Google have announced that they are rolling out captions to all videos on Youtube. A little while back they announced a test of captioning for a small number of videos. I guess they’ve ironed out any problems seen during the trial run and they’re now ready to offer across the board. From Google themselves on March 4th 2010:

Today, we are opening up auto-captions to all YouTube users. There will even be a “request processing” button for un-captioned videos that any video owner can click on if they want to speed up the availability of auto-captions. It will take some time to process all the available video, so here are some things to keep in mind:

• While we plan to broaden the feature to include more languages in the months to come, currently, auto-captioning is only for videos where English is spoken.
• Just like any speech recognition application, auto-captions require a clearly spoken audio track. Videos with background noise or a muffled voice can’t be auto-captioned. President Obama’s speech on the recent Chilean Earthquake is a good example of the kind of audio that works for auto-captions.
• Auto-captions aren’t perfect and just like any other transcription, the owner of the video needs to check to make sure they’re accurate. In other cases, the audio file may not be good enough to generate auto-captions. But please be patient — our speech recognition technology gets better every day.
• Auto-captions should be available to everyone who’s interested in using them. We’re also working to provide auto-captions for all past user uploads that fit the above mentioned requirements. If you’re having trouble enabling them for your video, please visit our Help Center: this article is for uploaders and this article is for viewers.

For content owners, the power of auto-captioning is significant. With just a few quick clicks your videos can be accessed by a whole new global audience. And captions can make is easier for users to discover content on YouTube.

Twenty hours of video is uploaded to YouTube every minute. Making some of these videos more accessible to people who have hearing disabilities or who speak different languages, not only represents a significant advancement in the democratization of information, it can also help foster greater collaboration and understanding.

I remember being so conscious of my hearing aids when I first started wearing them. It felt like they were HUGE! It felt like there was a big flashing neon arrow above my head pointing right at my ears and a sign up reading, “Hey, check this guy out, look at his ears!”.

I still do find myself wondering from time to time if people have spotted them and what they are thinking about them. Last happened a few weeks ago when I was on a bus and there was two people sat right behind me.

Thing is though, most people just don’t care about you or your hearing aids, they are too busy wrapped up in their own stuff and worrying about their own problems. There’s no neon sign.

The competition to win a year’s supply of hearing aid batteries ends today. You’ve got until midnight (UK time) to get your entry in and give yourself a chance to win a bunch of Rayovacs.https://hearingaidknow.home.blog/2010/02/01/win-a-years-supply-of-hearing-aid-batteries/

Good luck – you’ve got to be in it to win it!

The following is a guest post from Samantha Harvey of Sarabec Hearing Products – the personal listening device specialists.

Listening to the television and radio, using a telephone, or even answering the doorbell are things some people take for granted, but if you are hard of hearing these things are a real struggle. Assistive Listening Devices (ALD) can help. Here, we will look at how to choose the best device for your needs.

Hearing Aids

Many people who are hard of hearing often wear hearing aids to help listen in their everyday life. But these might not always work very well, especially if you are driving or are in a noisy restaurant. Hearing aids, unfortunately, are not 100% perfect and may you need an additional device such as an Assistive Listening Device to help hear clearly. Using the two together will be a significant improvement.

Benefits of Assistive Listening Devices

Assisted Listening Devices have several benefits for those who are hard of hearing:

• Lots of devices to choose from. From phone amplifiers to TV listeners, there are devices to improve your everyday life. You can even get baby monitors and smoke alarms.
• ALDs bring distant sounds to your ears, so it almost appears that someone is talking into both of yours at the same time, making sound that much clearer.
• ALDs cut out background noise. Microphones are much closer to the speaker’s mouth than other devices, so you only pick up the sounds going into the microphone, not anything else. Meetings, restaurants and parties become much more enjoyable with an ALD.
• Many ALDs are portable. You can take a personal amplifier wherever you go, even on holiday.

Downsides

There are some downsides to ALDs which users need to be aware of:

• Some ALDs can be expensive.
• Battery powered devices may need frequent battery changes.
• You may still need to use a hearing aid with them.

Types of ALDs available

There are several kinds of ALDs available to buy. They use several types of technology to help you listen. No technology is completely perfect and you may find some types work better than others. Choose one suited to your needs, budget and accommodation/situation. Technologies available include personal amplifiers, radio systems, induction loop systems and Bluetooth systems.

• Personal amplifiers are small portable devices which amplify ambient sound e.g. in the cinema, group conversations and watching TV. These amplifiers can be used with an induction loop system for the hard of hearing in public spaces – you don’t even need to use your hearing aid. If you are in a meeting or personal conversation, you can also clip a lapel microphone to the person you are speaking to, plug it into your personal amplifier, attach a neck loop and listen to the person through the t-coils in your hearing aids. This helps to cut out any background noise. The downside to this is that you are wired together and can’t move around easily.
• Radio systems use radio waves to send sound to your device. Because they have no wires, you have greater freedom of movement and range. You can sit at the back of a lecture theatre, for example, and listen to the lecturer. You do need to ensure the speaker will wear your transmitter/microphone. You can also buy TV amplifiers which use radio technology and are ideal if you don’t want to trip over any wires. Doorbells, telephones and alarms are other devices which use this technology.
• Induction Loop systems use magnetic fields to send sound from the speaker to your ears. These are often the most affordable devices. You need to have a hearing aid which has t-coils to use them.

You can buy neck loops to wear around your neck for personal use and install a room loop to help hear the TV. With these loops, you can hear it anywhere in the room.

• Bluetooth systems use Bluetooth technology to listen to devices even if they are in your pocket or bag. They are perfect for use with mobile phones and laptops.
• Whilst not a technology, telephone amplifiers are available to help increase the caller’s voice.

ALDs can improve the quality of life for the hard of hearing. The range of devices available can help listening wherever you are and make everyday tasks accessible once more.

New research is hoping to understand how the human brain hears sound to help develop improved hearing aids and automatic speech recognition systems.

Led by the Universities of Southampton and Cambridge, the research aims to develop physiologically-inspired algorithms, which mimic how our brain hears sound to improve on traditional signal processing algorithms.

The novelty of the research is that instead of looking at signal energy – as today’s artificial devices do – the researchers are concentrating on how the brain processes sound information instead.

Dr Stefan Bleeck, from the Institute of Sound and Vibration Research at the University of Southampton, is looking to create algorithms based on neuronal responses to give insights into how sound is coded within the brain. Once researchers know better how sound is coded, they will be able to select the parts that code speech and the ones that code unwanted noise. They will then be able to resynthesize sound in hearing aids with reduced noise, but with quality intact, to enhance speech intelligibility.

Today’s speech enhancement systems can reduce noise and increase speech quality, but they are not good at improving speech intelligibility, especially in noisy situations where users have to concentrate to pick out single speakers. With about 10 per cent of the UK population hearing impaired, current signal processing technology hasn’t come up with a suitable system to enhance speech intelligibility.

Dr Bleeck says: “Today, it is still the ultimate goal for the speech signal processing community to develop speech enhancement systems that perform as well as humans in noisy situations. Normal hearing humans still easily outperform any technical system – sound processing in the brain is more successful than signal processing in silicone. A system that works as well as a human would lead to the next revolution in human communication and would greatly benefit hearing impaired people.

You can read this press release in full at the –>Southampton University website.

THIS COMPETITION IS NOW CLOSED! 

Enter this great hearing aid battery giveaway and don’t spend another penny on powering your ears for a whole year!

All you have to do for you chance to win is leave a comment below and tell me the following:

1. How long have you been wearing hearing aids?
2. What type do you wear?

Yeah, it’s that easy! So what are you waiting for?

Competition rules: Only one entry per person. The prize is 120 (20 x 6 packs) Rayovac hearing aid batteries of any size. No cash alternative to prize will be offered.

Competition closes on Sunday 21st February. A winner will be chosen at random and notified via email.

Don’t forget to leave your name and correct email address when entering so that I can contact you if you win. This competition is open to everyone, I will ship the prize anywhere. Good luck!

When people think of hearing aids, they might think more of old ear trumpets than high-quality, advanced devices, but the integration of Bluetooth with hearing aid technology is changing that. Hearing aid manufacturers are lately using Bluetooth as a tool to improve their products, and each manufacturer is taking a different approach.

I first became aware of Bluetooth technology and hearing aids in 2009, when I purchased a set of Oticon Epoq aids through my audiologist. The Bluetooth technology used by Oticon allows my hearing aids to communicate to each other, allows me to listen to music without headphones, and make calls without holding the phone up to my ear.

What is Bluetooth?
Bluetooth has actually been around since 1994, created by Ericsson, a telecommunications company. Bluetooth can seem mysterious, but it’s actually pretty simple – it uses radio frequencies to allow devices to communicate without cables or wiring. Bluetooth essentially creates a tiny wireless network between multiple devices, for a multitude of purposes.

What Good is Bluetooth for Hearing Aids?
Bluetooth can be used to allow a wearer’s hearing aids to communicate with hands-free devices, like music players and cellphones. It can also be used to allow two hearing aids to communicate to one another, which enhances a user’s hearing experience.

Bluetooth hearing aids often come with an additional device, specific to each manufacturer. The cost of this device could be bundled into the price of the aids or could come at an additional cost. My audiologist threw in my Streamer device for free with my purchase of Oticon Epoq hearing aids in 2009, so look around for good deals.

What Are Some Examples?
The hearing aid manufacturer Oticon uses Bluetooth in their Streamer device. The Streamer is paired with both the hearing aids and the devices a person wants to use. It acts as a go-between, and is worn around the neck. This is the device I use. In my experience, the Streamer is pretty reliable, but getting the Streamer paired with the hearing aids can be a little tricky; it needs to be done by an audiologist.

Oticon also sells a line of products under their ConnectLine brand, which includes an adapter for televisions, and landline phones. For cellphones and other devices that have Bluetooth built in, all you need to do is pair the Streamer with the device, and it will automatically send sounds directly to your aids.

I have not tried the following technologies, but they are definitely worth researching, as part of the overall process when looking into new hearing aid technology:

Phonak uses a device called the iCom, which seems to operate similarly to the Streamer, and is similarly worn around the neck; Seimens uses Tek Connect, which is also similar. Starkey customers who wear behind-the-ear hearing aid can use the ELI, or Ear-Level Instrument, which attaches to the hearing aid itself. And ReSound’s Alera hearing aids can use their Unite accessories. What’s nice about the Unite accessories in particular is that they require only the accessory and the hearing aids, no extra wires or cables.

Other companies seem to be getting into the Bluetooth accessory ballgame when it comes to hearing aids. For example, Nokia has introduced their Wireless Loopset, which allows users with T-coil equipped hearing aids to have a connection to their cellphones. The loopset allows for more control than many of the accessories from hearing aid manufacturers – it can not only control volume, but also volume range and frequency.

What Should I Think About Before I Buy?
First, talk things over with your audiologist. By working together, both of you can determine whether or not new hearing aids would be a good fit for you.

Consider your lifestyle and what you would use a Bluetooth hearing aid for. You’ll need to keep track of not only the aids, but also another accessory, and remember to keep it charged. You may need to upgrade your gadgets (cellphone and music player) for Bluetooth compatibility, and you may need to make an extra visit or two back to the audiologist to ensure everything gets properly paired and set up correctly.

In my opinion, Bluetooth hearing aids represent a solid step forward in hearing aid technology – as long as you do your research.

This is a guest article by Megan Sparks.

Megan Sparks is a 24-year-old native resident of Arizona, who has been blogging about deafness, tech, and assorted geekery at Hearing Sparks since she upgraded her hearing aids in 2009.

In time for the holidays, Hear the World is offering a special kind of gift: international stars such as Jude Law, Elle Macpherson, Lenny Kravitz and Laura Pausini have been photographed by rock star and photographer Bryan Adams for the Hear the World initiative. These pictures are exclusively available for you to admire in the Hear the World calendar 2010.

Reserve your copy of this limited edition calendar now for EUR 19.90 / USD 29.90 / GBP 17.89 / CHF 29.90 to support the charitable projects run by the Hear the World Foundation. All net sales proceeds will go to the Hear the World Foundation. This Foundation is committed to using its financial resources and supplying hearing systems to improve the quality of life for people who suffer from hearing loss.

You can get yourself one from the Hear The World website.

This is from the iTunes hearing loss simulator app store page:“Have you ever wondered what it’s like to have a hearing loss? Do you have a family member with hearing loss? The Hearing Loss Simulator allows you to choose a specific hearing loss configuration and then listen to sounds as though you have that particular hearing loss. The Hearing Loss Simulator contains pre-recorded common sounds and has the option to let you record your own voice for playback through the different hearing loss configurations. The Hearing Loss Simulator includes graphics to show where the common sounds, speech, and individual speech sounds are located for loudness and frequency.”

This looks great! I wish I had an iPad just to get this app (which isn’t going to happen seeing as iPads are £500 here in the UK). I’m going to email Starkey to see if there’s an iPod version.

If you’ve ever phoned a computer support helpline or asked your company’s I.T. support team for help then you’ve probably heard these immortal words:“Have you tried turning it off and then on again?”

It’s become a bit of a joke but it actually works and solves many computer problems. A computer has two types of memory, one is physically stored on a disk and is remembered every time you use the computer and the other is a short-term memory that is forgotten every time you switch off. If the thing causing problems is in short-term memory then restarting solves the problem.

I guess you can see where I’m going with this?

Hearing aids are mini-computers, they have the same long-term and short-term memories. A hearing aid is running computer software that analyzes the sounds coming into your ear and converts them to something you want to hear based on configurations and settings made by the hearing aid manufacturer and your hearing aid provider.

Just as with computers, hearing aid software can sometimes go wrong (maybe due to a software bug) and so quickly switching it off and then on again may help you hear through until you can get back to the audiologist to get it fixed properly.