From IEEE Spectrum, August 27:
Starkey's AI Transforms Hearing Aids Into Smart Wearables
Starkey's new Livio AI hearing aid translates 27 languages in real-time and also doubles as a hands-free earpiece
Today, Starkey Hearing Technologies unveiled an AI-powered hearing aid that fits snugly into your ear, automatically translates foreign languages, and tracks both your physical and mental health.
With the new device, Starkey aims to overcome the stigma of hearing aids as medical devices for old folks rather than wearables for the tech-savvy crowd. The company promotes its Livio AI hearing aid as a multifunctional device that combines features from wireless headsets, fitness trackers and health apps, and language translation programs.Starkey's former President was recently convicted of embezzling $20 million from the company while the founder seems a bit of a flake. From Forbes, July 7
Pitching it as a smart wearable could encourage more people with hearing loss to consider hearing aids at a time when most of the 466 million people worldwide who live with disabling hearing loss do not use hearing aids because of the relatively high cost and social stigma.
“What we want to do is make hearing aids cool,” says Brandon Sawalich, president of Starkey. “It’s not about hearing loss, it’s about hearing gain.”
That vision is what attracted Achin Bhowmik, chief technology officer of Starkey, to leave his executive career at tech giant Intel and join forces with the Midwestern hearing aid company headquartered in Eden Prairie, Minnesota about a year ago.
Amid all the extra features, the Livio AI hearing aid still fulfills its core function. It uses a combination of directional microphones and machine learning algorithms to classify the wearer’s listening environment: chatting outside in a backyard surrounded by natural sounds, having a conversation in a loud restaurant, or listening to music at a concert. The hearing aid then adjusts to the best listening mode for the wearer’s acoustic conditions.
A near-field magnetic induction system provides a wireless link between the hearing aids worn in each ear, which enables the system to seamlessly balance user adjustments to volume or listening environment mode. The ear-to-ear link also enables binaural audio signal processing, which can enhance the wearer’s ability to hear speech in a noisy environment. For example, the hearing aid system may choose to amplify the voice of the person standing directly in front of the wearer....MORE
Bill Austin: The runaway billionaire
Bill Austin built a fortune from medical devices, then set out on a crusade to help the poor hear. But while he was off hanging with movie stars and rock gods, his company descended into a cesspool of fraud, embezzlement and betrayal. A cautionary tale of a second act to do good--gone woefully bad
Red carpets are rare in St Paul, Minnesota. But last summer, Ben Affleck, Caitlyn Jenner, the first lady of Zambia and 1,500 other do-gooders filed into the Saint Paul RiverCentre to raise money for people in countries like Malaysia, Ghana and El Salvador to get hearing aids. Aerosmith’s Steven Tyler performed ‘Dream On’, but the gala’s ringleader, no doubt, was the billionaire Bill Austin. From under a cloud of white hair, Austin stood onstage, grinning, and thanked his fourth wife, Tani: “You have lifted me higher. You have allowed me to be part of a greater gift, to touch more lives than I ever could alone.”
Over the past 50 years, Austin has built an estimated $1.6 billion fortune with Starkey Hearing Technologies, expanding a small shop into the largest hearing-aid manufacturer in the US, with estimated revenues of some $850 million. He succeeded by working to create—and sell—innovative products like his customised in-the-ear hearing aids. Some of the planet’s most visible people—including five US presidents, two popes and Mother Teresa—were Starkey customers.
But Austin’s new ambitions are even loftier: To help the world’s poor hear. Over the past dozen years, he has traveled roughly 25 days a month with his nonprofit, the Starkey Hearing Foundation, handing out hearing aids to the penniless, a quest he says is directed by God. It’s a worthy goal: Around 466 million people worldwide suffer from disabling hearing loss. It’s also a way for the 76-year-old Starkey CEO to transform himself from a pedestrian midwestern medical-device maker into a cosmopolitan, world-improving type of billionaire....MUCH MORE
