I need some help. Techology related.

[Azwed]

I am sure some of you know this because I have mentioned it, but I will explain it to those that have missed it.

My gf is severly hearing impaired. She has about 100% hearing loss in her left ear and about 60% loss in her right. The way that her hearing is damaged means that she can't have a conculear(sp?) implant to improve it. She uses a large hearing aid in her right ear so she can hear. Without the hearing aid she can barely hear her own voice. Anyone who has seen an upclose shot of Tom Ridge, the homeland security secretary, has seen this type of hearing aid. He has one in his left ear in think.


She can hear low pitched sounds better then high pitched sounds. I am not sure why this is exactly, but it is just a product of the way her ears were damaged. This of course causes lots of problems. She can't hear sirens or telephones very well. Smoke detectors and car horns the high pitched voices of annoying women, although that might be a good thing, are all silent to her.

We were talking about her getting a cell phone and all the problems she has with them. She is trying to find a special phone that is designed for hearing impaired people but so far has not had much luck.

I am wondering how hard it would be to design a phone or some other device designed to alter frequencies for hearing imparied people. I know they already have little toys and things designed to alter and change your voice.

How hard would it be to modify a device like that?
It would have to be fairly small and able to alter frequencies in a certain range down to another range or up to another range.

It would have to be adjustable for the ranges in which it would work. A dial or maybe digital display, with a keypad, of some kind would be good.

I haven't heard of anything like this around. I could see something like this being integrated into the higher end cell phones very easily. There would be a fairly large market for it I think.

I am just curious if anyone who maybe is in the industry has heard of something like this.

Thanks for your help.

 

[modest mouse]

Azwed,

Have you tried looking at the many deaf related websites. I am not familiar with them personally but I would think they would address issues such as yours.

Perhaps they have a section of hearind aids of all kinds and I would think they would also have a Bulletin Board.

Just a thought, good luck with your search and have a great Holiday.

 

[GeorgiaPeach69]

Azwed

I know someone that has a TTY that can be hooked into a cellphone, but I don't know if that is what you are looking for.

Try this site:

http://www.phonemerchants.com/ulezprocporc.html

They have other products for hearing impaired.

Hope that helps...

 

[Azwed]

that doesen't really hep much but that site might. I am looking through it now. The problem is that she has some hearing just not much. She kind of falls into the gap between people who have no hearing and the people who have normal hearing or very moderate loss.

Sometimes it is hard to find products designed for people with severe hearing loss. That is one of her pet peves people assuming she knows sign language or calling her deaf. She gets mad at the ignorance of the general populace. There is a deaf community and a hearing impaired community. Those two communities are two seperate things and not many peopl realize that.

 

[modest mouse]

I'm sorry if I offended. I admit this is an area of ignorance for me, I have only known one person who was severly hearing impaired. I only knew her briefly so I dont claim to know what it is like.

I was curious about this so Looked around, you may want to take a look here:

http://www.hearmore.com/

 

[Azwed]

I'm sorry if I offended. I admit this is an area of ignorance for me, I have only known one person who was severly hearing impaired. I only knew her briefly so I dont claim to know what it is like.

I was curious about this so Looked around, you may want to take a look here:

http://www.hearmore.com/

Don't worry it does not bother me. She gets very sensative about this and is probably overly sensative sometimes. I have been trying to explain to her that most of the time when people do stuff like that it is just because they are ignorant of it and don't mean to hurt her. She is getting better about it though. She rarely gets red faced mad anymore, but still get very sad sometimes.

 

[Spinaroonie]

I am wondering how hard it would be to design a phone or some other device designed to alter frequencies for hearing imparied people. I know they already have little toys and things designed to alter and change your voice.

How hard would it be to modify a device like that?
It would have to be fairly small and able to alter frequencies in a certain range down to another range or up to another range.

It would have to be adjustable for the ranges in which it would work. A dial or maybe digital display, with a keypad, of some kind would be good.

I haven't heard of anything like this around. I could see something like this being integrated into the higher end cell phones very easily. There would be a fairly large market for it I think.

You're in college. Take some enigneering courses and build it. You have the idea for an invention, you have the hardest part done.

The tricky part for the market would be that everybody is different. I think it'd have to be that the phone would be configured to each user at the store by a tech, like how glasses are adjusted to your face (Well, this'll be tricky, but you get what I mean. Adjust, trial, adjust, trial, etc.)

I haven't really known any phone to have good quality bass qualities. I wonder how difficult it'd be to hack a phone and add a small sub to it, and if the bass frequencies would be transmitted from the other persons phone.

Have you tried just like, walking into a Sprint or ATT or Cingular store and just trying as many salespeople as you can until somebody has a clear answer? That'd be the easy way.

 

[Bob Peale]

Azwed,

Take a look here - http://www.phonemerchants.com/celphonprodf.html


The Krown Pocket Read and Speak VCO - Pocket Speak may be your answer - I'm not overly familiar with it, but I would think using it in concert with a telephone that has a vibrating alert might be one way to solve the problem.


Additionally here is some info on a cel designed with the hearing impaired in mind http://www.motorola.com/GSS/CSG/Help/PR/pr951204.html - the handset has been on the market for 6 years now, so I'm sure some advances have been made.

There isn't a whole lot out there, but I hope this helps...

 

[Weird Harold]

I don't know about phones, but

"Miracle Ear" hearing aids are supposed to do the frequency shift you mentioned.

From the page description in google.com serach results:
"Description: Hearing instruments including digital and programmable hearing solutions; CIC, ITC, ITE, and BTE...
"

http://www.miracle-ear.com/

 

[Guest]

Re: Re: I need some help. Techology related.

You're in college. Take some enigneering courses and build it. You have the idea for an invention, you have the hardest part done.

The tricky part for the market would be that everybody is different. I think it'd have to be that the phone would be configured to each user at the store by a tech, like how glasses are adjusted to your face (Well, this'll be tricky, but you get what I mean. Adjust, trial, adjust, trial, etc.)

I haven't really known any phone to have good quality bass qualities. I wonder how difficult it'd be to hack a phone and add a small sub to it, and if the bass frequencies would be transmitted from the other persons phone.

Have you tried just like, walking into a Sprint or ATT or Cingular store and just trying as many salespeople as you can until somebody has a clear answer? That'd be the easy way.

I actually was in Engineering for two years before I switched majors. I was in Mechanicle engineering, so electronics are not really my thing.

Thanks for all the help guys. I showed her some of these already and she seemed really excited. I told her that the people on the board had helped me and she said thanks.

Her family is going up to a special store in Mass. that has stuff for the deaf and hearing impaired. They are gonna look around there and ask about some of the stuff that I and you guys found. Try and get an impression from the people there if any have them used the products or know people who have.

To thank you guys for your help I am going to post some more pictures of my gf.

I don't have any new ones now, but I will be going up to CT in about a week. I got a new digital camera and will take some pictures and post them when i get back.

 

[Azwed]

ackk that was of course me I swear i was signed in.