Custom self-fit, Bluetooth 5, rechargeable, noise reduction, extended hearing range.
OoshEars are the hearing aids we wish existed so we could buy them for ourselves. If you try to buy hearing aids today, your choices would be either very expensive full featured ones (average price of hearing aids is $4600), or bare bones cheap ones.
Where are the hearing aids for the rest of us? Hearing aids that work well in noisy places, that are comfortable to wear, that can stream phone calls and music, that look good? And hopefully priced less than a car!
OoshEars design prototype
OoshEars are our answer. OoshEars are affordable full featured hearing aids. How is this possible?
The answer is in our Self Fit technology. OoshEars are made for mild & moderate hearing loss. Majority of hearing loss cases are straightforward and uncomplicated. Fitting hearing aids can be done with technology. OoshEars use our custom Self Fit technology for precise fitting. This saves thousands of dollars in cost that we pass on to you as savings.
OoshEars design prototype with a bundled smartphone app
OoshEars are packed with premium features usually found only in very expensive hearing aids: custom fitting, Bluetooth 5 dual-mode, aptX streaming, extended hearing range, rechargeable batteries, 16 WDRC, omni & directional microphones, noise reduction, feedback cancellation, on-device controls, smartphone app control, unlimited custom programs.
Self Fit
The key feature of OoshEars hearing aids is Self Fit technology. Here is how it works:
The first time you put OoshEars in your ears, the bundled smartphone app will ask you to go to a quiet place to take a quick hearing test (a pure tone audiometry test, similar to what is used in commercial audiometers).
Taking a hearing test with the OoshEars mobile app
The test will configure OoshEars to your unique hearing (using 16 WDRC – wide dynamic range channels). But that’s not all. For an even better fit, you will also have full access to adjust the settings* at each frequency.
So for example, you might visit a noisy restaurant where the sound of clanking plates is unbearably loud. You would simply open the app, lower the 8 kHz slider until everything sounds great, and save the new config as a stored program for future use in noisy restaurants.
Or you might be in a meeting room with acoustics that dampens high frequencies making it hard for you to understand speech. You would simply open the app, and increase the 4 – 8 kHz sliders until you hear well again.
Any time you feel your hearing has changed, you can quickly re-fit OoshEars. For example, someone with Meniere’s disease whose hearing loss changes daily, can re-fit his OoshEars each morning in 5 minutes.
Our smartphone app will remind you at certain intervals to re-fit your hearing aids. It’s quick, easy and convenient.
* You have full access to manually adjust each WDRC channel. WDRC channels are what makes hearing aids so helpful. Unlike simpler EQ controls that one may find in some personal sound amplification products (PSAPs), WDRC channels don’t just make the sounds louder, but also help intelligibility.
Comfortable Stylish Design
Final design, – what OoshEars will look like after manufacturing
OoshEars are designed to be comfortable to wear the whole day. Comfortable if you fall asleep in them, or wear a helmet over them. We make sure OoshEars stay in place when you run, or jump, or do yoga handstands.
OoshEars are designed to look stylish. From color, to shape, to materials, OoshEars enhance your looks.
Bluetooth Streaming Music and Voice
OoshEars support dual mode Bluetooth 5 (Classic and Low Energy). That means you can connect directly to your iPhone, Android, TV or car.
OoshEars also support AptX Adaptive, a modern codec for HD music streaming. AptX Adaptive is an evolution of AptX and AptX HD supporting up to 420 kbps.
Rechargeable Swappable Batteries
Let’s face it, rechargeable batteries are much better than single use batteries. They are more convenient, cheaper in the long run, and better for the environment. There is only one problem with using them in hearing aids, – once they run out, you are stuck without a working hearing aid.
So we invented swappable rechargeable batteries for OoshEars. Rechargeable batteries are held in a housing that attaches with magnets to the main case. It took a lot of tries to get the magnets working well. Here is our first attempt, not so great:
OoshEars first prototype with magnets
Magnets seem like a simple thing to do. But they need to be strong enough to hold together the whole day year after year, yet gentle enough so you can change the batteries easily. Our later attempt, working much better:
OoshEars second prototype with magnets
To make sure that you always have a working hearing aid, each OoshEars package includes two spare swappable batteries. The charging case has special sockets for charging these spare batteries, so you always have a pair of batteries ready to go.
We estimate that each battery will last for 3 hours while streaming music, and the whole day in the hearing aids mode.
Extended Frequency Range
A healthy hearing range is from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. But most hearing aids augment hearing only up to 6 or 8 kHz. Why? Because that’s the range of speech. Which is fine if all you care about is understanding speech.
We care a lot about understanding speech. That’s why we have noise reduction, feedback cancellation and other advanced algorithms. But we also care greatly about hearing music, animals, birds and the rest of the world! So we designed OoshEars to augment hearing up to at least 10 kHz. And we really hope we can go even higher, up to 12 or even 14 kHz (we are still testing the highest range that’s feasible).
Noise Reduction
Hearing well in noisy environments such as restaurants or busy streets is one of the key challenges for hard of hearing individuals. OoshEars comes with several technologies to help you hear better in the presence of noise:
Digital Noise Reduction – each hearing aid comes with two microphones, an omnidirectional one and a front facing one. This enables OoshEars to detect and differentiate speech from background noise, and to amplify only the speech.
Active Noise Cancellation – when your OoshEars are streaming music or phone calls, the background noises are cancelled out. This requires that you use a closed dome.
Domes
OoshEars come with 2 types of domes: open and closed. You can choose which ones you prefer, each have their own advantages.
Open domes let sound through so they feel a bit more natural. Closed domes block sound, so they protect your ears from loud sounds, allow better noise reduction, but they may make your own voice sound a bit weird. You can swap domes at any time.
Components
OoshEars are build with premium components: DSPs from Qualcomm, balanced armature drivers and MEMS microphones from Knowles, sensors from Azoteq.
Prototyping with Ezairo DSP development board
What’s Inside your OoshEars package
- left ear hearing aid
- right ear hearing aid
- 2 additional rechargeable batteries
- charging case with USB-C cable
- 6 open domes (2 each of Small, Medium, Large)
- 6 closed domes (2 each of Small, Medium, Large)
- iPhone or Android app (installed via Apple Store or Play Store)
Who are OoshEars for
OoshEars are for mentally able adults with a mild to moderate (up to 55 db HL) hearing loss. Configuring and controlling OoshEars requires an iPhone or an Android smartphone.
Where we are now
We spent the last two years researching and prototyping OoshEars, building our team, selecting suppliers, testing components, forming partnerships. We are now ready to go ahead with the final design and production.
Team
OoshEars was founded in 2019 by Dr. Karen Arman Pivazyan and Eugene Zhebko. Arman is an experienced IT entrepreneur (Official Human), with engineering and math degrees from Stanford University and MIT. Eugene is an experienced EE entrepreneur (Mammoth eBike) and a professional musician (Pur:Pur).
Besides our two founders, OoshEars team includes experts in electrical & software engineering, audiology, manufacturing, design.
We are also supported by our development partners AREG and ArtKB.
AREG – our development partners
Project Timeline
Thank You
Many people helped us bring OoshEars to life. We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who supported us throughout these two years making OoshEars a reality.
Final design, – what OoshEars charger will look like after manufacturing
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