The Buzz on Hearing

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. (Ivanhoe Broadcast News) -- Rabbi Rachel Esserman is one of the 28 million Americans suffering from hearing loss. When it comes to hearing aids, she says, "I love them and I hate them. I love them because they make life easier. I hate them because the molds are uncomfortable.”

The fit isn’t the only thing hearing aid users complain about.  Even though hearing aids amplify sounds, they don’t block out background noise, and sometimes it's difficult to tell which direction voices are coming from. "It would be like watching a tennis game, or a ping-pong game, or a tennis match where you’re always just behind the ball," Rabbi Esserman says.

Now, acoustic engineer Ron Miles, Ph.D., of Binghamton University in New York has developed a new, directional hearing aid inspired by flies. “The fly turns out to have some pretty interesting mechanical structures that enables it to respond differently when sounds come from different directions, so we're trying to mimic that basic idea," he says.

Dr. Miles' new hearing aid contains a tiny microphone modeled after a fly's ear that works like a teeter-totter. “So when sound comes from this direction, it rocks, but if a sound came form this direction, it wouldn’t rock," he explains.

Rabbi Esserman works at a newspaper and uses lip reading in addition to her hearing aids. She says any improvement in the technology would be helpful. "One of the most important things they talk about is communication in a job, in a marriage in a family," she says. "Well hey, talk about the person who can’t tell whether or not something is being communicated."

Thanks to Dr. Miles, Rabbi Esserman and millions of others can look forward to hearing good news about hearing aids.

This article was reported by Ivanhoe.com, which offers Medical Alerts by e-mail every day of the week. To subscribe, click on: http://www.ivanhoe.com/newsalert/.

If you would like more information, please contact:

Ron Miles, Ph.D.
miles@binghamton.edu