SparkFun Forums

[knuckles]

many older guys are now needing a hearing aid but prices are absurd ($1000s )so could sparkfun come up with a kit of parts to make a small device to aid hearing ? with todays tech it should be easy to drive the price down to rock bottom and outsell the hearing aids makers who sell at ridiculous prices.its an artificial priced market at the moment without any sense .
this could fit into their portfolio of kits

[MichaelN]

Modern hearing aids are technological marvels, containing advanced digital signal processing in tiny packages that consume hardly any power. The manufacturers use custom ICs that aren't available to other companies. Also, I believe that these tiny hearing aids are generally custom molded to the user's ears.

There's no way that Sparkfun could offer a kit to come close to this size or capability. The best you could hope for would be a kit for an "external" type hearing aid, maybe the size of a car remote control keyfob. I think various companies offer such hearing aids cheaply anyway.

[knuckles]

what do you think of the clones on chinabay ?
surely robots in the coming years will need to respond to voice commands so hearing devices have some future?
and google glass appears to have some kind of hearing device on the arm .
#who makes the chips in the devices that costs $1000s ?
surely theres a massive markup here .
and why cant they be cloned ?

[MichaelN]

what do you think of the clones on chinabay ?

Not sure - I'd check more relevant forums to see what people recommend.

#who makes the chips in the devices that costs $1000s ?
surely theres a massive markup here .
and why cant they be cloned ?

Proprietary chips are expensive since the development cost is spread over a small number of units compared to chips that are made in their millions. Also, sometimes very low power chips will use exotic materials / manufacturing technology to achieve the required performance. As you suggest, you may be able to get something decent for a fraction of the cost from China / Ebay.

[bungalow_steve]

You can buy the chips and they are cheap (nanadsp for example). The problem is the mechanics not the electronics. You have to use the bare IC chip (with the package removed), and custom mould for each ear. It's like a digital wristwatch, easy to make at home, but will be clunky compared to real thing. And yes, it seems the hearing aid people are run by the mafia.