A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss, regulated as a medical device in most countries. Early hearing aids were passive ear trumpets that simply funneled sound into the ear, and the American inventor Miller Reese Hutchison built the first electric hearing aid, the Akouphone, around 1895; Earl Hanson's 1921 Vactuphone was the first commercial model built around vacuum tubes. Hearing aids became fully digital, computerized electroacoustic systems by the 1980s, following work by a team at the Central Institute for the Deaf, and modern digital hearing aids now dominate the market, using signal processing to manage feedback, reduce background noise and improve speech clarity for each wearer's specific hearing loss.
Facts
YearThe source dates the akouphone, the first electric hearing aid, only as "about 1895"; no more precise date is given. This entity covers the hearing aid generally; non-electric ear-trumpet hearing aids are recorded by the same source as far earlier (17th century), so 1895 marks the electric-hearing-aid milestone specifically, not the device class's origin. SignificanceThe invention of the carbon microphone, transmitters, digital signal processing chip or DSP, and the development of computer technology helped transform the hearing aid to its present form. 1 Connections
Associated With
Hearing aids apply acoustical engineering
In Field
Source Hearing Aid (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Invented By
Source Hearing Aid (Wikipedia)Wikipedia contributors
Sources
1. Hearing Aid (Wikipedia)
Wikipedia contributors, Wikimedia FoundationHistory section, akouphone sentence
The movement toward modern hearing aids began with the creation of the telephone, and the first electric hearing aid, the "akouphone", was created about 1895 by Miller Reese Hutchison.
History section, closing sentence
The invention of the carbon microphone, transmitters, digital signal processing chip or DSP, and the development of computer technology helped transform the hearing aid to its present form.
In Field: Biomedical Engineering, Lead section
Hearing aids are classified as medical devices in most countries, and regulated by the respective regulations.
In Group: Assistive and Sensory Aid Devices, Lead
A hearing aid is a device designed to improve hearing by making sound audible to a person with hearing loss.
Invented By: Harvey Fletcher, Body-worn section
Body worn aids were the first portable electronic hearing aids, and were invented by Harvey Fletcher while working at Bell Laboratories.
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