Today\u2019s hearing aids are far from the ones your granddad wore in the 1960s. And they\u2019re certainly nothing like the imaginative hearing solutions of the early 20th century.<\/strong><\/p>\n How did we go from hearing trumpets to small, advanced devices?<\/p>\n The hearing trumpet was the first real hearing device. It was invented in the 17th century, and it looked just like you imagine it would, like a trumpet. But back then there was no amplification or refining of the sound, and the hearing trumpet couldn\u2019t do a whole lot more than collect the sound and bring it into the ear.<\/p>\n In the 19th century, the hearing trumpet was rethought. Now the design was adorned with intricate engravings, paint and repouss\u00e9 work to make it more appealing and to help conceal the hearing loss.<\/p>\n The beautiful acoustic headbands called Aurolese Phones were very popular. But there was also the Acoustic Fan, the Audiophone, the Dentaphone, Acoustic Chairs and even the Beard Receptacle. All were made to help those with hearing loss hear better \u2013 and to some extent disguise the device that helped them do so.<\/p>\n At the time, hearing loss was inaccurately associated with other disabilities, and that created a huge stigma for those with hearing loss. That\u2019s why a hearing solution that attempted to conceal the otherwise not-so-discreet hearing device was an attractive option.<\/p>\n In 1876, the telephone was invented. Now you could get an electronically transmitted sound signal from somewhere else. It took a few years, but before the turn of the century the first electronic hearing aid, the Akouphone, was invented in 1898. Sound could now be amplified using electric current.<\/p>\n The Akouphone consisted of a separate microphone, an amplifier, headphones and a big, bulky battery that only lasted for a couple of hours at a time. Unfortunately, this made it very difficult to use. The device was also expensive, so only few people could afford an Akouphone.<\/p>\n In the first part of the 20th century, hearing aids became much smaller. Still, you had to wear the amplifier and the batteries around the neck and the microphone was hand-held. So whoever spoke to you could speak directly into the hand-held microphone \u2013 much like how a reporter would use a microphone today.<\/p>\n At this point, the microphone\u2019s size corresponded to the person\u2019s hearing loss. So if your hearing loss was severe, you\u2019d have to carry around a pretty large microphone.<\/p>\n The next big revolution in hearing aids came in the middle of the 20th century, shortly after the transistor radio was invented. It didn\u2019t take long before hearing aids could be worn above or behind the ear and were a lot easier to take with you. Now hearing aids started to look like the hearing aids we use today, and from the 1960s you could even get hearing aids that sat inside the ear canal.<\/p>\n Until the 1980s, hearing aid technology was analogue. But then things went digital, and hearing aids could now convert an analogue signal, process it digitally, and then send an analogue signal to the user\u2019s ear.<\/p>\n Digitalizing hearing aids made a huge difference for people with hearing loss. The small programmable computer inside the hearing aid could amplify millions of different sound signals very precisely and improve the sound significantly compared to the analogue hearing aid.<\/p>\n In this century, hearing aids are smarter than ever, and many of them can also connect to the internet. What that means is they can use the internet to communicate with your smartphone, your phone or your TV, so you can listen to music, take calls and hear the TV directly into your hearing aid \u2013 sometimes using an\u00a0<\/span>assistive listening device<\/a>.<\/p>\n Some hearing aids are so smart that they can predict how you want to hear in a situation, based on your previous hearing aid adjustments. And with the Internet of Things (IoT), your connected hearing aids are even able to communicate with your coffee machine or the lighting in your house.<\/p>\n Even though hearing aids can be super small and discreet, today\u2019s hearing aids are powerful little computers. They process sound automatically to give you the best sound wherever you are, adapting to the environment as you move around. They know when you want to hear speech and when you don\u2019t. Some hearing aids even let you\u00a0<\/span>tailor your hearing<\/a>\u00a0further through apps on your phone.<\/p>\n Hearing aids have come a long way since the hearing trumpet. From simply transporting sound in the 17th century, today\u2019s hearing aids can make millions of calculations to deliver the best listening experience for the wearer. They make a substantial difference to people with hearing loss, and come in many different models, colors and sizes. There are a lot of options out there \u2013 and there\u2019s a hearing aid for you too.<\/p>\n References<\/strong><\/p>\n www.hear-it.org THE HISTORY OF HEARING AIDS \u2013 FROM THE HEARING TRUMPET TO THE TINY DEVICE BEHIND THE EAR Today\u2019s hearing aids are far from the ones your granddad wore in the 1960s. And they\u2019re certainly nothing like the imaginative hearing solutions of the early 20th century. How did we go from hearing trumpets to small, advanced […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2887,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2885","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hearing-aids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2885"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2885\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2885"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2885"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nonahdesigns.com\/staging\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2885"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}The 17th century: Hello hearing trumpet<\/h2>\n
<\/span>The 19th century: Concealing the trumpet<\/h2>\n
1898: Enter the electronic hearing aid<\/h2>\n
1900s: Electronic hearing aids become smaller (but still not so handy)<\/h2>\n
1950s: The transistor radio makes hearing aids easy to wear<\/h2>\n
1990s: Hearing aids go digital (and smaller again)<\/h2>\n
Today: Complete connectivity in discreet designs<\/h2>\n
\n<\/a>www.decibelhearing.com
\n<\/a>www.beckerexhibits.wustl.edu
\n<\/a>www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
\n<\/a>www.modernhearing.net\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"