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From: sinistar@mrcnext.cso.uiuc.edu (Jeff O'Hare)
Newsgroups: comp.dsp
Subject: DSP Hearing Aids?
Message-ID: <1990Oct16.163935.1954@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu>
Date: 16 Oct 90 16:39:35 GMT
Sender: news@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu (News)
Organization: University of Illinois at Urbana
Lines: 11

Hi.  I was wondering if anyone has heard of any dsp hearing aids.  I was think-
ing about it last night, and it seems like it could be a great idea.  Real-time
digital equalization could maybe give users more natural hearing, correcting
the natural degradation of the ear.  I have heard (no pun intended) that hear-
ing loss of high frequences is complete loss.  Is this true, and if so, what
is the approximate rolloff rate?  With the DSP, such possibilities as harmon-
ization could be used to lower sounds an octave so higher frequencies could
still be heard, just an octave lower.  Well, has anyone else thought about
this, or seen any made yet?  How about some dsp chips small enough to fit in
a hearing aid?  The 96002 is pretty large I think...
	Jeff