NOT hear anyone!) or choose hyper directional sound focus so you can only hear whats happening in one direction (creeps!) the same tech will also improve call quality removing background noise more effectively, and audio collection and processing in the entertainment industry. The recent developments in ditial hearing aids have been huge, but software advancements and the use of AI to leverage the hardware are what i think are really going to make it an industry worth watch in in the next 10 years. Wait until premuim airpods have a function to make it easier than ever to either eavesdrop at huge distance, or ignore everyone at close distance, super hearing for a premium price, will soon be an offering... but bulkier units will no doubt be in service in military and policing applications sooner. Ever since I first popped in my hearing aids, I've thought the biggest flaw in current movies depicting future people is how they dont all have massively improved heaing due to personal digital audio enhancement devices, or whatever they'll market them as! 😂
wow. thanks for covering it.
Hey, nice video as always. It would be great if you can cover the latest room temperature superconductor topic. I'm sure everyone is going to love it.
Thankyou for making awesome videos!!
Very good research. Well done.
You completely glossed over the cochlear implant! Cochlear implants were the absolute revolution in the world of hearing aids. In my country - Belgium - the cochlear implant had such a tremendous effect on enrollment of Catholic schools for the deaf, that said schools actively went looking for a new audience they could shoehorn into their existing schools. The shoehorn was classifying autism as a "mild contact disorder" and hey presto: all special education schools for autistic people with average to high intelligence in Belgium (in Flanders at least) are now or used to be mixed with deaf pupils.
The cochlear implant is also a divisive topic in the D/deaf community, as there are D/deaf people who view their deafness as an integral part of their identity. A cochlear implant works so well, that many people who were born with a hearing impairment never even learn sign language. And there are D/deaf parents who do not consent to their children receiving a cochlear implant, as the ability to hear can be a great detriment to learning and remaining fluent in sign language. D/deaf culture and the secluded nature of this community is quite fascinating.
(Ryan's voice)
14:50 "Chip-in-flex is tight !"
Fascinating. Thank you.
Another great video as well. Greetings from Brazil.
Apple AirPod Bluetooth wireless earphone/earbud already has "hearing aid" capability, as their customer getting older and needs hearing aid. AirPod can amplify music and cancel the ambient background noise, why not amplify voice? It is called "Live Listen" feature. It needs some setup on iPhone. It may not be as effective as dedicated hearing aid device for the deaf. But good enough for compensating mild hearing loss due to old age and way cheaper than dedicated hearing aids.
Next stage seems to be MEMS based mic and speaker. Possibly shrinking the entire thing into a single silicon.
In fact, much of the technology used to shrink the size of hearing aids went into the modern wireless earbud headphones of today. The digital signal processing technology we saw in hearing aids since the 1990's is why the Apple AirPods sound so good for such a tiny device.
Would like to see a video on headphones or iems and their technologies one day!
Everyone should own a good set of earplugs and a good set of earmuffs. Wear them whenever you are somewhere or doing something that is loud. Don't wait for "ow this is really loud", put in/on your hearing protection well before you get to that point. Don't think "this will only be noisy for a couple of minutes", put on those ear muffs for a couple of minutes. Mowing the lawn? Hearing protection. Driving a tractor? Hearing protection. Just making a few quick cuts with the table saw? Hearing protection. Going to see an action movie? Hearing protection. Noisy bar? Hearing protection. (Seriously, why do they make the music so loud people have trouble talking?)
You get one set of ears in your life. Every bit of hearing that you lose is gone forever. Our vision might connect us to the world, but it is our hearing that connects us to each other.
PS. If you are listening to music via earbuds but whereever you are is loud enough that you feel the need to turn up the volume, DON'T. That is your queue to _turn off_ the music. Or convince everyone/everything around you to be quieter, whichever is easier.
I wonder if the latest ones have some noise filtering, like the mic in the AirPods. I was thinking about buying one for my grandpa, who has hearing problems, but just wouldn't get a pair for himself, after he broke the first set.
By the way, I would be interested in those water engineering videos you mentioned in the Dr. Cutress interview, if you have already recorded them. Maybe you could make a second channel to avoid tanking your main channel stats in case it doesn't get as many views?
The hearing aid’s I wear feature a processing algorithm that analyzes the soundscape to reduce background noise and boost voices. Makes it easier to follow conversation in noisy environments.
Great channel thanks
AT&S make a high percentage of the worlds hearing aids with amazing build density. Fascinating coverage of an overlooked technology.
This is a well-done video on the history of a device that even I as a computer scientist, electronics hobbyist and hearing aid user didn’t know much about in terms of the miniaturization techniques used in today’s hearing aids. The chip on flex and the multilayer technology caught me by surprise. Naturally I’m not going to take apart my own hearing aids and the information is sparse given a lot is super proprietary so seeing a similar model with a breakaway pictorial display was amazingly helpful.
As someone with hearing aids, thank you for the video! It is very interesting to know the history of them!
I can't help but hear the title of this video to the tune of "Video killed the radio star"
One of the the large hearing aids was mistaken for a cellphone by recent viewers leading to rumors of a time traveller.
Can you do an episode about data furnaces? Great channel. Thank you.
I'd really like if you cited your sources in the description of these videos. I enjoy them, but it's a bit harder to fact check when I don't know exactly what sources were user, so I still take these video with a few more grains of salt than other channels. The mostly empty video descriptions make them feel less trustworthy, idk.
Last June I was lucky enough to purchase a Tesla Y and my first set of hearing aids. The hearing aids have made me smile more than the Tesla.
Some sinister things I've noticed about deaf aids , it's they never have in their instructions the warning sentence: "high volume setting risk of hearing damage" Every single person I know using one has hearing loss
Very interesting. I’m 56 and I’m losing my hearing, as did my father and grandfather. My Dad has an acoustic neuroma, so it’s really bad for him. My grandfather never used his hearing aids, so he didn’t have to listen to my grandmother all day!
Interestingly in 1957 all were fit in glasses but then again separate box with long cable in 60s.
How the hearing aid shrank silicone 😅
Amazing video, as always
Are you sure transposing the speech to a lower range works? AFAIK, the problem with loss of high frequencies is the loss of consonant sounds that require the high frequencies from the bursts (or step functions). In the case of hearing loss on a range of high frequencies but not on the highest ones then it would work. Thanks! The video is excellent - as always!
Thank you Jon, for this well put together brief history of the development and advances in this field.
After watching and thinking about my own hearing... I'd like to ask if some of this tech is being investigated for relief for those, like myself, suffering from varying degrees of tinnitus?... perhaps noise cancellation, or white noise, harmonic rendering or such.
Actually, yes. The manufacturer of my hearing aids also have made an app that has some potential for improving tinnitus which is almost invariably present with hearing loss. There's plenty of research that treating hearing loss directly benefits tinnitus symptoms, but results vary. As do results from the additional app.
Denmark used to be a major player with a number of manufacturers of hearing aids. It probably still is, but it is difficult to keep track of the many international acquisitions and consolidations.
The Danish welfare system has a long tradition of providing support for aids to the hearing impaired.
*GN Hearing* was founded in 1869 as *Det Store Nordiske Telegraf-Selskab* (Great Nordic Telegraph Company) , which early on was given the exclusive right to expand and operate telegraph lines in Russia, in exchange for the company connecting the telegraph network to China and Japan. The company continued to grow (skipping 2 world wars, the russian revolotion and post WW2 transition to wireless radio communication) with bud shoots in many directions in telecommunications, radio, electronics, etc. In the year 2000, the subsidiary GN Netcom acquired the French company Photonetics for $1.05 billion, with the expectation of becoming a leader in monitoring optical communication networks (DWDM systems).The investment failed completely, and GN's share was in free fall. The company then chose to concentrate on two core areas: GN Hearing (formerly GN ReSound), which manufactures hearing aids, and GN Audio (formerly GN Netcom), which manufactures headsets.
*William Demant* (Oticon) founded in 1904, launched its first Oticon hearing aid in 1946. It was based on the Acousticon vacuum tubetechnology.
*Widex* the world's first 100% digital in-the-ear hearing aid in 1995 is also danish.
Those are 3 of “The Big Six” hearing aid companies (at least in 2016) : *Sonova* (Swiss) , *Sivantos* (Singapore), *Starkey Technologies* (USA), *William Demant* (Oticon), *GN Store Nord* (Resound) and *Widex*
(Disclaimer that my information may be out of date or misunderstood. I have not worked closely with the industry.)
I'm excited for the opening of the hearing loss market to without-a-prescription options. I'm surprised there wasn't a louder push back from the doctors, though. Maybe they saw the end of that money printer and just rolling back onto actually having to research instead of cashing checks.
Amazing.. I'm fascinated by hearing aids. Please make a video about Cochlear (both the technology and the company itself). Thanks
I wonder if there’s anything like modern hearing aids in reverse? Something that can muffle loud sounds without reducing the volume of soft ones or normal volume human speech? My hearing is a bit oversensitive, so loud sounds like being in a subway or especially loud movie theater really bother me, but earplugs just kind of muffle everything, and most of the ones I’ve tried are kind of uncomfortable. I’ve considered active noise canceling headphones, but that would mean I can’t hear much of anything, I think.
Noise cancellation earphones could help. They have the advantage of directional sensitivity.
Try looking into active hearing protectors, I have several I use for shooting. Cut off sounds typically above 85dB and amplify sound below that. When waiting for deer I hear rustling better with them than without them…
Maybe try out Hearos High Fidelity ear plugs. They are rated at 12 dB noise reduction (they say "up to 20" but don't specify the frequency), reusable, washable, and almost forget you are wearing them comfortable. Of the ear plugs I have worn they introduce the least distortion. Things don't sound muffled, just quieter. I wear them at fireworks displays, any large noisy crowd events, fire alarm testing day in the building I live in, etc. I wouldn't wear them to a shooting range, but I have worn them all day at Champ/Indycar races (sitting by the pit exit where the drivers floor it). Put them in before I got to the gate in the morning, took them out when I left late afternoon. You know how when you've been in a loud environment for a while, then you leave and your ears just feel sort of... 'tired' for the rest of the day? Doesn't happen with these. I pop them out and everything is louder but within a few minutes it is like I was never at whatever loud place. If you take care of them (store them in their little airtight container when not in use) they will last at least a decade (I've had mine for 19 years now).
apparently there is a handful of foss projects like Tympans
Thank you for sharing . lot of history
The image shown at 9:20 doesn't show analog signals. It shows how digital signals are very resistant to noise.
Thanks for covering this. I am near deaf on higher frequency sound. Recently, I bought a hearing aid, and I still find the cost prohibitive. Just saw at the end of your blog about Tympan open source hearing aid that might be cheaper.
There might be a Cartel for the hearing aids industry as it is very expensive.
There's definitely a lot of consolidation in the industry, and key technologies have been subject to patent protections over time. Historically there has been a lot of regulatory gatekeeping that I think the current manufacturers have been taking undue advantage of, and hopefully the new availability of over-the-counter aids (in the US) starts to break that down somewhat. I think it's a fair question to ask any dispensing audiologist why they carry certain lines or if they have or get any benefits from meeting sales or unit targets.
I worked in the industry for over a decade on the test and measurement side, and while I still marvel at the DSP and hybrid digital / analog designs that can run on a tiny zinc-air or rechargeable batteries, pushing people to purchase aids with four digit (US$) costs per ear vs older mature (and inexpensive) analog designs borders on criminal to me.
I'm old enough to have presbyopia, and while I'm glad I can buy cheap reading glasses online or at the store, I still have an ophthalmologist who can perform a skilled vision test and write a prescription which may or may not be met by off-the-shelf readers. Hearing aids should be similar.
Important stuff. Better hearing aids is one of the undeniably good things the tech industry has produced.
09:38 I love the talking woman haha
Interesting video
Ever considered making a video on Nanoimprint lithography?
Apple could make the best hearing aids in the world if they dedicated resources. Really it’s mostly in the software. With AI, the sound could be better than anything on the market today.
I'm thinking a hearing aid is in my future - I can't hear cicadas according to people with me. I tell them I hear cicadas all the time.
In the 60's and 70's we had Zenith products around the house - radios, stereo, I think a TV. We pronounced it Zee-nith.
I believe A G Bell invented the phone as a byproduct of trying to improve matters for deaf people.
I don't think it will have any application to ICs but quantum computers will be heavily influenced by superconductor advancements.
Always wanted to know how it works. I got one, but it's too expensive to break open :D
15:43 - I am with you that the cost needs to come down, there is no logical reason to pay so much more for them. The vendors are shielded by the fact hearing aids are considered a medical device. The digital DSP block typically contains a lot of IP that prevents others from entering with similar features. Code-excited linear prediction (CELP) is known to be used to remove background noise.
Medical tech is in desperate need of open source technology to drive down cost and increase access for all.
With all the DSP available…. Where is Dolby now? 😃
The brand name Zenith was pronounced (ZEE-nith)
11:13 chonk lol 🐰
My parents bought me the Widex Tenso when I was in middle school. I hated it. Too noisy. My classroom was beside a busy street and I could hear engine noise, car tires and general ruckus over anyone trying to speak to me. It was too much of nuisance.
For such an expensive product, I rarely used it if at all, but then again, I have single-sided hearing loss which makes noise isolation even more challenging and hearing aids even more useless.
Today, in my 20s and worse hearing, I have ro use one, but tgey ridiculously expensive. Thank God we have bluetooth integration nowdays.
Bose makes a hearing aid that suspiciously looks like their Bluetooth glasses for about 250% of the price. Being a very satisfied user and advocate of the Bose Soprano glasses, I would be willing to give their hearing aid a shot if it was covered by my insurance.
in the future we're gonna have bioengineered ears, but it wont be as good as our ear at picking sound so they have to be bigger, it become necessary to stylize it as to not look like a grotesque mutation to the consumer.
it looks so natural, and as good as our ears that the demand from the rich is high resulting in further research in manufacturing reducing the price further that electronic based hearing aid become obsolete
that's how we get elf and catgirl
What a transformative technology for society!
What's that on your table?
Oh that's just my box camera.
Uhm, why are the headphones you are wearing plugged into it?
NO MORE QUESTIONS!!
We all owe a lot to hearing aid technology it seems.
Got here from this year's summary
Sir HOW DO YOU RECORD YOUR NARRATION AND PROCESS YOUR AUDIO. THAN YOU.
There's a mistake, Antonio Meucci invented the Telephone NOT Alexander Graham Bell!
Why did I think hearing aids would be dull? This is a hard and common problem.
Didn't shrink the price though
A side line to cochlea implants would have been current technology.
What is the difference between Airpods and hearing aids really has me thinking. If the stigmatization is so important why not just design hearing aids that look like headphones.
Some modern in ear hearing aids look just like (even better in some cases) than air pods!
Reliability, repairable factors, software and fitting algorithms, placement of the microphone, and amplifying power. To just name a few.
I believe Apple intends to introduce more hearing aid features to AirPods over time, I know they've been exploring that possibility. Would've potentially been worth covering that in the bit about AirPods at the end :)
Silicon shrank the hearing aid small
Silicon shrank the hearing aid small
In my ear and on the floor
It's lost, too small, we've gone to faaaar.
(Ooohaaaaaaaah, hearing aid smaaaaaaal)