iOS Hearing Aids… or, How to Buy Superman’s Ears
I mentioned in passing in my report from CES that my hearing, to put it bluntly, is lousy (see “CES 2011: More Exhausting News from the Future,” 12 January 2011). Best as I can tell, I’m one of those genetic mutants who inherited my right ear from my father and my left from my mother, causing the anomaly that my right ear can temporarily go deaf thanks to paternal narrow ear canals. Usually this ranks up there as no more bothersome than the problem that bright light makes me sneeze.
Occasionally, though, my poor hearing can be a real issue, such as last year when I was dating a woman whose vocal frequencies were entirely in my “I can’t hear you” range. Or the other day, when I was having a conversation with a soft-spoken European and missed 80 percent of what he was saying.
I used to accuse the ex-girlfriend whom I referenced in my CES coverage of being half-bat, due to her ability to hear things I completely missed. But what it comes down to is this: I have no idea if my hearing is genuinely impaired, because I don’t know what normal people can hear. Sure, I unconsciously read lips, I prefer movies with closed captioning, and I often ask people to repeat themselves, but I don’t know if I have a real problem, or I’m just middle-aged.
I was contemplating all this while listening to a podcast on my noise-reduction headphones, and thinking that it would be easiest if I could just interact with the real world in the same way. Then it occurred to me: of course I can. All I needed was an iOS app that picks up microphone audio from my iPhone earphones and plays it through in real time.
Ten minutes later, I had downloaded Smudge Apps’ Megaphone from the App Store for $1.99. Megaphone is marketed to people who want to use their iOS devices as voice microphones while connected to an amplifier or radio output, but it works fine for relaying sound picked up by the iPhone’s earphone-based microphone to my weak ear as well. Their Megaphone Free does the same thing for free, as you might surmise, but at the “cost” of ads and nagware to upgrade.
I’ve had two results: one nearly amazing, and the other quite creepy. The amazing result: the setup works perfectly. I keep one earphone in my right ear and leave the left one dangling; this avoids the visual cue that I’m listening to something and don’t want to have a conversation. The microphone on the earphones picks up any speech that’s directed to me, and Megaphone amplifies it before it hits my right eardrum. I’ve had zero issues hearing people in conversation since I’ve tried this trick.
The only downside: Megaphone doesn’t use iOS 4 multitasking, so when I leave the app, my hearing aid disappears as well. (With Megaphone Free, accidentally tapping the huge Upgrade button switches to Safari, which also turns off the microphone.) The ideal alternative would be an app I could run in the background in conjunction with the iPod app, so I could listen to music as well as interact with the world around me. But it’s not particularly obtrusive to fire up Megaphone as an on-demand hearing aid for a given conversation. My next experiment will be to try out a Bluetooth headset, making me into one of those oh-so-stylish people who wears one all day. (But I expect that the main reason to stick with wired earphones is that I won’t have to deal with battery issues beyond the iPhone itself.)
Which brings me to the creepy issue. Use Megaphone with the normal iPhone earphones, and the mic pickup sits just below your chin; you’ll hear only sound that’s directed at you. But switch your iPhone earphones for the standard iPod earphones, which don’t have a mic, and now you’ll be using the rather sensitive omnidirectional microphone that’s built into the iPhone and fourth-generation iPod touch.
I tried this out for the first time while standing outside of a Starbucks, and suddenly I could hear the footsteps of anyone walking by. Snatches of a conversation at a 20-foot distance. I heard a siren, and then was shocked to see an ambulance pass by three blocks away. Traffic and ambient noise are also amplified, of course, but our brains have had a quarter-million years to learn how to separate out important sound frequencies, and that, plus my lip-reading abilities, turned me into a rather powerful eavesdropper. Walk into my Starbucks and observe me with my earphones in and my iPhone with the screen turned off, and you’ll probably assume I can’t hear a thing. But I can probably hear you place your order as well as the barista can.
No, I can’t listen in on your entire conversation from across the room, but I think I need to close that sentence with “just yet.” With some more experience in lip reading, I think I might be able to. More to the point, with a different app that lets me alter the sound waveform in real-time to focus on a particular voice, or with an unobtrusive directional mic (mounted on my glasses, perhaps?), this would be child’s play.
So this experiment leaves me with two thoughts: First, for two bucks I’ve just purchased a hearing aid which works damned well. Second, nearly everyone I encounter has an iPhone, iPod touch, Android gizmo, or similar device that can be used for this purpose; it might not be long before holding private conversations in public spaces might be a very bad idea. And it may have happened already.
Sounds like those "Big Ear" devices that used to be advertised in the back of comic books, or one of the "As Seen On TV" amplification devices that look like those ubiquitous "Borg-implants" you see everywhere.
They did this on the TV series, "Burn Notice," during season three I believe it was. I just thought listening in on private conversations that far away without a directional microphone was Hollywood spycraft, guess not.
Intriguing. I have rather the opposite problem myself.
I've always had the most finicky, high-pitch sensitive hearing. The magnified ambient noise, hearing people and traffic from a ways off, and snatched conversations from across a busy room? Welcome to my acoustic world.
In summer here in Edinburgh it's easy to find bats in the evening. And, yes, I can actually hear at least a part of their chattering calls. Very directionally too: I can point them out before they arrive in sight. Usually only children can manage this, but a few adults do keep that well over 20 kHz part of hearing range.
Another trick is I can often hear bad cuts in songs or movies, because the telltale click or sudden change in texture is outside normal range.
It's not all rosy though. I don't claim to have great hearing overall. Often enough, people have to repeat themselves for me too as they are lost in the roar of engines, tyres, or the wind. You're right the brain should filter that stuff out. It may be my middle and low frequency response is lower now than when I last had a hearing test as a kid.
My eyesight's not as good as yours, even with glasses, so I've never tried lipreading. That's a true skill. Use it wisely!
I'm not a true lipreader. But with the extra information it's easier for me to make out conversation. Take away all sound, and I can't do it. I apparently learned this as a coping strategy, didn't realize I was doing it until I lost conversations when people covered their mouths.
Not sure why you wouldn't just get a hearing aide (or two). From personal experience, I'll bet you are probably missing more than you think, especially if you were surprised to hear a siren from 3 blocks away
Some folks are reporting difficulties posting here. If you have an issue, feel free to email me. Summarizing the emails I've received:
On the advice of Larry Goldberg, I'm checking out SoundAMP R from Ginger Labs, which is expressly made for the purpose. Thanks, I completely missed that app.
And for folks who expressed concern: thanks to all. Long story short: my hearing issues are mechanical and temporary, but advice that I should see an audiologist is well-meaning and will be followed shortly.
Thanks Jeff! I have hearing aids -- they don't solve my problem with the gentle, soft-voiced people I hang out with, and I'm continually frustrated with the audiologists I've had. The megaphone is amazingly effective and I'm going to try it out tomorrow night at the Buddhist group.
As someone who was really tired of asking my teenage daughter to repeat herself and having her give up in frustration... Go get a hearing test. Then drop $1200 (each) on a behind the ear hearing air. They're not perfect but they make a huge difference.