Some of my hearing has gone, I'm 45, so no big surprise.
Over the years, I have thought about what it would take to be able to properly hear again. An idea I had that I haven't seen in my limited searching would work as follows:
First, most speech is understood in certain frequency ranges, defined in the upper harmonics. These are the frequencies that are lost as hearing degrades.
What if you had a system that analyzed hearing loss, and redirected lost frequencies to frequencies that were still available? Either neighboring frequencies, or lower frequencies that normally would share a harmonic with the lost frequency? Wouldn't that create a better hearing result, allowing for some kind of improvement in speech decoding?-- simpleknight, Feb 18 2016 Some deep voices http://www.behindth...oiced-voice-actors/It seems to me that if one can understand a deep voice, then a converted high voice should be understandable, too. [Vernon, Feb 18 2016] Summary of Research / products since the 60's and 70's https://www.phonakp...ues_for_fitting.pdf [scad mientist, Feb 18 2016] Widex https://www.widexac...tion_DeafEduInt.pdf [scad mientist, Feb 18 2016] // Some of my hearing has gone //
Check under the back seat of your car - it's amazing what can end up there.
[+] for the idea. It would sound weird at first, but humans are very adaptable.-- 8th of 7, Feb 18 2016 One of my lost romantic interests was partly caused by a frequency hole in my hearing ( due to Machine shop noise ) and her voice being pitched right at that same frequency.
I would buy such a hearing aide in a heartbeat.
What was her name ? e? e something. ?-- popbottle, Feb 18 2016 I think it somewhat already exist in some hearing aids.
The feature would be called "frequency compression"-- mofosyne, Feb 18 2016 Sounds like a great idea. Apparently people have been studying it for a long time (see link). I looked into Widex in a little more detail and it sounds very similar to what you propose. One question I had with yours is how awful music might sound. Widex deals with that by always shifting sounds in increments of octaves.-- scad mientist, Feb 18 2016 Re: Widex results
I think that does prove the concept should work, but their target audience is a little different than what I envision.
For that study, it seems they took a whole bank of frequencies and moved them down, which is appropriate for people who would normally wear a hearing aid as a young person.
My concept would be different in this way: individual frequencies would be identified per person, and only those frequencies would be shifted.
I think this is an important distinction, as hearing loss for most of the population as we age is a frequency here and there, rather than a whole section of hearing frequency. It seems to me that it would be jarring and confusing to have some frequencies that one could hear mapped to others in a lower register.
Instead, by only remapping required frequencies, the alterations could be more adaptable.
Of course, this would mean periodic updates as additional frequencies were lost due to continued aging.-- simpleknight, Feb 18 2016 Regarding music: yeah, that is a challenge, but if the frequencies selected were harmonics (of which the octave is one), that might allow for that to be okay. But you're right - it would be a consideration for quality of life, and since I'm a singer, I wouldn't want to always be flat or sharp because of a hearing aid.
Which brings up a different idea: what if you could use this kind of tech to make someone always be on pitch?-- simpleknight, Feb 18 2016 //One of my lost romantic interests was partly caused by a frequency hole in my hearing ( due to Machine shop noise ) and her voice being pitched right at that same frequency. //
Ooooh, that inspires a modification - selective frequency sensetivity of the hearing aid. You know, in case you want to be able to filter out certain frequency ranges as well.....-- Custardguts, Feb 18 2016 random, halfbakery