Tympan.org just announced releasing of the first open source hearing aid hardware, which allows the researchers and developers to create low-cost hearing aid devices and applications.
Tympan is providing an open source development platform for hearing aids, music and acoustics which includes the software and hardware as open source development ready for researchers ,as it is committed to open source as it declare its commitment to open source design principles, and aims to " accelerate research studies and facilitate translation of novel algorithms into widespread use.".
Tympan's hearing aid uses Teensy which means it has a very small footprint. RevD has 2 digital MEMS Microphone and Bluetooth BC127. It has additional pins for developers to extend the features.
Teensy is an Arduino compatible USB-based microcontroller development system, It's favoured by many developers around the world because its modularity, features, and developer-friendly supported tools and community. It's used in robotics, to create drones , even customised ergonomic Keyboards and devices.
There are 2 open source hearing aid products by Tympan: RevC and RevD , Tympan RevC is available for purchase at $250, While RevD is due to be released sometime soon. The cost is very cheap comparing to commercial alternatives.
Why the need for open-source hearing aid hardware?
Open-source model will help accelerate solving several problems for the current hearing aid devices as it will allow researchers and developers from the whole world to participate in prototyping, development, testing and production of new low-cost open source powered hearing aid solutions.
Cameron Coward answers that in his article about Tympan's new platform, explaining how hearing aid device works, what's the problem and why there is a room/ need for more improvements.
- Cover photo source: SMART
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