Dynamic Hearing signs agreement with House Ear Institute

Melbourne-based biomedical company Dynamic Hearing has signed an agreement with the House Ear Institute (HEI) to develop and commercialise the US-based non-profit organisation's patented feedback cancellation technology for use in hearing aids and auditory implants.

HEI's technology increases amplification for hearing aid users without the risk of acoustic feedback and distortion in the hearing aid.

"When you have a microphone and an output of a device close together -- like in a hearing aid or a head set -- you can get sounds coming out of the output back into the microphone and they make a squealing sound," said Dynamic Hearing CTO Dr Peter Blamey. "What the feedback canceller does is stop that from happening."

"This technology solves a very irritating, unpleasant problem for hearing impaired people," said Dynamic Hearing CEO Dr Elaine Saunders. "It cancels that whistling sound."

The technology can also be used in middle ear implants and bone-anchored hearing aids, and may allow more comfortable open-air hearing aid fittings to be used without feedback.

The open ear device is one of the latest developments in hearing aids, said Blamey. "Instead of having to wear an ear mould that blocks up the ear, you can have the ear more or less completely open," he said.

In the past, open ear devices have been problematic because sound would come out of the ear and back into the microphone and cause feedback, said Blamey.

"With the feedback canceller you can make sounds loud enough for people and they don't have the discomfort of having that blockage of the ear canal," said Blamey. "The blockage of the ear canal can make some sounds appear to be distorted, like the sound of your own voice. So you also get higher quality sound by doing this."

HEI's feedback cancellation algorithm is adaptive, which allows it to continuously sense the changing conditions in the ear that might produce feedback, and prevents these conditions from occurring. Developed over seven years, HEI's technology is patented in the US and has international patents pending.

Dynamic Hearing was spun out of the CRC for Cochlear Hearing Aid Innovation and develops digital signal processing software for manufacturers to use in devices such as hearing aids, head sets and potentially mobile phones.

HEI has become a shareholder in Dynamic Hearing as part of the exclusive license agreement which runs for five years with an option to renew.

"This is the first time [HEI has] formed an alliance of this kind, in becoming a small shareholder in a company," said Saunders.

HEI's vice president of technology transfer Dr Sig Soli has also been appointed to the Dynamic Hearing's Scientific Advisory Committee.

"We have fairly recently formed this advisory committee and it's comprised of well known, very well credentialed people in the field and he'll be a great addition to that," said Saunders.

HEI's feedback canceller will be incorporated into Dynamic Hearing's AMIS Orela and Gennum Voyageur DSP platforms as part of the company's modular DSP software suite for hearing aids.

"We have a modular framework for our software," said Saunders. "So this is a module in our structure, so we can now add a new option for people who are buying technology from us."

Saunders said that the agreement with HEI and Dynamic Hearing is the beginning of a "terrific ongoing relationship."

"We plan to have an ongoing research and development partnership with [the HEI]," said Blamey.

As a private, non-profit organisation the HEI is "a very public spirited institution", he said, "they're very keen to make sure that their research is actually useful, and it's only useful if it gets out into the market place."