Learn, hack!

URL

http://ftp.ccc.de/congress/28C3/mp3-audio-only/28c3-4669-en-bionic_ears.mp3

File name

28c3-4669-en-bionic_ears.mp3

File size

28.3 MB

MD5

695591a721f1a4cb25fef777769c2074

SHA1

85c205cb31999e92feede4615ab97a83f6441a81

In many social situations being hearing impaired is a serious handicap, not only for elderly people. Today's hearing aids are tiny computers that do a decent job in signal processing. During the last years, the progress in this technology was significant, amongst other things by switching from analog to digital devices. Since this field becomes more and more related to computer technology, there is even more improvement to be expected. In particular, it turns into a more and more interesting playground for hackers. Unfortunately, we are still quite far away from what was promised as the future in that 70es TV series "The Bionic Woman" [1]. Starting with a brief introduction about audiology, I will present current technical solutions (and political non-solutions) for hearing aids. Besides the hearing aids themselves, there exist a couple of interesting peripheral solutions for specific situations such as using the phone, listening to concerts and talks, or just consuming music with an mp3 player. All these not only enhance the user's life, they also open the door for creative hacks. Although the hearing-aid hacking community is still rather small, I will present some current projects and ideas for future ones.