Signature - Q2, 2008 - (Page 26)

Bluetooth Technology @ Heart | Q2 ’08 Balance of Power “The key is getting power requirements low enough so you can fit all the technology into the hearing aid. Bluetooth seems to be the wireless standard that will unite all of this.” – Paul Dybala, audiologyonline.com Although it’s clear that Bluetooth technology can help transform the hearing aid industry, more must be done before the hearing-impaired population can experience wide-scale benefits. Power requirements present a challenge. Hearing aids must do a lot with a limited amount of battery drain while performing complex tasks like real-time noise reduction, directional sound identification, automatic feedback cancellation and customized frequency amplification. Current Bluetooth technology simply requires too much battery power to integrate with what the hearing aid must do, notes Dr. Paul Dybala, president and editor of audiologyonline.com, an information resource for the hearing impaired. In most cases today, an external gateway device (like the Oticon Streamer or Phonak’s SmartLink) uses a low-power wireless protocol to talk to the hearing aid. The gateway device then uses Bluetooth wireless technology to connect with other devices, such as cell phones. Because these gateway devices are relatively large, they can have larger batteries. But that has to change if Bluetooth technology is going to revolutionize hearing aids. “The key is getting the power requirements low enough so you can fit all of the technology into the hearing aid itself,” Dybala says. “Bluetooth seems to be the wireless standard that will unite all of this. The low-power requirements of hearing aids eventually will be met and hearing aids will be able to take advantage of the universality of Bluetooth to help people communicate more effectively through audio devices.” The advent of ultra low power Bluetooth technology appears to be the answer to battery drain. And, given the rate at which technology advances, it may not be long before a Bluetooth wireless radio inside a hearing aid will eliminate the need for additional accessories. It will also allow direct communication between computers and certain types of programmable hearing aids. At a recent major European hearing aid convention, for example, a wireless programming device manufactured by Starkey was announced. It still requires an external relay but uses no wires. “Bluetooth devices for hard-of-hearing people are in an early stage of development, and they are encountering some of the issues that typically occur early in a technology adoption cycle,” says Starkey Labs’ Jerry Yanz. “They may not be quite as easy to use or quite as small or streamlined as many potential users might wish, but coming developments are likely to change this.” As Bluetooth wireless radios become ever smaller and demand less power, one day they will be completely contained inside a hearing aid, Yanz predicts. “Then there will be no need for an external device, either attached to the hearing aid or worn around the neck. At that point the full potential of Bluetooth for hard-of-hearing people will be realized,” he says. Karen D. Schwartz writes about business and technology for publications such as CIO, InfoWeek, and Business 2.0. She’s based in Washington, D.C. 26 | SIGnature | Bluetooth.org http://audiologyonline.com http://www.bluetooth.org

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