14 DAY TRIAL // Hearing loss is something most people fear, but also represents a condition some people have to live with each and every day of their lives. And this is the reason why the Oticon company launched the Oticon Epoq, a hearing instrument meant to solve, with the help of Bluetooth technology, some of the most common problems faced by people with hearing problems: answering the phone and listening to what's happening around them in stereo mode.
According to the company, the Epoq uses the EarStreamT broadband technology and creates some sort of wireless sphere around the users. This enables two Epoq hearing aids to manage auditory information via a central processor, eliminating the uncoordinated shifts in settings that occur with ordinary binaural fittings. The binaurally fitted Epoq hearing instruments are synchronized in the core processing to best preserve the cues for localization and speech segregation. Practically, the person suffering from hearing loss can listen in stereo mode to what's going on around them and can thus integrate more easily in the surrounding environment.
The second important function mentioned above is related to voice communications via the telephone. Thus, with the help of a little device called Streamer, the Oticon Epoq can be changed into hands-free Bluetooth intelligent headset without having to attach bulky devices or wires to the hearing instrument. The Streamer is no bigger than am MP3 player, but it is capable of converting Bluetooth signals into an electromagnetic bit stream that is received directly by the hearing instruments. Practically, all the user has to do is pair the streamer with a Bluetooth-enabled mobile phone, press a button on the streamer and then receive phone calls binaurally through the hearing instruments.
"Epoq allows hearing care professionals to address two distinct needs in one unified hearing solution - the ability to communicate efficiently and effectively with the world of 'near' sounds such as human voice and environmental sounds and with the 'far away' world of electronic communication through devices such as cell phones and MP3 players," said Peer Lauritsen, President of Oticon, Inc. "We finally have a hearing instrument that goes beyond compensation for hearing loss to become a true high tech communications device."
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