History
Most people have heard the name Siemens at some point, they have been around for over a hundred years and have a hand in thousands of products. They first delved into the improvement of hearing in 1902 when they developed the first practical audiometer, (the machine we use to test hearing levels). Prior to this, physicians would use a collection of tuning forks along with a crude series of tests in order to assess a patient’s hearing. Siemens would later, in 1911, develop the first pocket sized, mass marketed hearing aid.
The hearing aid division of Siemens is small by comparison to most of their other product divisions, but it still represents, worldwide, a large portion of the hearing aids sold today.
Recent Developments
More recently, Siemens was among the first to develop a method for waterproofing their hearing intruments. Electronics in general are highly susceptible to water damage and many times simply dropping the hearing aid into a small amount of water could render a hearing aid useless. However, the nano-coating they use keeps this from becoming a problem. As you’ll see in the video inset here, a patient can actuall swim with the hearing aids on and, even more amazingly, listen to music while doing laps of the pool.
Wireless technology is another of the areas where Siemens is putting a lot of their research, and to co-incide with that they have developed transmitters, telephones and several other devices that connect directly to the hearing instruments in order to ensure proper sound transmission.
Siemens is also the only manufacturer who currently offers a system of rechargeable hearing aids.