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When Hearings Aids Don’t Work Well, New Smart Phone App Offers a Novel Solution

If you’re hard of hearing, you know that it’s especially difficult to hold a conversation in crowded, noisy places like restaurants and parties, even when you use a hearing aid. The hearing aid amplifies the conversations and noises from the tables and people around you along with the voices of the persons you want to talk with.


A hearing impaired smart phone user has found a creative solution to this common problem, reports the New York Times. By attaching a directional microphone to an iphone, pointing it toward the person you are talking with and using a pair of in-ear earphones, that background noise can be limited, he found.


“I put the iPhone on the table. I point it at whoever's talking, and I can have conversations with them. Soon we forget the iPhone is sitting there," Richard Einhorn, a composer with hearing loss who generally relies on hearing aids, told the news source. "It makes sense when you need to capture a speaker's voice in a noisy environment."


One of the software applications Mr. Einhorn uses is called soundAMP, a top selling hearing app on the App store. Read more.