New Hearing Aid Uses Your Tooth To Transmit Sound

kkleiner writes to share a new device from Sonitus Medical that transmits sound to the inner ear via the teeth and jawbone. Dubbed "SoundBite," the device captures sound using a microphone in the ear and transmits to an in-the-mouth device that in turn sends the sounds through the jaw. "There are other hearing aid devices that utilize bone conduction. Most, however, use a titanium pin drilled into the jaw bone (or skull) to transmit sound to the cochlea. SoundBite seems to be the first non-surgical, non-invasive, easily removable device. While they are likely years from retail production, Sonitus Medical plans on having SoundBite ITMs fitted to each individual's upper back teeth and fabricated fairly quickly (1 to 2 weeks). A complete system is planned to include two ITMs, 1 BTE, and a charger. In the wider world of cochlear implants, SoundBite may only be fit for relatively specialized use. Still, the ability to easily upgrade or replace individual components makes the device competitive. A similar device could be adapted to provide audio for a personalized augmented reality system. Perhaps the Bluetooth headset of the future will involve actual teeth."

12 Monkies

[ground.zero.612]

Don't mind me, I only look crazy; I pulled my cochlear implant teeth out so they couldn't send me back to the apocalyptic future!

Re:Dentures?

[mcgrew]

I saw an item the other day that the warnings about listening to loud rock and roll were bogus; our (boomers') hearing is better than geezers who came before us. The reason is that loud rock music isn't nearly as loud as industrial machinery and firearms; our generation was the first to use hearing protection in the factory and shooting range.

I lost 10% of the hearing in my left ear in the USAF, when I found that out I realized why they had the rule that you always kept the aircraft to the left of the vehicle. It was so you'd only go deaf in one ear.

Some sounds are too loud even for hearing protection. Try sitting next to an MD3 (or was it a dash sixty? The one with an F-15 engine in it) while you wait for the guy to come out and change it. LOUD!

Wayback Tech

[DynaSoar]

I saw/heard an external bone conduction device with no spill over into the air, at the Lake County, Indiana fair around 1962 give or take a couple years. It was shaped like a small, rectangular pencil sharpener cut in half so that a half-cone was cut out of one side. That hollow was placed on the bridge of the nose. The fidelity was superb for the time. The drawback was, no stereo, hence no or very poor localization. I've watched for the commercial version ever since, but have never seen one.

Re:Dentures?

[MBCook]

I would imagine that while simple vacuum seal dentures (the kind that people end up using SeaBond for) it wouldn't work too well. But if you have the kind that lock onto metal attached to your jaw, it should work perfectly.