Reading Glasses and Hearing Aids. Smart or FDA-Approved. Pick One.

Making Audio Augmentation useful for everyone, or pursue the regulatory requirements of OTC hearing aids. This article offers a useful perspective regarding the guidance documents published by the US Food and Drug Administration regarding improved access to hearing aid technology. The agency proposes a rule to establish a new category of over-the-counter (OTC) hearing aids - to be sold directly to consumers in stores or online without a medical exam or a fitting by an audiologist. But most audio manufacturers are better off by not pursuing this FDA-approved OTC market. Doing so will simply hinder critical experimentation and innovation.

Hearing solutions provider Sonova Holding AG, has signed an agreement to acquire the Consumer Division from Sennheiser electronic GmbH & Co. KG (Sennheiser). The announcement from the Switzerland-based company follows on the statement, made earlier in 2021, that Sennheiser was planning to focus on its Professional business, and aiming to secure a partnership to strengthen its market position in Consumer Electronics.

After surprising everyone at CES 2020 with the introduction of the Virto Black, a fully-connected in-the-ear (ITE) hearing aid that combines the breakthrough Marvel hearing technology with the style of a modern hearable, health care brand Phonak is challenging perceptions of hearing aids once again with the world premiere of the new Naída Marvel advanced hearing aid, expanding Bluetooth connectivity and featuring Marvel 2.0 technology including RogerDirect.

Hearing health care brand Phonak is challenging perceptions of hearing aids at CES 2020 with the world premiere of the Phonak Virto Black, a fully-connected in-the-ear hearing aid that combines the brand's Marvel hearing technology with the style of a modern hearable. In practice, the Phonak Virto Black will be able to do everything that standard true wireless earbuds allow, just that it is also a tunable hearing-aid, using hearing-aid non-rechargeable batteries and it will also cost a whole lot more.

CEVA announced that Sonova Holding AG, a leading provider of hearing solutions, has licensed and deployed CEVA’s RivieraWaves Bluetooth IP in its latest SWORD 3.0 wireless chip for hearing aids and other smart hearing devices. The latest generation wireless chip leverages RivieraWaves’ Bluetooth dual mode IP and Sonova’s ultra-low power communication technology to enable true stereo audio streaming to hearing aids.

Following Phonak's implementation in their Audéo B-Direct range of hearing aids, allowing direct connections to any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone, and the first product to make use of Sonova’s revolutionary SWORD (Sonova Wireless One Radio Digital) chip, now also Advanced Bionics, specialized in cochlear implants, announced that they will incorporate Sonova’s SWORD technology in their solutions. Current users of the Naída CI Q90 sound processor, and future recipients, will be able to connect to any Bluetooth-enabled cell phone.