As the popularity of the smartphone seems to have swallowed the nation, the mashup of medical services and smartphone technology is becoming more and more plausible. BioAid, a UK-based company, offers one such service in providing a hearing aid smartphone application. The team has developed a system by which users can configure the app to one of 6 possible settings, according to their individual condition. The phone takes in surrounding sounds via the built-in microphone, and then plays it back to the in real-time through the loudspeaker or headphones. This extremely cost-effective alternative to the traditional hearing aid is also unique in its ability not only to amplify the small sounds, but also to mute the extremely loud noises that tend to plague the hearing-impaired population.
Professor Ray Meddis, formerly a professor of psychology at the University of Essex, is part of the BioAid development team. Here he explains the product in more detail:
Besides offering improvement of life for the hearing-impaired, this app also signals a new age of medical technology: cheaper, easier, and increasingly user-friendly.