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The Ear Trumpet
The first hearing aid creation is credited to Jean Leurechon, the French priest and mathematician. The Ear Trumpet is a device that resembles a mini tuba that is made from wood, animal horns, snail shells and sometimes silver or sheet metal. They were custom-made for clients by specialists, this ignited the invention of the hearing aid today. https://hearinghealthfoundation.org/blogs/hearing-aid-history-ear-trumpets-european-royalty-earbuds -
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TTY/TDD
In 1964, Robert H. Weinbrecht (1920–1983), James C. Marsters (1924–2009), and Andrew Saks (1917–1989) came together to develop a telephone system called the TTY for the deaf community. This would help them to become independent and less reliant on hearing people. They repurposed an old Teletype machine into a device that displays a typewritten conversation through the phone line. -
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Cochlear Implants
Cochlear implants are a device that is implanted into the cochlea; which is an electrical current used to stimulate the surviving auditory nerve fibers (Wilson, 2000). It is an approved method of treating hearing loss for people since the mid-1980s (House and Berliner, 1991). The first cochlear implant was introduced in 1972, over 1000 people were implanted. This number included several hundred children. -
High-Speed Processors and Microcomputers
In the 1980’s technology was at its peak where high-speed digital-array processors were used with minicomputers. In 1982 is when a new hearing aid was developed at the City University of New York. Even though these processed faster, they were too large and still used too much power to be considered usable. This was another step forward in the development of a device that could help boost the deaf community's independence! -
The First Fully Digital Hearing Aids
The Nicolet Corporation brought the first commercial digital hearing aid to the market. There was little commercial success, but companies took notice and the race to develop a viable hearing aid that would be commercially successful had begun. These developments occurred rapidly and companies introduced many digitally controlled hybrid instruments.