{"id":4508,"date":"2013-09-25T22:56:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-25T22:56:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/everhear.wpengine.com\/?p=4508"},"modified":"2013-09-25T22:56:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-25T22:56:11","slug":"listen-up-smarter-technology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/listen-up-smarter-technology\/","title":{"rendered":"Listen Up &#8211; Smarter Technology"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>\t\t\t\tLast April, NPR featured an <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/health\/2013\/04\/08\/176225511\/listen-up-to-smarter-smaller-hearing-aids\">article<\/a> about listening up with smarter technology, discovering the new world of digital hearing aids, and how the technology has helped one man be a part of his world again.<\/p>\n<p>In the article they speak with composer\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.richardeinhorn.com\/\">Richard Einhorn<\/a>\u00a0about the way speech sounds to people who are deaf or who have a hearing loss. Enihorn reports that\u00a0&#8220;Speech sounds like the worst science-fiction robot screaming in your ear,&#8221; he says. &#8220;It&#8217;s a shrieking, horrible, hideous metallic sound.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In order to help others understand what hearing loss sounds like, he has created his own audio demos.<\/p>\n<p>First, listen to Einhorn reading an early 19th-century quote from Ludwig van Beethoven, bemoaning his own increasing deafness.<\/p>\n<div id=\"res176342117\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F85923758&amp;color=ff6600&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>Next, listen to the way Einhorn&#8217;s hyperacusis distorts the same quote.<\/p>\n<div id=\"res176342439\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/w.soundcloud.com\/player\/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fapi.soundcloud.com%2Ftracks%2F85923740&amp;color=ff6600&amp;auto_play=false&amp;show_artwork=false\" height=\"166\" width=\"100%\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p>In order to help the significant loss the Einhorn developed in his left ear he\u00a0bought a top-of-the-line digital hearing aid. His biggest fear was that he wasn&#8217;t going to be able to continue to work and to continue with his passion of music. Einhorn also purchased devices that help him hear what he&#8217;s composing, talk on the phone, listen to live music, and carry on conversations in noisy restaurants.\u00a0The solutions aren&#8217;t perfect, Einhorn says. But they&#8217;re pretty good. &#8220;I compose every day. I see my friends. I go to movies. I go to concerts. I do everything,&#8221; he says.<\/p>\n<p>All that would have been a lot harder if Einhorn had lost his hearing just a couple of decades ago. Back then, most hearing aids were still analog devices with severe limitations. But in the digital age, hearing aids and so-called assistive listening devices have become smaller, smarter and much more powerful.<\/p>\n<p>Not anymore. Digital sound processing also has cut down on the annoying squawks caused by feedback. And modern hearing aids are programmed to amplify only those sound frequencies a person has trouble hearing.<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire article to learn more about the history of digital hearing aids <a href=\"http:\/\/www.npr.org\/blogs\/health\/2013\/04\/08\/176225511\/listen-up-to-smarter-smaller-hearing-aids\">here<\/a>.\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Last April, NPR featured an article about listening up with smarter technology, discovering the new world of digital hearing aids, and how the technology has helped one man be a part of his world again. In the article they speak with composer\u00a0Richard Einhorn\u00a0about the way speech sounds to people who are deaf or who have&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"Listen Up - Smarter Technology","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","schema":"","fname":"","lname":"","position":"","credentials":"","placeID":"","no_match":false,"name":"","company":"","review":"","address":"","city":"","state":"","zip":"","lat":"","lng":"","phone1":"","phone2":"","fax":"","mon1":"","mon2":"","tue1":"","tue2":"","wed1":"","wed2":"","thu1":"","thu2":"","fri1":"","fri2":"","sat1":"","sat2":"","sun1":"","sun2":"","hours-note":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1047,12,588,134],"class_list":["post-4508","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-hearing","tag-digital-hearing-aids","tag-hearing","tag-npr","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4508"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4508\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4508"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4508"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everhear.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4508"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}