Bluetooth that doubles as hearing aid!

Source Link - Bluetooth that doubles as hearing aid!

A customer's necessity has led to the mother of all inventions. City-based Nimesh Bhatt, 32, has modified a bluetooth device to also
act as a hearing aid.

A customer with partial hearing impairment approached Bhatt wanting a mobile handset that would make his life easy. The device that Bhatt has invented can help elderly persons who have to otherwise rely on bulky hearing aids.

"Even if they use such aids, they find talking on mobiles difficult as they have to use speaker phones and hearing aids or have to go for wireless devices. But, this device serves dual purpose. It acts as a bluetooth using which they can conduct conversations on a cell phone and also helps amplify sounds enabling them to listen to conversations that are not on the phone," says Bhatt.

He has been working on the device for the past eight months. "While the normal hearing aid operates on 1.2 watts, this device operates on 3.7 watts. Here, the batteries are also rechargeable and need to be charged once a day," he adds.

More music to the ears. The device will help the hearing impaired listen to music downloads on the mobile. The device automatically switches to bluetooth mode when the mobile handset is used to make or receive a call. When the phone gets disconnected, the device automatically acts as a hearing aid.

"The customer who approached me wanted a cell phone with a good speaker phone. He wasn't satisfied with the voice output that the mobile handsets generated. It was then that I realized that there should be a device to help the hearing impaired," says Bhatt, who is a commerce graduate from MS University.