Hearing aids: contact lenses for better hearing

Anicet Mbida 06:56, June 17, 2022

Innovation in hearing aids this morning.

We knew contact lenses for vision.

Now comes hearing contact lenses. 

It's a kind of micro-speaker, a small, ultra-flat disc that is pressed directly against the eardrum.

It is therefore the same principle as a contact lens that is placed on the eye.

The benefits are the same.

It's more efficient.

The lens on the eye will correct 360° vision.

There is no longer a blind spot like with glasses.

Same thing with the hearing lens.

It vibrates the eardrum in a natural way, while the sound of a loudspeaker will undergo interference from wind and air.

It is also much more discreet, even almost invisible.

This is the main problem with hearing aids.

Many people with hearing loss do not want to wear them because they are too conspicuous and too stigmatizing.

Is it a kind of implant, with all the equipment placed on the eardrum?

No, it's not an implant.

Everything is removable, there is no need for surgery.

In fact, the system works in two parts: on one side, the vibrating micro-disc that the doctor will place on the eardrum.

And on the other, all the classic equipment with the battery and the microphone that you slide into the ear canal.

That's why it's “virtually invisible”, it's the size of a small headset.

Once again, as the sound does not depend on a mini loudspeaker, but on a disk which vibrates the eardrum, the device can reproduce all the frequencies;

including all the bass and treble that traditional hearing aids cannot.

Is it still research or is it marketed?

The search is over.

Vibrosonic engineers had been fine-tuning this system for five years.

They have just received their European certifications.

Marketing will therefore start in the coming weeks.

The WHO estimates that with the current noise pollution, we could be more than 2 billion in 2050 to suffer from hearing loss.

So it's good to see some innovation in this sector.