Until now, it has not been feasible to implement Bluetooth directly in hearing aids mainly due to power constraints, thus necessitating a wireless accessory for any communication with cell phones or smart devices. It relays data from the ReSound Control app via the Bluetooth link to the iPhone to provide remote control functionality for wireless ReSound hearing instruments. The ReSound Phone Clip+ is an example of an MFi wireless hearing aid accessory. In order to distribute their app for iOS devices, the manufacturer must join the MFi program and meet Apple certification requirements. The most common function of such an app is to provide remote control of the hearing aids. For this to work, the hearing aid manufacturer writes an app that can be downloaded to the user’s Bluetooth enabled smart device. Data can also be transmitted in both directions, giving the user information about their hearing aids as well as additional ways of interacting with them beyond whatever on-board controls the hearing aids may have. Likewise, most of these accessories also contain a microphone that picks up the user’s voice and transmits it via Bluetooth back to the phone just as a consumer Bluetooth headset would do.Īudio is not the only signal that can be transmitted via Bluetooth. In this way, the wireless accessory can be used to accept the phone signal via 2.4 GHz-based Bluetooth, translate the signal to whatever wireless technology is used by the hearing aids, and relay the signal on to the hearing aids.
Manufacturers need only ensure that their accessory product incorporates a radio operating in the 2.4 GHz band, that it adheres to the Bluetooth standard (the reader is referred to the 5-part “Bluetooth 101” series for background on Bluetooth wireless technology) and that it supports the Bluetooth headset profile. Every hearing aid manufacturer with wireless hearing aid systems has included an accessory that can act as a Bluetooth headset and that can connect to any cell phone with Bluetooth wireless technology, and it is not necessary to join the Apple MFi program to do this.
The first MFi devices to become available were hearing aid accessories that act as a go-between to transfer data and audio content from the iPhone to the hearing aids and back again. These numbers suggest that many hearing aid candidates will find it relevant that their hearing aids can communicate with smart devices regardless of their age. One in five clients over the age of 70 is likely to be a smartphone user and an even greater proportion will have tablets. The other is that a significant percentage of older individuals already own smartphones or tablets. One is simply that ownership of these devices is growing rapidly year over year. It is common to assume that people in this group are non-users of electronic “gadgets.” As an illustration of this in popular culture, the host of an evening talk show recently riffed on the news that hearing aids could now connect to the iPhone, joking “Now, if hearing aid users only knew what an iPhone was.” However, recent data on usage of smartphones and tablets points to two important trends among older individuals. When speaking of hearing aids, these “peripherals” may be accessory devices that communicate with iOS devices, or they may be the hearing aids themselves.ĭoes it matter that hearing aids or hearing aid accessories can connect to smart devices? After all, the majority of hearing aid users and candidates are older individuals.
Manufacturers who join this program are allowed to display related logos on their products. It means that an electronic accessory has been designed to connect specifically to iPhone and has been certified by the developer to meet Apple performance standards.
Recently, a new acronym has begun to make inroads in audiology, or at least in the area of hearing aids: “MFi.” An abbreviation for “Made for iPhone/iPod/iPad,” MFi is a licensing program from Apple for developers of hardware and software peripherals that work with their iOS devices (iOS is the proprietary operating system for Apple devices).
Many are identical to those used in other fields, to the consternation of anyone trying to learn them. Like many technical fields, audiology is rife with acronyms.