Bluetooth Earpieces Do Battle With the $3,000 Hearing Aid

One night in June 2010, New York composer Richard Einhorn went to bed in a motel feeling stuffy and woke up almost completely deaf. At the time, Einhorn, who wrote the oratorio Voices of Light, had limited ways to deal with his nightmare condition, known as sudden sensorineural hearing loss. He visited an audiologist and bought a hearing aid for $3,000. (His insurance plan, like most, didn’t cover it.) Unhappy with the expense and the limits of the earpiece’s technology, which struggled to adapt to different noise levels, Einhorn began searching for alternative gadgets that could restore more of his hearing for less money.

Today, he has a backpack full of them. To supplement his old-school hearing aid, he favors a $350 iPhone-linked earpiece made by Sound World Solutions, a hearing-hardware maker in Park Ridge, Ill., for whom he’s begun to consult. With the Sound World device on, he can amplify phone calls and streaming music as well as his surroundings. A third, $500 earpiece was custom-made by Ultimate Ears in Irvine, Calif., to help him detect a wider range of musical tones while composing. For restaurants and theaters, he has a $45 directional microphone that pairs with a $5 app to isolate desired voices. And for especially cacophonous places, he has spare $700 microphones, made by Etymotic Research in Elk Grove Village, Ill., that he can strap to companions.

Einhorn credits the audio patchwork with saving his career and his life. “It’s incredible,” he says over lunch in a busy restaurant, as he toggles the proper setting on his phone.

The Bluetooth-connected earpieces aren’t classified as hearing aids by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. They’re called personal sound amplification products, or PSAPs. Basic versions of such devices have existed for more than a decade in lonely RadioShack aisles and a handful of other places. But in the past 18 months, advances in circuitry and low-energy Bluetooth transmission have helped developers radically improve the designs to make high-quality, long-lasting alternativesto hearing aids while keeping pricesat a fraction of the industry standard.

Whatever regulators or insurers call them, PSAP manufacturers are angling to expand the $6 billion global market for hearing technology. Largely due to the cost, 75 percent of the 34 million Americans with hearing loss don’t use aids, says David Kirkwood, the editor of industry blog Hearing Health & Technology Matters. “A lot of people will continue to pay for traditional hearing aids,” he says. “But there are now inexpensive, easy-to-get alternatives.”



Part of the reason PSAPs are cheap is that they’re unregulated. Hearing-aid fittings and audiological calibrations account for much of the cost of aids from the big six makersâ€"Siemens, Sonova, Starkey Hearing Technologies, William Demant, GN ReSound, and Widex. A midlevel pair that retails for $4,400 costs about $440 to manufacture, according to AARP. Research and development spending is also a factor: Unlike the free Bluetooth standard used by upstarts such as Sound World, old-school hearing aids run on proprietary signal processing and transmission technology. Siemens, Sonova, and Widex declined to comment; GN ReSound, Starkey, and William Demant didn’t respond to requests for comment.

Still, being kept out of doctors’ offices has been a huge problem for PSAP makers, says Venkat Rajan, who tracks medical devices for researcher Frost & Sullivan. While the size of the market can be difficult to gauge given the lack of regulation, anecdotal evidence suggests sales have been soft, he says. It doesn’t help that, according to industry journal the Hearing Review, the average American buying a hearing aid is 71 years old. “Trying to find that customer base has been difficult,” Rajan says.

The marketing of hearing aids, classified as medical devices by the FDA since 1977, is strictly regulated in the U.S. According to agency guidelines that predate the latest generation of equipment, PSAP makers aren’t allowed to market their products as medical devices. Instead, they’re supposed to be used recreationally by people who can already hear comfortably. The FDA, which wouldn’t say whether it plans to change its rules, occasionally issues warnings to companies it believes to be violating them, so PSAP ads tend to include at least one verbal somersault. An ad for Etymotic describes its latest product, the Bean, thusly: “Not a hearing aid but has many advantages.”

The $300 Bean is the brainchild of Mead Killion, the co-founder of Etymotic. He invented the analog hi-fi amplification technology behind the device back in 1988, but says it’s only since 2013 that circuitry has become cheap enough for the product to be worth manufacturing en masse. His company uses the same technology in adaptive earplugs designed for orchestra musicians or infantry troops to keep music or conversation audible while dampening loud noises. A decade ago, Killion failed to persuade the FDA that early PSAPs should be sold over the counter. He’s lobbying for a contract with the Department of Defense.

Normally, I hear fine, but I conducted a hands-on experiment shortly before an interview with Killion. It became clear that having professional help putting these things in is a good idea. Initially, one Bean in each ear made it easy to hear faraway gossip in a noisy Whole Foods. Then I pushed them too far, and suddenly could hear nothing at all. Killion said the problem was waxy buildup in my narrow ear canals, so the next step was a $150 cerumenectomyâ€"that is, getting a doctor to scrape out gobs of wax and clear the blockage.

The era of Internet diagnosis hasn’t eliminated the need for medical professionals, says Erin Miller, president of the American Academy of Audiology. “This is our biggest problem with the PSAPs in general,” she says. “We want to make sure someone has looked in the patient’s ear.” All the more reason, PSAP makers argue, to put their products in medical offices next to those from Starkey and ReSound. For now, the companies’ sales will be limited to true believers like Einhorn, the composer. “You have to remember that I’m a maniac,” he says. “I will do anything to hear as best as possible in any situation.”

What we say: Whilst Bluetooth is regarded as an old technology now the reliability can't be questioned. It would seem that this type of technology is a log time coming to a thirsty industry for inventive technology. Source - http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-05/hearing-aid-alternatives-get-cheaper-more-powerful 

220-Year-Old Time Capsule Finally Opened This Year

A home made time capsule thought to be over 220 years old was opened in Boston, Massachusetts, USA earlier this month.

The brass box was originally buried in 1795 in a cornerstone of Boston's State Capitol Building. It is thought that Paul Revere, the famous American Patriot, silversmith and metalworker was responsible for placing it there, along with US Founding Father Samuel Adams.

Due to the age of the capsule, it took an hour for experts to access the contents of the box. Once the lid had been carefully removed, officials found a copy of the Boston Daily newspaper, two dozen gold and silver coins, various documents and a metal plate engraved by Revere (who was also a famous engraver).

The engraving is likely to be of special interest to some, as Revere's work is very highly prized in the United States.

For those unfamiliar with the name, Paul Revere is considered to be a hero of the American Revolution. He is depicted in statues and even has several towns named after him. The company he founded, The Revere Copper Company, still produces copper products to this day.

Samuel Adams, for his part, was a leader in the movement that ultimately became the American Revolution, and also served as Governor of Massachusetts in the 1790's. Many historians consider him to be the father of the American Revolution.

This time capsule is especially significant because it was originally buried by two such notable men, both of whom were obviously interested in leaving something for future Americans to experience and enjoy.

It is believed that the box was first discovered in 1855 and that its contents were disturbed then before being reburied. As a result of this earlier opening, some of the coins had suffered erosion. However, for the most part, the capsule's contents appeared to have aged fairly well.



Marcel Comeau, Executive Director of the Massachusetts Archive and Commonwealth Museum, told local news affiliate wsiltv.com that, "We as custodians have an awesome responsibility, the protection and preservation of these materials. They've been entrusted to us by generations past, so generations in the future can see them as well,"

Officials at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston have said that the box, together with its contents, would be put on display for a limited time, before being resealed in the cornerstone for future generations to enjoy.

Bill Would Allow Coloradans To Use 1 Earphone Behind The Wheel

Cellphone makers have come up with lots of devices that make it easier to drive with both hands on the wheel while using their technology, but in Colorado one common setup for going hands-free is illegal.

Using earphones while driving is illegal in the state, even if only one ear has an earbud in it or the headphones have audio coming out of only one side.

Rep. Jovan Melton, a Democrat who represents Aurora, says that’s a problem.

“I definitely understand and respect that they’re following the letter of the law, but people shouldn’t be punished for trying to drive safely by keeping both hands on the wheel,” he said.



Melton says Denver police has written 172 tickets in the past three years for people wearing earphones or a single earbud.

“It’s important that we clean this piece of the statute up,” he said. “Allow people to drive safely without having to worry about being fined or ticketed or pulled over for wanting to do the right thing.”

This is illegal in the US, and is also illegal here in the UK, it's not common to see drivers in the UK doing this. But the worrying rise in touchscreens in cars could increase the chances of more accidents.

Melton is carrying a bill that would allow motorists to use one earphone or earbud while driving.

“A lot of the earbuds that you get with your phone will come with two for music listening, but we wanted to make sure that you are only using one earbud so you can still hear emergency vehicles,” he said.

Melton’s bill doesn’t require hands-free devices like earphones when talking on the phone behind the wheel. Melton tried and failed to get such legislature approved last year. But he says he’s not giving up.

“I think if we can get this passed it’s just one more step in that conversation which will hopefully lead to a successful (hands-free) bill next year,” he said.

The one earbud bill has passed in the House of Representatives and it was approved unanimously in a Senate committee on Thursday. It now moves on to the full Senate.

Colorado has several laws currently on the books related to distracted driving:

â€" It is illegal to text and drive

â€" If you are under 18, you can’t text or talk on the phone

â€" You cannot have a TV or computer that shows entertainment, social media or email in a position in the vehicle where the driver can see it.

Source - http://denver.cbslocal.com/2015/03/05/bill-would-allow-coloradans-to-use-1-earphone-behind-the-wheel/

Former NASA Employee Claims Astronauts Visited Mars in 1979

A mysterious former NASA employee, using the pseudonym Jackie (presumably for protection from the fibre optic aliens that live in the follicles of her hair) has claimed that she witnessed two astronauts walking on the surface of Mars in 1979.



According to Jackie, she was part of a downstairs team working on downlink telemetry, as it arrived from the Viking Lander. As space-enthusiasts will know, the Viking mission was totally unmanned, but it was the first vehicle to send back images from the surface of Mars.

Apparently fearing neither ridicule nor assassination by the government whose secrets she was wantonly exposing, Jackie broke her nearly 30-year silence and phoned American radio station Coast To Coast FM with her story.

“I wonder if you can solve a 27-year-old mystery for me” she said, “That old Viking rover was running around. Then I saw two men in space suits â€" not the bulky suits we normally used, but they looked protective. They came over the horizon walking to the Viking Explorer.”

Apparently, Jackie and her colleagues subsequently ran upstairs to see more, but the NASA higher-ups slammed the door in their faces and employed their special training to make sure that national security was not breached any further (e.g. they covered the window with paper so no one could see inside).

Quite how a radio DJ was supposed to clear up this mystery for her remains unclear (perhaps Jesus told her to make the call?), but, in any instance, here I am writing about this nonsense and here you are reading it, so its safe to say that Jackie got what she wanted.

Of course, conspiracy theorists, who never require even a shred of hard evidence to back up their ridiculous claims (and for whom the term Occam’s Razor apparently denotes some sort of shaving utensil) have latched on to the idea (I was going use the phrase gone nuts over it, but when you genuinely believe that the US President is an alien reptile, that becomes far too much of an understatement).

In fact, some nutters are already linking it to the notion that alien life forms were retrieved from a crash site in Roswell, New Mexico in 1947.

Conspiracy theories also abound that Human beings are already living on Mars, despite the fact that anyone who knows anything about space exploration will confidently tell you that this would be extremely difficult (if not impossible) to accomplish now, much less in the late 1970’s.

The greatest geniuses at NASA are working on it as I write these words, so they’ll probably be really p*ssed if it took their professional lifetimes to figure out something that had already been achieved some 30-odd years earlier...

Besides, the Viking Lander, despite being very sophisticated for its time, was still a relatively simple looking design. It seems wildly unlikely that NASA would develop futuristic super-spacesuits, but still employ bulky, moon mission looking tech for its Landers. Unless, of course, they wanted us to think that we were less advanced than we actually are...

Over the years, many supposed former NASA employees have turned up with information about the government’s secret deals with aliens and whatnot. In fact, if these sources are to be believed, pretty much everyone who works for NASA subsequently gains a secondary career as a whistleblower.

According to conspiracy theorists, the CIA will even go as far as to dispatch Men in Black to kill witnesses, or threaten them into silence. These M.I.B’s (uh, here come the M.I.Bs...), however, are apparently so ineffectual that they cannot convince any of these whistle-blowers to shut the heck up. Not even when said whistleblowers show up on The Discovery Channel, their faces blacked out by green and black lighting, talking about piloting flying saucers alongside our secret alien overseers.

As a final thought, if you really believe that NASA faked the moon landings in 1969, are you still willing to believe that a community of Human beings now live on Mars? Just asking.

Do all Motorola Walkie Talkies work with each other?

One of the most commonly used communication devices is the walkie-talkie. Its use is not only for business operations, but it is also highly loved by kids and parents give them as presents due to their cheap nature. Someone would never require getting in a physical store to purchase a Motorola walkie-talkie as there are many online stores selling them.

Where to use a Motorola walkie-talkie

• Use walk-talkie for some outdoor activities like climbing, snowboarding, and ski-ing

Some of the outdoor activities require you to be out in areas where there is no mobile network coverage. Although some of the areas may have support for mobile network, using a phone may turn to be more expensive. Moreover, mobile phones operation in such areas may be expensive and many people would never use them if given a chance. A Motorola radio can be useful in such areas as it provides a way for keeping in touch with your friends or relatives.

• Use the walkie-talkies for communication in a restaurant, clubs, bars and even pubs

Clubs, restaurants or bars having large customer circulation may highly require the use of the device to pass information within the premises to save time. Using a mobile phone in such a place can be expensive and may highly increase the expenses therefore reducing the profit margin. Mostly they can be essential for security purposes and the door supervisors can use them in their work. The other staff may also find them useful in their operation as movements will be highly reduced.

• Make use of them in monitoring your baby

Monitoring your baby while in holiday at times may turn to be hectic. Purchasing a pair of Motorola radio can highly assist in this monitoring. You may use them as long range baby listeners as they can cover a wider range than you may ever expect.

• Make use of Motorola radios in schools and colleges

There are many communication issues that usually surround a school or a college campus. At times you may find the staff members moving for long distances which may make the task of tracking them when needed hard. Also some schools or colleges may not have their staff members being desk based hence they may not be having a telephone. Providing every member of staff with a Motorola radio can highly solve some of the tracking challenges.

Do all Motorola walkie-talkies work with each other?

Yes, all Motorola radios will work with each other. All the models use GRMS/FRS frequencies, which allow their compatibility. To enable the compatibility, you only need to tune your radio to the same channel as your colleague and you will communicate effectively.

The family radio system (FRS) has been in use in the United States since 1996 and it uses channels in the ultra high frequency (UHF), which protect it from interference from citizen band or other frequencies found in baby monitors. FRS systems use the frequency modulation (FM) and therefore has wide range coverage compared to other systems.

Advantages of using a Motorola radio as a communication device

1. It is almost a no cost device of communicating to any person

After purchasing a communication radio you will not be liable for license charges, monthly charges or even contract charges as its use is absolutely free. The only cost you can expect is the recharging of the battery.

2. It’s the best communication device for people working for emergency situations

People offering emergency services like a building collapse or fire fighting highly require the device in their communication.

3. They are highly convenient

If you need to keep in touch with a person who lives near you, a walkie-talkie can serve you better compared to a mobile phone. You will never need to pay any charges and therefore you can communicate with your colleague any time you wish and also you are the only one who can end your talk.

4. They come in a variety of forms

When purchasing the device you are required to select from the many shapes, forms, types and even color that suits your taste. Manufacturers are always aware that kids will like their devices to be different from those of their friends and they will always design them in many ways. Walkie-talkies will allow instant connection at any time

Martian Homes Could Be Built In Just 24 Hours

By the end of this century, it seems highly likely that people will be living on Mars. It sounds utterly mad, until you consider that there were only 66 years between the first powered and sustained Human flight and Neil Armstrong setting foot on the moon...

However, a major problem with this idea (aside from the fact that no Human being has ever actually set foot on the red planet) is the difficulty posed by building habitation in such a hostile and extremely remote environment.



At the moment, even landing an unmanned rover on Mars represents a major scientific achievement, which makes Elon Musk’s plans to build a city there seem especially far fetched and ambitious.

Besides, at current costs, taking one kilogram of material to the moon costs between £61,000 and £122,000. That’s a lot of money, even for bare essentials like building materials and water reserves.

Now, however, one man thinks he may have the answer...

Dr. Behrokh Khoshnevis of the University of Southern California’s Viterbi School of Engineering is working on a groundbreaking new method of building that, if applied to lunar or Martian colonisation, could bring us all that much closer to seeing cities on Mars or the moon in our lifetimes.

Essentially, Dr. Khoshnevis has come up with a way to ‘print’ buildings.

The construction technology, called Contour Crafting, fashions an entire building, layer by layer, according to a predetermined outline. Khoshnevis initially created the technology in order to provide cheap, quick and safe housing for emerging nations, or victims of natural disasters.

It is hoped that such building methods will also lower the demand for wood, thus having a beneficial effect on the rainforests and other areas that are being aggressively deforested for timber.

In addition, the concrete walls built by the Countour Crafter are three times stronger than a brick wall.

Writing for Nasa, Dr. Khoshnevis said, “Automated building technologies will revolutionize the way structures are built on Earth, in dense urban environments, in difficult-to-build and difficult-to-service sites, or in remote and hostile regions of the globe. The technologies under development by our group have the potential to simplify construction logistics, reduce the need for hard physical labor by assigning humans to a strictly supervisory role, eliminate issues relating to human safety and produce intricate, aesthetically refined designs and structures at significantly reduced construction cost”.

Theoretically, these buildings could be described via a computer model and built remotely, using the Martian landscape in lieu of bricks and mortar. The buildings could be ‘printed’ in around 24 hours and would be every bit as strong, (or stronger) than the building you are currently living in.

Natural History Museum Replaces Dippy Dinosaur With Blue Whale Skeleton

Directors of the Natural History Museum in London have announced that ‘Dippy’ â€" the famous diplodocus skeleton that greets visitors in the museum’s iconic Hintze Hall â€" will be replaced by the skeleton of a blue whale by 2017.

The idea is to better convey a more modern feel to the museum, one that reflects the cutting-edge science being conducted by the institution.

"Everyone loves 'Dippy', but it's just a copy," NHM director Sir Michael Dixon told BBC News, “what makes this museum special is that we have real objects from the natural world - over 80 million of them - and they enable our scientists and thousands like them from around the world to do real research."

At present, the 25m-long blue whale is hanging â€"in a flat position- in the ‘mammals’ gallery and is accompanied by a life size reconstruction of the animal.

The skeleton was acquired by the museum in 1891 and it originally cost curators £250. The massive animal was beached at Wexford in Southeast Ireland and its remains were immaculately processed and preserved. To date, it is one of the biggest â€" and best-preserved â€" whale skeletons in the world.

Over the coming two years, the entire skeleton will be taken down and each individual bone will be thoroughly cleaned and carefully catalogued before it is re-structured and placed in a dramatic new pose, ready to better symbolize the new science of the 21^st century.

The massive remains will be placed in a graceful diving posture designed to impress visitors to the hall.

By virtue of being the largest animal to ever exist on our planet, the blue whale skeleton will likely present an even more impressive sight to behold than Dippy presently does. Its presence could also help to raise awareness for whale conservation and preservation of our natural heritage in general.

The conservation aspect of this move is an especially relevant point, as it was NHM scientists that first demonstrated that hunting of the blue whales needed to be stopped in the first place.

This move, whilst surprising, is not without precedent. In the past, the Hintze Hall has also featured a complete sperm whale skeleton as its main attraction, as well as carefully preserved African elephants â€" and other displays as well.

So where will Dippy be going once his replacement arrives? At present, there is talk about taking the iconic dinosaur on tour in order to bring the Natural History Museum to the people, by housing him in regional museums throughout the UK.



Before that happens though, he will likely still have pride of place in a dinosaur-themed exhibit elsewhere in the museum, so we’ll still be able to stop by and say “hi”..