Bluetooth Bandwagon Builds Momentum, But Where Are The HOH Products?

Every week it seems we hear of another new product for hard-of-hearing (HOH) consumers utilizing the Bluetooth wireless communications standard. In addition to my post last month on Sound ID, I’ve recently discovered that Starkey Laboratories, Micro-Tech Hearing Instruments, Sonomax Hearing Healthcare, and Gennum Corp. are also getting into the act. And I’m sure there are more. My only comment on all these efforts is, “Sounds great, guys, but when will we actually see (and hear) the products?” I’ve said before Bluetooth will be the bridge between the glittery world of consumer electronics and the stodgy old hearing-aid industry. I can’t wait to see all the cool new wireless earpieces for cellphones and other applications providing custom hearing enhancement for people with and without hearing loss. But every time I go to the web sites of hearing equipment manufacturers talking about Bluetooth plans, I can’t find a product that’s actually available. A good example is the announcement in this month’s Hearing Review of the world’s “smallest audio Bluetooth device,” a tiny new transmitter/receiver that marries technology from Micro-Tech and Starkey.

The article, by two Micro-Tech developers, introduces the ELI, an “Ear-Level Instrument” that attaches directly to a behind-the-ear hearing aid, maintains a wireless connection to a Bluetooth-enabled cellphone, picks up the user’s voice with a directional microphone and transmits the conversation directly into both the hearing aid and the phone. Because it’s a direct digital connection, it’s free of the interference you sometimes get with analog RF and FM connections. Unfortunately, even though it says the ELI is on the market, the article aparently is in fact a technical pre-announcement of a product that hasn’t been shipped yet, because I can’t find mention of the ELI on either company’s website. If they are going to make the technical announcement, it would be nice to get an update from one or both manufacturers on expected availability.

Another product in the “I-can’t-wait-to-see-it” category is from a collaboration between two Canadian companies, Sonomax and Gennum. Sonomax makes a popular line of high-tech earplugs that can let in sounds you want to hear while damping sounds you don’t. Gennum is working on new Bluetooth electronics that, combined with the Sonomax technology, will result in an earpiece providing sound enhancement for consumers with both normal hearing and mild hearing loss. Sonomax reported in its recent earnings release that the partnership should result in a product coming onto retail store shelves late in 2005.