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Whisper hearing brain

October 26, 2020/in Hearing aids Devon, News /by admin

A New Subscription Hearing Aid with Big Brains for Hearing Care

Read the article here at the Hearing Review

Whisper may have a quiet name, but it could reverberate loudly in the hearing healthcare industry. The company launched its first new hearing aid on October 15—a product that really is significantly different from all others dispensed by audiologists and hearing aid specialists. And, yes, that’s right: the Whisper Hearing System is designed for dispensing by hearing care professionals. As such, Whisper represents the first new major hearing aid manufacturer with a product specifically designed for dispensing since the InSound Medical XT was approved by the FDA in 2003 (later purchased in 2010 by Sonova and renamed Lyric).

Whisper-ai-RIC-hearing-aids-and-brain
The Whisper RIC hearing aids and brain.

And a bit like Lyric, Whisper will use a subscription payment model for consumers. The leasing concept is gaining ground in hearing healthcare, in part due to the fact that technology moves so fast, hearing aids can be expensive, and frequent product upgrades are now a given in the industry. Whisper will be available via a comprehensive monthly plan that includes ongoing care from a local hearing care professional, a lease of the Whisper Hearing System, regular software upgrades, and a 3-year warranty that not only covers the system itself but also loss and damage. The company is offering a special introductory rate of $139/month (regularly $179/month) for a 3-year term.

The New Whisper Hearing System

The Whisper Hearing System essentially has three components:

  1. A hearing aid processor that resembles an advanced receiver-in-the-canal (RIC) hearing aid;
  2. The Whisper Brain is a small device that runs an AI-driven Sound Separation Engine to optimize sound in real time. It also enables connectivity to iPhones, and
  3. A phone app that provides an interface for the consumer.

The Whisper team, which is largely composed of executives from the AI field, created the Whisper brain as a dedicated, powerful sound processing system that also allows for updates and other capabilities—instead of relying on the wearer’s smartphone for many of these functions. “We developed the Whisper Brain to run the core technology we’ve developed for hearing,” said company Co-founder and President Andrew Song in an interview with Hearing Review. “Think about your smartphone and all the processing inside it. We’re using the Whisper Brain to apply this type of processing to hearing without having to compete with smartphone games or applications. The Whisper Brain is a dedicated processor designed to provide the best hearing.”

However, the Whisper Brain isn’t required to use the hearing aid, as there may be situations where the wearer wants to step away from it or not take it with them. In those situations, the hearing aid uses the “onboard” hearing aid algorithms in the RIC (similar to other advanced hearing aids when unpaired to the user’s cell phone).

Wireless connectivity with iPhones is also provided through the Whisper Brain via Bluetooth, and the company says it may support other phones and has plans to expand on this in the future. The RICs use a size 675 battery with an expected use of 4-5 days with typical use including streaming, and the Whisper Brain has a USB port for recharging.

Not Your Grandfather’s Hearing Aid

Andrew-Song-Whisper-ai
Andrew Song

According to Song, Whisper started about 3 years ago in San Francisco when he began discussions with another Whisper co-founder, Dwight Crow, the company’s CEO. Song is the former head of products for an online instant-messaging (IM) system most of us are familiar with: Facebook Messenger Core. A mathematics and computer science graduate of the University of Waterloo, he is an expert in artificial intelligence and a member of Sequoia Capital’s Scout Program which was formed to discover and develop promising companies. Crow is the founder of Carsabi, a machine-learning based car sales aggregator acquired by Facebook in 2012, and he helped build the e-commerce segment at Facebook which yields over $1 billion per quarter in revenue. A third co-founder, Shlomo Zippel, was the applications team leader at PrimeSense which built the 3D sensor technology behind Microsoft Kinect.

Jim-Kothe-Whisper
Jim Kothe

The company then added as head of sales Jim Kothe, an audiologist and hearing industry veteran who has a wealth of experience within both the dispensing community and manufacturing, in addition to an extremely impressive team of executives with experience and leadership roles at companies like Facebook, Nest, Google, Invisalign, Johnson & Johnson, Solta Medical, and Cutera. Together they are collaborating on a product that blends artificial intelligence, hearing care, hardware, and software for helping solve the challenge of providing better hearing.

“I think for me, and probably for everyone at the company, it’s a very personal mission,” says Song. “Personally, the starting point is really my grandfather. He has hearing loss and is not an uncommon story when you work in this business: I’d say that he’s a hearing aid owner, but not a hearing aid wearer.”

This set into motion Song’s investigation into what hearing aid technology was doing, what experiences people were having with it, and why his grandfather had the complaints he did. “That really opened my world to all the exciting things that could be done, but also the opportunity we have for how we can really build a product to help [people like him],” says Song. “Since then we’ve been putting the product together and bringing the expertise that comes from hearing folks like Jim and the others on our team—and blending it with the kind of product and technology ideas we almost take for granted here in Silicon Valley. Products are becoming more consumer friendly, more consumer oriented, and we’re building some of those ideas into a new type of hearing aid product. So, while Whisper is a hearing aid regulated by the FDA, all of these things influenced our approach, our mentality, and our vision towards this space, and we think our approach is a little different [from those of other hearing aid manufacturers].”

The larger capacity for processing power is extremely exciting for Song and his colleagues, and he likens this advancement to the leap from analog to digital hearing technology.

The larger capacity for processing power is extremely exciting for Song and his colleagues, and he likens this advancement to the leap from analog to digital hearing technology. He says some great hearing aid algorithms have been, and will continue to be, created that will result in substantially improved hearing. However, there’s little point in having these algorithms if they can’t be fully employed in a wearable device.

He also says the problem in hearing aids is much more complex than, for example, those solutions found in noise-cancelling headphones. “Over time, [we’ve had] very ambitious people with a lot of ideas on what we should do with this powerful processing. What’s really exciting is not just having this technology, but also having a learning platform to be able to develop it. I think one of the most interesting parts of development is that the goal, at the end of the day, really isn’t about perfect noise removal. You need noise in your life. We have demos we can run that more or less perfectly remove noise…and it just creates sort of a weird environment. So, I think in many cases, the unique aspect of what we’re doing revolves around how do we use [the research] and how do we invent some truly novel ideas? Obviously, it’s not only about noise removal, but how we can use the powerful processing specifically in these hearing aids to make hearing aids really good for the purpose of listening. That subtlety is where we feel like we can really differentiate ourselves and truly make a difference in people’s lives.”

A System that Relies on Professional Care

Song says there has been a patient-centric approach at every turn in the design, development, marketing, and especially distribution of the Whisper Hearing System. And it starts with the hearing care professional’s expertise.

“I think there’s several very important things along that path; the first of which was to work with hearing care professionals who are the ‘artists’ in delivering great care,” Song told HR via a Zoom interview. “If I look at my grandfather’s experience, it was pretty obvious to me that having the right professionals made a huge difference. And so you can talk about using Zoom or you can talk about going direct to consumer, but it’s very, very obvious—even as a Silicon Valley engineer—that the audiologist is extremely important in the process. That’s why we made a decision very early on that we’d be working with professionals. And if you remember, when the company started in 2017, that’s when the OTC laws were getting passed. That’s where all the ‘cool stuff’ was supposed to be. Everyone was saying, ‘Get rid of these professionals!’ …But there’s a care-oriented mindset in hearing healthcare. You can see that there’s a personal aspect [needed] to evaluate what would be good for my grandfather. And when you talk to patients and you talk to audiologists, this becomes very clear. So, I think that was a very early decision that’s not necessarily about the product, per se, but about our business and how we best deliver the hearing system.”

One of the things Whisper also wants to address is the post-purchase feeling of regret that can accompany a high-end, high-technology purchase. As with any car, computer, or consumer electronics device, when a consumer purchases an expensive top-of-the-line hearing aid, there is doubtlessly a more advanced model with new processing capabilities and features that will be launched 6 months later. But, with hearing loss, Song believes that sense of regret can be magnified because hearing is such a personal, important 24/7 activity.

Whisper-hearing-aid-brain
The Whisper Hearing Aid Brain

That led to the idea of a subscription-based system using a machine-learning platform that can be upgraded on regular intervals without continually replacing the actual hearing aid or brain itself. “The nature of our product is that it gets better over time. You don’t need to pay for [the upgrades]; the hearing aid learns on its own, and we’ll also deliver you a software upgrade every few months. [It’s] similar to how you might think of a cell phone plan…Fundamentally, that’s really what we’re trying to offer.”

It’s also important that professionals have the margins and revenues to be able to cover their expenses in order to provide exceptional hearing care, says Song. Whisper plans to provide upfront fees and work with professionals, while offering patients a better way to pay for the product, support, and systems that the company has developed. Currently, a select number of hearing care professionals are using the Whisper Hearing System, and the company is now expanding from this base of dispensing offices.

When asked how he thinks Whisper will change the hearing aid market, Song quickly replied, “I really hope that everybody around the world gets an upgradable hearing aid in the next 5 years. And, of course, I hope it’s ours. We have a lot to offer. But if the market moves toward Whisper in 5 years, then we’re competing with everybody to make the best upgrades. Frankly, I think that’s a big win for the industry. And it’s also a big win for my grandfather, right? I think, as part of that vision, we have to be really mindful about how much we bite off in any of our product development. So this first product represents a first step, especially on the device with this kind of learning capability and working with professionals on this payment model—all of the new things that we’ve already talked about. But there are other aspects around this kind of patient-centric, consumer-centric model with the professional and I think there’s a lot of interactivity that we can build on. There’s a lot of new ideas we have about how to better integrate everything together. And so, more and more, we’ll be able to build that out and address those issues because we’ll have an excellent learning hearing aid on the market.”

Funding for Whisper

The initial investment to establish the company came from Sequoia Capital and First Round Capital, and on Thursday (October 15) Whisper announced the close of a $35 million Series B funding round led by Quiet Capital for total funding of $53 million. Advisors for the company include Mike Vernal of Sequoia and former VP of engineering at Facebook; audiologist Robert Sweetow who is the former UCSF Director of Audiology; Lee Linden of Quiet Capital and founder of TapJoy and Karma; Rob Hayes of First Round which also invested in Uber and Square, and Stewart Bowers, former VP of engineering at Tesla who was responsible for AutoPilot.

“Software-defined hearing technology is the future,” said Vernal in a press statement. “By building the Whisper Hearing System around software, the Whisper team will be able to improve patient care with a device that adapts, upgrades, and improves continuously for the wearer’s benefit. This is the start of a new paradigm for delivering hearing technology, and we’re thrilled to partner with Whisper on this journey.”

“What I look for in a company is the team,” said Hayes. “The Whisper team combines incredible expertise in cutting edge artificial intelligence, software, and hardware with a genuine passion for helping people. I’m excited to work with them to transform the hearing space.”

For more information, visit: https://whisper.ai

https://honiton-hearing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Whisperbrainandear-pieces-1280x640-1.png 640 1280 admin https://honitonnew.leecurran.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/honitonhearinglogo.png admin2020-10-26 10:02:442020-10-26 10:03:21Whisper hearing brain

Sudden Hearing Loss Linked to COVID-19

October 16, 2020/in Ear wax removal Exeter, Earwax removal, News /by admin

‘BMJ’ Publishes ‘First Reported UK Case’ of Sudden Hearing Loss Linked to COVID-19

Although uncommon, sudden permanent hearing loss seems to be linked to COVID-19 infection in some people, warn doctors, reporting the first UK case in the journal BMJ Case Reports. An article summarising the results appears on the EurekAlert website.

Awareness of this possible side effect is important, because a prompt course of steroid treatment can reverse this disabling condition, they emphasize.

Related article: COVID-19 May Damage Hearing Cell Function, Study Shows

Sudden hearing loss is frequently seen by ear, nose, and throat specialists, with around 5-160 cases per 100,000 people reported every year. It’s not clear what the causes are, but the condition can follow a viral infection, such as flu, herpes, or cytomegalovirus.

Despite plenty of published research on sudden onset hearing loss, only a handful of other cases associated with COVID-19 have been reported, and none in the UK—until now.

The doctors describe a case of a 45-year-old man with asthma who was referred to the ear, nose, and throat department at their hospital after suddenly experiencing hearing loss in one ear while being treated for COVID-19 infection as an inpatient.

He had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 symptoms which had been going on for 10 days. He was transferred to intensive care as he was struggling to breathe.

He was put on a ventilator for 30 days and developed other complications as a result. He was treated with remdesivir, intravenous steroids, and a blood transfusion after which he started to get better.

But a week after the breathing tube was removed and he left intensive care, he noticed ringing (tinnitus) in his left ear followed by sudden hearing loss in that ear.

He had not lost his hearing or had ear problems before. And apart from asthma, he was otherwise fit and well.

Examination of his ear canals revealed that he had no blockages or inflammation. But a hearing test showed that he had substantially lost his hearing in the left ear. He was treated with steroid tablets and injections after which his hearing partially recovered.

He tested negative for other potential causes, including rheumatoid arthritis, flu, and HIV, prompting his doctors to conclude that his hearing loss was associated with COVID-19 infection.

“Despite the considerable literature on COVID-19 and the various symptoms associated with the virus, there is a lack of discussion on the relationship between COVID-19 and hearing,” say the report authors. “Hearing loss and tinnitus are symptoms that have been seen in patients with both COVID-19 and influenza virus, but have not been highlighted.”

The first case of hearing loss mentioning COVID-19 alone was reported in April this year.

SARS-CoV-2, the virus responsible for COVID-19, is thought to lock on to a particular type of cell lining the lungs. And the virus has also recently been found in similar cells lining the middle ear, explain the report authors. SARS-CoV-2 also generates an inflammatory response and an increase in the chemicals that have been linked to hearing loss.

“This is the first reported case of sensorineural hearing loss following COVID-19 infection in the UK,” write the report authors. “Given the widespread presence of the virus in the population and the significant morbidity of hearing loss, it is important to investigate this further.”

They add: “This is especially true given the need to promptly identify and treat the hearing loss and the current difficulty in accessing medical services.”

Doctors should ask patients in intensive care about hearing loss and refer them for urgent treatment, they advise.

Original Paper: Koumpa FS, Forde CT, Manjaly JG. Sudden irreversible hearing loss post COVID-19. BMJ Case Reports. 2020;13(11):e238419.

Source: EurekAlert, BMJ Case Reports

https://honiton-hearing.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Honiton-hearing-near-Exeter-.jpg 640 1280 admin https://honitonnew.leecurran.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/honitonhearinglogo.png admin2020-10-16 11:44:412020-10-16 11:45:43Sudden Hearing Loss Linked to COVID-19

Hearing Speech Requires Quiet

October 5, 2020/in Devon Ear syringing centre, News /by admin

Hearing Speech Requires Quiet—In More Ways than One

   

Hearing Speech Requires Quiet—In More Ways than One

 

A very interesting paper by:

 Kim Krieger, Research Writer, University of Connecticut

Perceiving speech requires quieting certain types of brain cells, report a team of researchers from UConn Health and University of Rochester in an upcoming issue of the Journal of Neurophysiology. Their research reveals a previously unknown population of brain cells, and opens up a new way of understanding how the brain hears, according to an article on the UConn Today website.

Your brain is never silent. Brain cells, known as neurons, constantly chatter. When a neuron gets excited, it fires up and chatters louder. Following the analogy further, a neuron at maximum excitement could be said to shout. When a friend says your name, your ears signal cells in the middle of the brain. Those cells are attuned to something called the amplitude modulation frequency. That’s the frequency at which the amplitude, or volume, of the sound changes over time.

Amplitude modulation is very important to human speech. It carries a lot of the meaning. If the amplitude modulation patterns are muffled, speech becomes much harder to understand. Researchers have known there are groups of neurons keenly attuned to specific frequency ranges of amplitude modulation; such a group of neurons might focus on sounds with amplitude modulation frequencies around 32 Hertz (Hz), or 64 Hz, or 128 Hz, or some other frequencies within the range of human hearing. But many previous studies of the brain had shown that populations of neurons exposed to specific amplitude modulated sounds would get excited in seemingly disorganised patterns. The responses could seem like a raucous jumble, not the organized and predictable patterns you would expect if the theory, of specific neurons attuned to specific amplitude modulation frequencies, was the whole story.

Related article: Psychoacoustics: Auditory Perception in Normal and Impaired Hearing: Interview with Jennifer Lentz, PhD

UConn Health neuroscientists Duck O. Kim and Shigeyuki Kuwada passionately wanted to figure out the real story. Kuwada had made many contributions to science’s understanding of binaural (two-eared) hearing, beginning in the 1970s. Binaural hearing is essential to how we localise where a sound is coming from. Kuwada (or Shig, as his colleagues called him) and Kim, both professors in the School of Medicine, began collaborating in 2005 on how neural processing of amplitude modulation influences the way we recognise speech. They had a lot of experience studying individual neurons in the brain, and, together with Laurel Carney at the University of Rochester, they came up with an ambitious plan: they would systematically probe how every single neuron in a specific part of the brain reacted to a certain sound when that sound was amplitude modulated, and when it was not. They studied isolated single-neuron responses of 105 neurons in the inferior colliculus (a part of the brainstem) and 30 neurons in the medial geniculate body (a part of the thalamus) of rabbits. The study took them two hours a day, every day, over a period of years to get the data they needed.

While they were writing up their results, Shig became ill with cancer. But still he persisted in the research. And after years of painstaking measurement, all three of the researchers were amazed at the results of their analysis: there was a hitherto unknown population of neurons that did the exact opposite of what the conventional wisdom predicted. Instead of getting excited when they heard certain amplitude modulated frequencies, they quieted down. The more the sound was amplitude modulated in a specific modulation frequency, the quieter they got.

It was particularly intriguing because the visual system of the brain has long been understood to operate in a similar way. One population of visual neurons (called the “ON” neurons) gets excited by certain visual stimuli while, at the same time, another population of neurons (called the “OFF” neurons) gets suppressed.

Last year, when Shig was dying, Kim made him a promise.

“In the final days of Shig, I indicated to him and his family that I will put my full effort toward having our joint research results published. I feel relieved now that it is accomplished,” Kim says. The new findings could be particularly helpful for people who have lost their ability to hear and understand spoken words. If they can be offered therapy with an implant that stimulates brain cells directly, it could try to match the natural behavior of the hearing brain.

“It should not excite every neuron; it should try to match how the brain responds to sounds, with some neurons excited and others suppressed,” Kim says.

The research was funding by the National Institutes of Health.

Original Paper: Kim DO, Carney LH, Kuwada S. Amplitude modulation transfer functions reveal opposing populations within both the inferior colliculus and medial geniculate body. Journal of Neurophysiology. 2020. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1152/jn.00279.2020.

Source: UConn Today, Journal of Neurophysiology

Image: UConn Today, Duck Kim

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Exeter, Exmouth, Lyme Regis Bridport,Taunton, Wellington Tiverton, Honiton, Sidmouth, Ottery St Mary, Sidford, Axminster, Charmouth, Horton, Ilminster,Dunkeswell, East Budleigh, Sudbury, Branscombe, Beer, Seaton,Whimple, Clyst Honiton, Topsham, West Hill, Fairmile, Culmstock, Wiveliscombe, Dulverton, Bampton, Oakfordbridge, Morebath,Rackenford, Cove, Catworthy, Norton Fitzwarren, White Ball, Huntsham, Milverton, Bishops Lydeard, Chard, Beaminster, Crewkerne, South Petherton, Tytherleigh

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01404 47070 or 01884 255722

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