Samsung spruiks Galaxy Buds Pro performance as comparable to hearing aids
- Reference: 1616396116
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2021/03/22/samsung_galaxy_buds_pro_hearing_aids_almost/
- Source link:
A [1]study [PDF] published in the peer-reviewed journal Clinical and Experimental Otorhinolaryngology found that Galaxy Buds Pro’s Ambient Sound feature was effective in helping those with mild to moderate hearing loss to decipher sounds.
[2]
The study compared the efficacy of the Ambient Sound feature in the Galaxy Buds Pro (RRP ~US$200), which amplifies nearby sounds in four volume levels, to a ReSound LiNX Quattro hearing aid (which sells for thousands) and the Etymotic Bean personal sound amplifier (RRP ~$US$700).
Results found that Samsung's earbuds do work significantly to improve sound, albeit less successfully than the other devices tested.
[3]
The research was completed in partnership with Samsung Medical Center, a part of the wider and is the first to demonstrate true wireless earbuds potential as therapeutic wearables for hearing loss.
The stench of progress: Sweat may power your personal tech in the not-so-distant future [4]READ MORE
According to the [5]World Health Organization , only 17 percent of those who could benefit from using a hearing aid currently use the devices. The gap is consistently high in all parts of the world. However, 80 percent of people with disabling hearing loss live in low-and-middle-income countries.
“With rapidly aging populations it’s expected that, by 2050, one in ten people will have hearing loss. But while hearing aids are useful for managing hearing impairments, uptake remains relatively low, mainly due to the high price,” said Il Joon Moon, Associate Professor at the Department of Otorhinolaryngology at Samsung Medical Center.
While Samsung doesn’t claim its earbuds can replace hearing aids, the company does appear to be positioning itself as an alternative.
The super small study of 18 people found that the earbuds met hearing aid performance criteria and adequately boosted sound at seven different frequencies.
When it came to the ability to recognize words and sentences, 57 percent of study participants reported better communication with the earbuds than with no device. However, the earbuds did not perform as well as the amplifier or hearing aids.
“Samsung has been working in collaboration with Samsung Medical Center for over 10 years, focusing on the impact mobile devices can have on hearing and researching new ways to optimize sound experiences for users,” said Samsung’s [6]press release of its name-sake hospital where the research was completed.
Hearing aid uptake remains relatively low, mainly due to their high price
The journal in which the study is published has an impact factor of 2.11,as judged by rating organisation [7]SciJournal.org . Impact factor is a very subjective ranking of science journals based on the number of citations its articles receive. Three is considered a good rating, ten stellar, less than one is about average.
Ear-worn devices are already a huge [8]boon in the wearable tech industry with spending on them rising 124 percent globally in 2020. Gartner expects in-ear wearables to account for $39.2 billion of $81.5 billion total wearable spending in 2021. The growth is thanks to remote workers upgrading for video conference and consumer use with smartphone devices, said [9]Gartner .
Samsung often bundles its Buds with new smartphones in pre-order promotions that presumably make both more attractive. The hearing aid-like sound boost could help Samsung grow its share of the earbud and smartphone market, especially as wearable tech as medical devices that can do things like [10]measure blood pressure becomes [11]more common .
[12]
However, it is unlikely anyone would consider these earbuds as a proper adequate replacement of medical grade hearing aids. ®
Get our [13]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.e-ceo.org/upload/pdf/ceo-2021-00297.pdf
[2] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2YFh43LZcX40yMqrqCRBjWAAAAFQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33YFh43LZcX40yMqrqCRBjWAAAAFQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[4] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/12/sweat_powered_tech/
[5] https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/deafness-and-hearing-loss
[6] https://news.samsung.com/global/galaxy-buds-pro-effective-for-people-with-hearing-loss-study-reveals?utm_source=nr_twitter&utm_medium=social
[7] https://www.scijournal.org/impact-factor-of-clin-exp-otorhinolar.shtml
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2021/01/12/wearable_spending_gartner/
[9] https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2021-01-11-gartner-forecasts-global-spending-on-wearable-devices-to-total-81-5-billion-in-2021#:~:text=%E2%80%9CEar%2Dworn%20devices%20and%20smartwatches,2021%20(see%20Table%201
[10] https://news.samsung.com/global/samsung-announces-blood-pressure-monitoring-application-for-galaxy-watch-devices
[11] https://support.apple.com/en-sg/HT204666
[12] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/personaltech&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44YFh43LZcX40yMqrqCRBjWAAAAFQ&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[13] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: Shop around.
I suspect that most of the cost of a hearing aid is in the measurement and adjustment by a professional. In the UK of course hearing aids are completely free to those who need them, and you even get free batteries. The hearing aids supplied by the NHS are comparable with those supplied commercially.
If you have to pay, and have only mild or moderate hearing loss, some sort of amplifying device that doesn't need adjustment by a professional could be adequate. But I have moderate hearing loss and would not be without a proper aid. If you don't want to be left out of the conversation you need all the help you can get.
Of course no hearing aid is a substitute for good natural hearing. As an acoustics professional I had spent years telling people this fact to help persuade them to protect their ears against loud sounds, so I wan't surprised to experience it myself.
Re: Shop around.
"In the UK of course hearing aids are completely free to those who need them, and you even get free batteries."
In a bid to stop half the World travelling to Blighty to take advantage of this, just let me add that they are free at the point of use , not free full stop. UKians pay a lot for the NHS, mostly in the form of PAYE National Insurance - estimates vary but it's certainly in the £thousands per person per year.
Whether you can technically get away with travelling there and getting free healthcare, the fact remains that the NHS is a service intended for those living in the UK, and either paying through NI or through eligible benefits.
Speaking as a UK citizen living abroad for more than 40 years, who has on occasion been tempted to head home for free treatment (and indeed has been invited to do so eg. yearly flu jab), but has resisted because it would be a flat-out abuse of the system.
Re: Shop around.
And Boots & Specsavers also dispense NHS-stocked hearing aids under the "Any Qualified Provider" (AQP) scheme..... for FREE (to the user, qualifying UK residents only) . The price they get for doing so also covers several years of support, and, even for a pair, it is less than the online price quoted above..... So why not try those out first before shelling out thousands ?
Re: Shop around.
glasses for my eyses, cheapest option:
boots / Specsavers / etc - 50 quid and up (plus 20 - 30 quid and up for a test)
online (one of those cheap ones, forgot the name) - 15 quid (yes, a promotion they run usually several times a year). Plus about a tenner for a discount eye test (no, not run by my friends in his shed)
btw, I read a very interesting and long online text on eyesight industry, produced around 2010, in short, smoke and mirrors (and some figures like: production cost for _any_ glasses is usually within 5 quid).
If you look at what goes into a noise cancelling headphone or earbud you'll find it has pretty much the same hardware as a hearing aid. With a few tweaks to configuration options you'll be into dual use device territory. The missing link is getting the personal response target set by an audiologist, which I'm sure they'll be happy to do for a fee.
Use an app ?
The processor on a smartphone can easily run an app that allows the user to tailor the frequency response of the earbud.
(Give the app a collection of standard profiles - the user chooses the one that sounds best then can tweak the response curve further if desired.)
For the lower end of the market (eg village dwellers in India) a very cheap alternative would be basic wired earphones with the phone acting as the amplifier and frequency response corrector. The cost to such users would be the cost of the app (if anything) and the cost of basic wired earphones (under £1).
Icon for the response of the firms and audiologists selling overpriced hearing aids if this idea takes hold. ====>
Re: Use an app ?
There are already "monitor" apps which use the phone as the amplifier and frequency response corrector. I occasionally use them with my motorcycle helmet (fitted with speakers, or using wired earplugs) to avoid taking the helmet off in bad weather. However the problem is the latency. It's acceptable when the direct channel is blocked by ear plugs, but otherwise you hear the direct sound, followed a fraction of a second later by the amplified sound. That doesn't work for conversation.
But I suspect that these will *not* be offered as medical devices
because that would add all sorts of regulatory hoops to be jumped through, no?
Selling earbuds is fine, but selling anything medical involves all sorts of standards that must be complied with, as well as any liability which is likely to come up sooner or later...
Apple has been working on hearing aid technology for years, and licences its technology for free to hearing aid manufacturers. Some of that technology makes its way into its own products. I have 80% hearing loss in one ear. I'm using AirPods Pro, tuned using the Mimi app and find that using just one AirPod in that bad ear makes a huge difference. The one downside of using earpod-style devices vs pukka hearing aids is battery life.
I'd be more interested..
If they could use this tech to treat tinnitus.
A lifetime of having my eardrums scream at me (getting slowly worse as I get older) would certainly be a boon so long as it could have some certifiable improvement.
N.B. Childhood inner ear infection which wasn't noticed until months afterwards left certain frequencies rather lacking, constant tinnitus and a legal ban on ever flying a plane so since my hearing is classified as 'poor' despite a lifetime of dealing with it and just never knowing what I'm missing (though higher quality hifi kit does have an appreciable improvement since individual sounds become clearer and thus more noticeable).
Gimp icon because my hearings been gimped for years.
Sounds like ...
Samsung is preparing to kill somebody's [1]Golden Goose .
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2021/03/22/who_me/
conducted by the Samsung Medical Center
they also found out they could be great as butt-plug but this part of independent Samsung research is classified.
Shop around.
A colleague just had a quote.
Boots ~ £3000
Specsavers ~ £2000
Online - £600
And yes the online ones were the same model as on of the above.
Still an utter con.
Still I guess as it tends to be the older generations or those with special needs that need hearing aids, why not rip them off eh?