Talking Hearing Loss

On World Hearing Day (3 March), Leon became one of only 9 worldwide winners in this year’s global Ideas for Ears invention competition.

Leon is a bilateral recipient of MED-EL Synchrony EAS Hearing Implant System and a patient at Telethon Speech & Hearing Perth.

On hearing the good news, Leon was at first a little speechless but later said, “I am very happy about winning the contest. I was so shocked that my idea won. I’m so excited about going on a trip to the other side of the world and meeting the people that designed and made the implants I have. It is really amazing that one day my idea might be able to help people with hearing loss like me.”

Leon will be flying off to MED-EL’s Headquarters later in the year.

Leon’s winning entry was a video and drawing of a Bluetooth watch that was able to communicate with hearing implants and change them to various custom settings, such as reducing wind noise when outdoors.

Of it’s many well thought out features was a “Device Locator” app to help find lost processors easily, and a “Wakey Wakey” function which is a “vibrating, flashing alarm to wake you up, but also has a setting that turns your cochlear volume up slowly over 5 minutes” so that users don’t
experience sound shock.

“With one in six Australians currently affected by hearing loss, expected to rise to one in four by 2050, raising awareness of hearing loss and available solutions is something MED-EL is committed to, and competitions like Ideas for Ears are a wonderful way to achieve this goal,” Robyn Shakes, MED-EL Managing Director said.