Technology

Digital Hearing Aid – Destiny

US–based global hearing solutions company, Starkey, would enter the Indian market with its digital hearing aid called ‘Destiny’ by November this year. The aid is specifically targeted at children.

Till then, it is involved in distributing ‘Destiny’ to thousands of children as a part of its CSR activity. Says Dr Girija Sundar, Director of Business Development, Starkey, “the USP of this product is that it brings down the ‘whistle effect’ dramatically. The effect is cut down with the help of active feedback interrupt. Also, it has a directional microphone that accepts telephonic sound without the distortion.” In this era of digitization, the company feels that the market is apt. “About 92 per cent hearing aids sold in the US are digital,” informs Sundar.

Costing between Rs 10,000 – Rs 50,000, the shelf life of the product would be four to seven years in India. The product is re–programmable and can be re–used.

However, the biggest concern is that there are not many qualified audiologists in India and hence awareness is low. Said Rohit Misra, Managing Director, Starkey “compared to the Western countries, the number of qualified audiologists is abysmally low. We have just around 1,200 professionals for a country of billion people. Hence, awareness needs to be stepped up.”

In a panel discussion, organised by Starkey, the issues, problems and challenges faced by the hearing impaired were also raised. Commenting on the increasing vulnerability of the youth, Dr Prashant Kamble, Audiologist, Wockhardt Hospital, Mumbai, cautioned, “Listening to I–pods, playing video games and exposure to loud music in discos are common today. Little do they realize about the significant impact it can have on their hearing.” On the same ground, agreed Dr R Oza, Audiologist and HOD, Nanavati Hospital, Mumbai, “There are many aspiring youngsters who come for the audiometric test which is mandatory for being a pilot, but at least 20 per cent of them fail this test.”

Source: ‘Destiny’ a New Digital Aid for Indian Market by Starkey. The Indian Express, New Delhi.

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Software for the blind

Screen readers: Screen reader software like Job Access With Speech (www.freedomscientific.com/fs_products/software_jaws.asp) read out aloud everything that is on the monitor, thus ensuring effective computer navigation. JAWS is probably one of the more robust solutions available for screen reading, though at $1,000 (approx Rs 39,590) it’s probably also the most expensive.

There are other cheaper options such as Screen Access For All (safa.sourceforge.net) which comes with a free basic version and an Indian language patch called Vachak.

OCR software: To read printed paper, you can use a scanner and an optical character recognition (OCR) software. All you need to do is, scan the printed page and then run it through an OCR software, which will then store a digital version of the copy that you can edit. One such tool is Kurzweil 1000 OCR (blinksoft.biz/products/ocr/ kurzweil.html). It will also let you make a copy into Braille.

Mobile screen readers: To navigate through a mobile phone, Pamnani uses Mobile Speak (www.codefactory.es/mobile_speak/mspeak.htm) ?it reads out everything on your phone.

Audio book readers: There are plenty of audio books available on the internet which can be downloaded and loaded on MP3 players. You can then listen to them at leisure.

Browsing the net and the TV: Lynx browser (lynx.browser.org) edits web pages and displays them in text–only mode. You can then use a screen reader to browse the internet. Likewise, Sara Reading machine is a stand–alone reading machine which you can connect to a TV. It can also magnify printed material.

Braille programs: There are several electronic and mechanical tools that helps students type notes in Braille. Tools like TGD PRO (www.duxburysystems.com/tgd.asp?choice=pro) help in drawing computerized Braille diagrams.

Source: Kavita Kukday. With help from tech, you can make it big anywhere. The Times of India, Mumbai, 21 October 2007.

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