The Amazing Hearing Devices or AHDs

What it does

The AHDs is a bone conduction hearing aid that aims to provide more accessible use to people with hearing impairment. The device offers more comfortable and friendly equipment via a novel skin-attachable design, lighter weight, and compatibility with glasses.

Your inspiration

From a global problem, there were 1.5 billion hearing loss patients in 2021, and the figure is predicted to rise to 2.5 billion by 2030 according to WHO(2021). Alongside local problems, the elderly in our family gradually become hearing loss. Plus, we have research on current hearing aid devices. It showed that technical parts like the quality of sound have been competed with by many companies, except for UX & UI, which are not universally designed, for example, incompatible with glasses. The weight and additional wires cause discomfort. Consequently, relating to our study of biomedical engineering brings us to a solution with the design.

How it works

AHDs or non-implantable hearing aids have unique features which are based on design, such as attachable and an optional headband in case of elderly wish to exercise. Since the AHDs has various design mechanisms that use the joints and connectors on each component, it makes a versatile design for every situation. Furthermore, in part of the circuit, it is separated into three parts including input, processor, and output, which are microphone, digital signal processing for filtering the noise background and amplifying the signal, and bone conduction to transfer signal or sound through the vibration.

Design process

The design is initiated from three main problems found in current bone conduction hearing aids: headache from headbands, incompatibility with glasses, and complications found in implantable devices. Hence, our team started off from a point that our design has to be comfortable, small, light, and does not require implantation. It also has to be available for various types of hearing loss patients. After an extensive literature review and some surveys from audiologists, we reached the conclusion that the AHDs are going to be skin-attachable bone conduction hearing aids concealed right behind the ears since most of the audiologists expressed that such a design would solve current problems; bone conduction is also more inclusive as it can benefit people with problems in their ear canals. In the first stage of development, microcontrollers and simple handmade components are used to prove concepts such as the skin attachment and simplified hearing aid electronics. When the concepts have already been proven, more advanced components, including precise 3D printer, signal processor, and biocompatible glues, are implemented to reach our ideal goals. Some technical problems faced are the limitations of bone conduction technology that only benefits a certain degree of hearing loss.

How it is different

Presently, solutions to hearing loss problems that rely on normal design of bone conduction hearing aids are still not as effective as they should be. First, implantable hearing aids are prone to removal due to infection and hygienic problems. Second, normal design which require headbands cause headaches for users due to all day pressure exertion. Third, some prevalent skin-attachable devices still cannot be worn with glasses and the calibration process is still not widely prevalent. Subsequently, the AHDs makes the use of headband optional with the implementation of biocompatible glues for skin-attachment to remedy side effects of the headband from conventional devices and complications from the surgery for implantable devices. Also, the design provides support for the glasses tips to rest on for compatibility. In short, the goal of this product is to find a design to overcome the physical and limitations of the current treatment found in the elderly people.

Future plans

After the prototyping stage, we will look for a partner to help us produce the medical-grade adhesive for attachment as well as the material for our design. Furthermore, we will develop a design with an optional headband to calibrate it while developing circuits and components, and then submit it for clinical testing. Essentially, we want to implement a calibration process for wireless designs that are still under development and have not been published.

Awards

This hearing aid design was awarded in the student innovation challenge in the national round to be representative of Thailand to join the global student innovation challenge (i-CREATe) 2022 in the design category.