Monday, January 07, 2013

Internet of Senses

as blogged elsewhere, i've recently been upgraded so I now have better eyesight than for a long time due to intra-ocular implants (placcy lenses to you:)
and digital hearing tech - the digital hearing tech is cool - the aids have a 16 band grahpic eq programme you can set - in principle, this can be done "over the air" and also you can stream audio to them so they are the ultimate in-the-ear headphones too:)

however, on a much simpler front. I've been trying to obtain the simplest phone for my 90yr old mum and (as I'd like to not have to wear the hearing aids 24*7) for myself - what I want would have NOTHING but a standard good old fashioned big-button phone interface and handset (corded, not cordless, as finding lost handsets in a 4 story house is already consuming a non-sustainable amount of time) - but as well as big buttons, I'd like a customisable level of EQ/amplification on incoming and outgoing audio levels. the simplest thing would be a tone/gain control on the base of the phone under a sliding flap, which, once set, would be LEFT ALONE....a betterer thing might be a little web service i could access from an app on my cell phone to configure it, and (here's the personalisation bit) a setting to set it to switch to a given audio setting for each detected bluetooth device nearby (so the presence of my phone would switch it to higher gain) - alternatively (and even betterrerer, and as well as) would be to use speaker recognition to switch gain level up (e.g. my mum saying "hello, hello, anyone there")

all the phones I can find (e.g. via the action-on-hearing website) that do amplification AND big buttons, also have at least 9 more buttons than necessary, and many require you to click on the "amp" button each time you use the phone (doh!) rather than having a setpoint config, and one time button for exceptions...but my speakerer recog thing would be easy to program up, and I reckon such a phone could be done for <10 p="p" quid="quid">
the fact that it doesn't exist just proves the market in the area for elderly and challenged people is severely broken. severely.

such a phone would actually be nice for anyone if designed right too... ... ..

i suppose i could take apart a cheapoh (argos cheapest) big button phone and put an amp in, and a dsp chip and do the thing myself....but life's too short...

No comments:

Blog Archive

About Me

My photo
misery me, there is a floccipaucinihilipilification (*) of chronsynclastic infundibuli in these parts and I must therefore refer you to frank zappa instead, and go home