How do Hearing Aids work? Explained!
Hey friends, Happy New Year!
Answer to the question I posed last week
Last week, I asked about the principle of an Air humidifier and how it works. Air humidifiers add moisture to the air and are used when we have dry air in our rooms. There are many types of humidifiers like as evaporative, ultrasonic, warm mist, etc. But the most common one is a cool mist humidifier. Cool mist humidifiers work by using a fan to blow air over a wet wick, filter, or evaporative pad. This causes the water to evaporate into the air, increasing the humidity in the room.
This week, we’ll discuss how Hearing aids work. This is not part of the blog series, but more of a bonus if I can call it, like last week.
I aim to write my newsletter issues in a way one can follow them while traveling on a bus, having a coffee, waiting for food, etc. Let’s jump in!
How do hearing aids work?
Hearing aids are primarily useful in improving the hearing and speech comprehension of people who have hearing loss that results from damage to the small sensory cells in the inner ear, called hair cells. This type of hearing loss is called sensorineural hearing loss. These devices can help you hear better but cannot restore normal hearing.
Components: A hearing aid primarily has a microphone, amplifier, speaker, and battery. Several hearing aid models can be used as Bluetooth headphones, thereby connecting phone calls when picked up.
Source: Hearing Choices
Working mechanism:
The hearing aid receives sound from the environment through a microphone, which converts the sound waves to electrical signals.
These electrical signals are sent to the computer chip with an amplifier which increases the power of the signals (volume). It adjusts the sounds based on hearing loss and the level of sounds around you, amplifying the specific kind of sounds one cannot hear clearly. For example, if a person can hear someone speak but is having difficulty understanding the words, it could be related to high-frequency hearing loss. A well-tuned hearing aid boosts up just the high-frequency sounds in this case for the listener to have a better hearing experience.
After which, these are sent to the receiver/speaker which converts these amplified electrical signals back to sound and is played through the earmold placed in the ears.
If the speaker is not fully inserted into the ear, the sound from the speaker can be picked up by the microphone again forming an endless cycle, to cause a whistling noise called feedback. Also, the sensation that causes the user’s own voice to sound louder inside the head is called the occlusion effect. It is common when someone newly adopts the device.
Note: Hearing Amplifiers are different from Hearing aids. The former can be used by anyone to amplify their hearing while hunting, bird watching, etc.
Question of the week
Nothing related to gadgets this week :)
On January 1st, I visited a park near my place and watched the documentary Elephant Whisperers on Netflix with a few of my friends. How did you spend your new year? You can reply to this email, would love to hear from you.
Gadget of the week
Productivity: In case you’re overspending your time on social media platforms, when you actually don’t want to, it is not your fault! These apps are designed in such a way to make you spend more time. I use the chrome extension Leechblock on my desktop where I can set the time slots during the day when I don’t want to use the websites, like say Instagram after 10 pm. Then, when you try to access Instagram, Leechblock will prevent you from accessing it. Similarly, I use the Stay Focused app on my phone to block Apps and Websites. So if you’d like to be more productive in 2023, you can try these out. (They aren’t sponsoring, just sharing what worked for me). Wishing you a Happy and productive New Year 2023 !
Blog posts
My blog post-S1E12 is coming out next week, I’m spending more time on the last 2 episodes (Ep 12 and 13) of Season 1 than I ideally should, to end this season on a high. After which, we’ll move to Season 2, yay! I’ll notify you next Wednesday about the blog posts.
Also, let me know if you’d like to read about a specific gadget/device. Thank you for reading.
Have a nice rest of the week, and take care!
Until next Wednesday,
Chendur
