[randlet]

"I don't see the elderly changing but our generation just might."

I'm youngish (mid 30's) and recently had my hearing aids replaced and realized I had a strong preference to stick with fairly visible behind-the-ear units rather than something more "discrete". I want them to be visible so that people I'm interacting with will be more sympathetic about repeating themselves and may make an (possibly unconscious) effort to speak more clearly.

The line of thinking that got me over being self conscious was "Lot's of people walk around with assistive devices for their vision...why should I be embarrassed about the same thing for my hearing?"

[analog31]

If I notice that somebody has hearing aids, I make sure that they can see my lips when I'm talking.

[TheSpiceIsLife]

My first experience with a close friend who had partial hearing loss lead me to realise how much lip reading helped her. If she wasn't looking at your face her responses would often be nonsensical.

Also, I work in a noisy environment where hearing protection is mandatory, and I find I have less trouble understanding people if I can see their face.

[72deluxe]

That's very good reasoning. If a person with visual impairment walks around with a white stick, it's obvious and people normally cater for their needs. It shouldn't be any different with hearing.

What a good point.

I have an elderly friend who has suffered complete hearing loss in one ear after an infection and the other ear can only detect very very low frequencies, and he's constantly saying "PARDON?". It must be very difficult to hear ANYTHING going on, other than the rumble of lorries and buses. I wonder if they could put a pitch-shifting circuit in his hearing aid to shift sounds up/down so that they fall within his hearing range, whilst not shifting frequencies already in that range. That would help significantly, surely?

Just thinking out loud.

[jnbiche]

> I wonder if they could put a pitch-shifting circuit in his hearing aid to shift sounds up/down so that they fall within his hearing range, whilst not shifting frequencies already in that range. That would help significantly, surely?

If you read the article, you'll see that's more or less what most modern hearing aids do, via a technique called multi-band compression.

Edit: Actually, here anigbrowl, an audio engineer, states that this is not how multi-band compression works: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8854142

Assuming he is correct, my above statement may well be wrong.

[72deluxe]

Multiband compression works by splitting the incoming audio into different bands, much like your bass/mid/treble controls on your EQ only works on bass/mid/treble parts of the frequency range. Compression is then applied to only those frequencies and then they are summed together.

There is no pitch shifting in multiband compression - pitch shifting involves moving the frequency up or down by a number of cents, semitones, octaves etc. It's the effect used to get the "chipmonk" voice (high-pitch and squeaky) where a normal voice is fed into a pitch shifter and it is shifted up or down. It is also how harmonisers work, where they work out the frequency you're singing at and shift it up 7 notes (or an arbitrary amount) so you can sing and get a harmony of yourself.

[jimktrains2]

> fairly visible behind-the-ear units

I've had hearing aids like that for almost a year, and "fairly visible" is a stretch; they're pretty blasé and don't stand out.

[randlet]

You're right, they're still fairly subtle and probably not the first thing someone would notice about me, but if I turn my head slightly, you're bound to notice my ear moulds/tube.

[jimktrains2]

True, I do wear glasses as well, so they kind of blend into that as well.

[ramLlama]

I too wear BTE's with glasses and most people are surprised when I tell them I wear hearing aids. They cannot see them.

This is especially true of modern "Receiver In The Ear" (RITE) models where instead of a tube carrying sound, you have a very thin wire going into your ear canal.