You think its easy to put an earpiece in and take calls from your smartphone. It’s the same when you put on headphones or jump in the car – the audio from your phone just works and you get it where you want it.
Now imagine those same scenarios for someone wearing a Cochlear Implant. This groundbreaking and revolutionary Aussie technology company has been giving people hearing for the first time and restoring hearing to people around the world for years.
However, when a Cochlear Implant recipient wanted to make calls or Facetime their kids or grandkids, they needed a special adaptor that would be the intermediary between the iPhone and the Implant itself.
No More. An upgraded version of the Cochlear implant could revolutionise communications for hundreds of thousands of Australians.
Working with Apple and using a new technology Apple developed and has licensed for free to Cochlear and many other hearing technology companies, Cochlear’s new implant can pair directly with the iPhone.
These “Made for iPhone cochlear implants” use a new low energy Bluetooth to connect directly between the implant and the phone.
This means a recipient can make calls, Facetime, listen to music in stereo, watch videos and even get the navigation from the phone when driving.
One additional use for this technology is something called “Live Listen” which uses the iPhone of the user and if they place it on the table or hand it to someone else, the microphones in the iPhone allow the implant recipient to hear clearly the conversation going on.
