Dutch team develops 'hearing-glasses'
From: EE Times - 04/11/2006
By: Peter Clarke

A Dutch company has launched a hearing aid in the form of a pair of glasses. 

The "hearing-glasses", like the company, are called Varibel. To capture and
relay sound to the ears microphones, signal processing and miniature speakers
are contained in the arms of the frames. 

Multiple microphones sited in the arms of the Varibel hearing-glasses provide
tunable directionality so that it has a preferred direction of sensitivity,
tuned to be forward facing. In this way the hearing aid increases the sound
from a conversation ahead of the user but reduces background noises.  

In each arm of the frame there is a row of four interconnected microphones. 

Read the entire article at:
http://www.eetimes.com/news/design/technology/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=185300148&pgno=1

Links:
New Dutch invention: Varibel, glasses that hear
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-04/duot-ndi040706.php
http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?newsid=41243
http://www.physorg.com/news63632657.html
http://www.medgadget.com/archives/2006/04/varibel_the_gla.html
http://pda.physorg.com/lofi-news-people-hearing-varibel_63632657.html
http://www.4hearingloss.com/archives/2006/04/varibel_the_gla.html
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/medicine_health/report-57708.html

Varibel Hearing-Aid Glasses Integrate Eight Directional Microphones
http://hearingmojo.com/blog-mt/blog-mt/2006/04/varibel_hearingaid_glasses_dou.html

Glasses that hear well
http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=210
http://www.vetrend.com/?p=42
http://www.primidi.com/2006/04/09.html

New Glasses Double as Hearing Aids
http://www.livescience.com/technology/060407_veribel.html

Varibel website in Dutch:
http://www.varibel.nl/site/home/

