New Atlas

Medical Audio available

Treating brain inflammation could help silence tinnitus

Michael Irving June 18, 2019

Research led by the University of Arizona may have uncovered a new potential treatment target for tinnitus – not the ears but within the brain itself. The study suggests that neuroinflammation is to blame, and could be a new way to fix the problem.

Inflammation in the brain could be a new drug target for treating tinnitus

Health & Wellbeing Audio available

Regrowing hair cells to reverse hearing loss sounds good to us

Michael Irving October 16, 2018

Once we lose the sensory hair cells in the cochlea, they’re gone for good. But now researchers have found a way to regrow them in mice, potentially paving the way for more effective hearing loss treatments in humans.

Researchers have found a way to regrow sensory hair cells in the ear to potentially reverse ...

Biology

Discovery of new neurons in the ear could lead to treatments for tinnitus

Michael Irving September 12, 2018

A team of Swedish researchers have discovered three new types of neurons, which help carry auditory signals from the ear to the brain and may hold the secrets to treating hearing disorders like tinnitus.

New types of neurons have been found in the auditory system

Health & Wellbeing

UCLA smartphone app translates meanings of your baby’s cries

Rich Haridy May 22, 2018

As any new parent will quickly confirm, the sound of a crying baby can communicate a multitude of things, from "I'm hungry", to "I'm in pain". A team at UCLA has now developed an innovative app that can identify when a baby is crying and help decode what they're trying to communicate.

Ariana Anderson, PhD, is an assistant professor in residence at UCLA Semel Institute and a mother ...

Wearables

Audiologist-grade IQBuds Boost: Intelligent hearing aid tech in Bluetooth earbuds

Loz Blain March 8, 2018

A small Australian company is hoping to blow multi-thousand-dollar prescription hearing aids out of the water. This US$449 pair of over-the-counter, Bluetooth hearing augmentation earbuds can test and adjust to your hearing, connect to your phone, and separate voices from background noise.

Nuheara IQbuds Boost bring hearing aid technology into Bluetooth hearing augmentation earbuds

Medical

Tinnitus reduced or even eliminated by device that resets brain activity

Loz Blain January 7, 2018

This device could be what millions of people worldwide have been waiting for – an effective treatment for tinnitus. Human trials have shown precisely timed sounds and weak electrical pulses delivered by the device can reduce or even eliminate that ringing in your ears.

Chris Chang tests the tinnitus treatment device

Robotics

3D-printable robot arm is a sign language interpreter

Michael Irving August 18, 2017

A team from the University of Antwerp is developing a robotic sign language interpreter. The first version of the robot hand, named Project Aslan, is mostly 3D-printed and can translate text into fingerspelling gestures.

Project Aslan is a robot hand that can translate text into sign language

Computers

Oxford's lip-reading AI outperforms humans

Nick Lavars March 17, 2017

Lip-reading is an inexact science, with motoring mouths making it hard to attribute sounds to each individual movement. Computer scientists at Oxford University have teamed up with Google's DeepMind to develop artificial intelligence that might give the hearing impaired a helping hand.

Some say only 30 percent of all speech is visible on the lips

Wearables

SignLanguageGlove gives voice to hearing and speech impaired

Nick Lavars October 1, 2015

In an effort to further open the lines of communication for people with hearing and speech disabilities, a university student in London is developing a smart glove that converts sign language into text and spoken dialogue.

The SignLanguageGlove features a handful of sensors to convert hand and finger movements into text and ...

Good Thinking

Apps help deaf cinema-goers hear movies

Ben Coxworth June 1, 2015

For people with limited hearing, understanding movies or plays can be challenging. That's why engineers at Germany's Fraunhofer Institute for Digital Media Technolgy have developed a system that streams audio from the stage or screen to the user's earphone-equipped smartphone.