Cochlear Launches New Made for iPhone Hearing Implant in Partnership With Apple

[MacRumors]

As was announced back in July, Apple partnered with Australian company Cochlear to develop the Nucleus 7, the first made for iPhone Cochlear implant, which is able to stream audio from a compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch directly to a surgically embedded sound processor.

Cochlear's new Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is launching in Australia this week, and should soon also be available in other countries for customers who have profound hearing loss that can't be alleviated with traditional hearing aids and requires implant technology.

Apple's accessibility engineering team worked with Cochlear to create a new form of Bluetooth low-energy audio that allows the implant to connect to the iPhone without draining significant amounts of battery life. Through an iPhone connection, patients who adopt the Nucleus 7 implant will be able to watch movies, listen to music, make calls, and more.

In a comment to The Australian about the launch of the Nucleus 7 from Cochlear, Apple director of accessibility Sarah Herrlinger said the Cochlear project is something Apple is "passionate about." Creating the Bluetooth improvements and developing integrations across multiple companies with hearing aid products took two to three years to complete, says Herrlinger.

"It's something that we are really passionate about as a company," she said. "We consider it one of our core corporate values, an area where we put significant amount of time and energy ensuring our products work for everyone.

"We started looking at this program around the concept of Bluetooth LE and how it would be a beneficial tool in this specific circumstance. The work we have done is applicable both to hearing aids and sound processors."

The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with a wide range of Apple devices, including the iPhone 5 and later, all iPad Pro models, the iPad mini and later, and the fourth-generation iPad and later.

Article Link: Cochlear Launches New Made for iPhone Hearing Implant in Partnership With Apple

 

[Royalgem]

As was announced back in July, Apple partnered with Australian company Cochlear to develop the Nucleus 7, the first made for iPhone Cochlear implant, which is able to stream audio from a compatible iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch directly to a surgically embedded sound processor.

Cochlear's new Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is launching in Australia this week, and should soon also be available in other countries for customers who have profound hearing loss that can't be alleviated with traditional hearing aids and requires implant technology.

Apple's accessibility engineering team worked with Cochlear to create a new form of Bluetooth low-energy audio that allows the implant to connect to the iPhone without draining significant amounts of battery life. Through an iPhone connection, patients who adopt the Nucleus 7 implant will be able to watch movies, listen to music, make calls, and more.

In a comment to The Australian about the launch of the Nucleus 7 from Cochlear, Apple director of accessibility Sarah Herrlinger said the Cochlear project is something Apple is "passionate about." Creating the Bluetooth improvements and developing integrations across multiple companies with hearing aid products took two to three years to complete, says Herrlinger.The Nucleus 7 Sound Processor is compatible with a wide range of Apple devices, including the iPhone 5 and later, all iPad Pro models, the iPad mini and later, and the fourth-generation iPad and later.

Article Link: Cochlear Launches New Made for iPhone Hearing Implant in Partnership With Apple

[doublepost=1508982281][/doublepost]Hello! I already have the new Nucleus 7 processors on both of my ears. Wow! This is the greatest technology made for a deaf person. Using my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad work excellent to make calls or listen to music and videos!

So appreciative to Cochlear and there engineers for all there hard work.

Jose
South Texas

 

[Maclver]

[doublepost=1508982281][/doublepost]Hello! I already have the new Nucleus 7 processors on both of my ears. Wow! This is the greatest technology made for a deaf person. Using my iPhone 7 Plus and iPad work excellent to make calls or listen to music and videos!

So appreciative to Cochlear and there engineers for all there hard work.

Jose
South Texas

That’s cool, how did you get it before it was released?

 

[Royalgem]

That’s cool, how did you get it before it was released?

[doublepost=1508983208][/doublepost]I was told in July that it was going to be released in September. I got it activated in October. Not sure if different areas or countries have different release dates. Got it done in Houston Texas.

 

[cloudness]

Here's waiting for Apple to redesign the hearing aids as they did with the wireless earphones in a truly unobstrusive easy-to-use fashionable way.

 

[fullauto]

What an awesome partnership.

 

[Clix Pix]

Cochlear is a worldwide company and I believe they began providing this in the US earlier than in Australia or other countries. They are known for their cochlear implants and also for their pioneering work in bone conduction technology as well -- another kind of implant, the Bone Anchored Hearing Aid (BAHA). I've been a BAHA user since 2001 and this was truly life-enhancing for me. BAHA users can also utilize BT technology with the latest BAHA sound processors and an iPhone or iPad in order to enjoy music, etc. Amazing stuff!

 

[JosephAW]

Be interesting to hear what Rush has to say about this since he has an implant.

 

[RickDR]

Be interesting to hear what Rush has to say about this since he has an implant.

Who?

 

[springsup]

Now for the Beats edition...

 

[macsba]

Be interesting to hear what Rush has to say about this since he has an implant.

Regardless of one thinks of Rush, his testimony on the Cochlear implant is needed. He is not a person who gives praise but he’s been giving good remarks on his implant. I wonder if he will try this new method. He does like Apple products.

 

[Captfxk]

Regardless of one thinks of Rush, his testimony on the Cochlear implant is needed. He is not a person who gives praise but he’s been giving good remarks on his implant. I wonder if he will try this new method. He does like Apple products.

I am a regular listener. He is the one who got me into Apple, years ago.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Can anybody recommend a MFi bicros hearing aid?

In case I’m using the wrong description, this set-up is for a person (my mom) deaf in one ear, where the signal from the deaf side is pumped over and into the non deaf side.

Before MFi, she had several bicros units and when she decided to try MFi there were only two makers (neither with bicros) who were MFi certified (as I recall). She tried Starkey and it had a great app and both app (app had a great patented feature that noted ground speed and automatically switched a car filter on/off) and device worked flawlessly but lacked the amplification power she needed.

She went with a competitors unit (only MFi unit with high amplification) and has had to have monthly visits to her audiologist for tuning and adjustment, lots of automatic pairing/unpairing issues, breakage of plastic components in the outer shell, failure of internal components.

Additionally, the device worked poorly with the live listen function in the iPhone. Whether this lack of optimal performance here was related to this manufacturer having a a) peripheral device that could be placed on a table or clipped on a person, and b) a Bluetooth/HDMI device that could be plugged into a TV is unknown to me. (I saw thes peripherals as potentially useful but kinda fiddle and easily lost or forgotten.)

Keep in mind, my mom treats her hearing aids like they are Crown Jewels (they/it cost about 5k$) and typically gave 5 years of service from several sets over 30 years.

There is still a short warranty remaining and we were thinking of pressing for a refund in light of the poor performance.

There are now many manufacturers certified to MFi and if anybody, with similar needs as my mom, can recommend any if the following I would be grateful:
1. Hi amp bicros solution
2. Hi amp single ear solution
3. Either of above also including a channel from mic in hearing aid back to the iPhone. (So she doesn’t always have to tote the phone around the room as she phones.)

 

[TheRealTVGuy]

So much Passion. So much Courage. So few words used in official Apple press releases and interviews.

 

[AlphaHumanus]

This is pretty cool. I’m progressively losing my hearing, and the tech available these days makes it so much less scary.

 

[Clix Pix]

Can anybody recommend a MFi bicros hearing aid?

In case I’m using the wrong description, this set-up is for a person (my mom) deaf in one ear, where the signal from the deaf side is pumped over and into the non deaf side.

Before MFi, she had several bicros units and when she decided to try MFi there were only two makers (neither with bicros) who were MFi certified (as I recall). She tried Starkey and it had a great app and both app (app had a great patented feature that noted ground speed and automatically switched a car filter on/off) and device worked flawlessly but lacked the amplification power she needed.

She went with a competitors unit (only MFi unit with high amplification) and has had to have monthly visits to her audiologist for tuning and adjustment, lots of automatic pairing/unpairing issues, breakage of plastic components in the outer shell, failure of internal components.

Additionally, the device worked poorly with the live listen function in the iPhone. Whether this lack of optimal performance here was related to this manufacturer having a a) peripheral device that could be placed on a table or clipped on a person, and b) a Bluetooth/HDMI device that could be plugged into a TV is unknown to me. (I saw thes peripherals as potentially useful but kinda fiddle and easily lost or forgotten.)

Keep in mind, my mom treats her hearing aids like they are Crown Jewels (they/it cost about 5k$) and typically gave 5 years of service from several sets over 30 years.

There is still a short warranty remaining and we were thinking of pressing for a refund in light of the poor performance.

There are now many manufacturers certified to MFi and if anybody, with similar needs as my mom, can recommend any if the following I would be grateful:
1. Hi amp bicros solution
2. Hi amp single ear solution
3. Either of above also including a channel from mic in hearing aid back to the iPhone. (So she doesn’t always have to tote the phone around the room as she phones.)

Actually.......your mother may be a candidate for a BAHA, as one of its uses is for single-sided deafness. You might want to check with her audiologist or take a look online at the Cochlear website: http://www.cochlear.com and in particular at the information about the BAHA 5 System. I think on the website they also have a listing of where there would be an audiology clinic in your area which would have more information and where she could be evaluated. There are others who also make similar sound processors, such as Oticon and its Ponto System. I've only ever used the BAHA, having begun with it when the company was still called Entific, back in the early 2000s. At some point they merged and became Cochlear, which is fine except that the name can cause confusion -- they do make more than cochlear implants. The BAHA system is also an implant, whereby a tiny screw is implanted in the mastoid bone and then the sound processor snaps on to it via another screw called the "abutment." This works for people who have conductive hearing loss, who have single-sided deafness and other similar conditions that can benefit from the system.
[doublepost=1509031433][/doublepost]

Here's waiting for Apple to redesign the hearing aids as they did with the wireless earphones in a truly unobstrusive easy-to-use fashionable way.

Something that needs to be clarified here is that Apple is not getting into the hearing aid / cochlear implant / sound processor business..... What they have done is found a way to successfully utilize BlueTooth technology so that people who are using cochlear implants can now more easily safely and wirelessly enjoy listening to music and TV, phone, etc. People who use the BAHA 5 System sound processors from the same company already can utilize this technology on their somewhat different devices. Due to the design of the cochlear implant, there would have been different challenges in working with BT. Someone with either a BAHA or a cochlear implant would still use his or her device(s) in the way that they were intended, for everyday hearing, but now also can benefit from BT technology the way others do -- its a big deal, really, for those of us in the hearing-impaired community. I don't have BAHA 5 sound processors yet, but one of the things I'm most looking forward to is being able to use BT in the car, listen to my music from my iPhone or iPad wirelessly, etc. without needing to slip on a pair of BT wireless headphones. (Right now I use bone conduction BT wireless headphones made by AfterShokz -- they're great -- but it will be nice not to have to put headphones on at all.)