Creating a different kind of hearing aid for my dad.

[esuus]

Hey Guys,
I have no idea about electronics whatsoever, so I'm writing you here to just get your rough opinion on this idea of mine, just so that I can see whether I should pursue it or not. Or maybe you have a smarter solution. I really hope you guys can help me even though I probably don't have the knowledge/topic to post in this forum. I'm just trying to help my dad.

So the problem is, that my dad doesn't hear well anymore, and particularily not if there is any noise around him. That's really sad, because he's an incredibly smart guy and he currently can't participate in most conversations anymore. No hearing aid has worked and he's tried many - none of them manage to block the noise while letting through the voices he wants to hear.

So my idea was to simply give everybody in the conversation with him (e.g. sitting around a table in a restaurant) bluetooth headsets, give him headphones (maybe noise cancelling ones), which are connected to some sort of portable receiver that manages to receive all of the headset signals, and output it as audio.

Since I can buy headphones and headsets everywhere, my obvious question is: how difficult would it be to obtain such a receiver? Do you think it may already exist, and I can just buy it somewhere? Or may it be possible to construct one, if I find somebody skilled to do it for me? In both cases, how much would it cost roughly?

Or do you have a more elegant/affordable solution for this problem?

Would really really appreciate your ideas and inputs!

Best,
David

 

[BobK]

This is an interesting idea. I could not find any thing using bluetooth, but I found receivers that can handle multiple microphones that are made for stage performers. Like this:

http://www.zzounds.com/item--SHUPG14PG185

If I am reading it correctly, the receiver can handle up to 8 transmitters.

Bob

 

[CocaCola]

There are bluetooth hubs, here is one that supports 5 devices...

www.callpod.com

There are likely others, you will need to just search them out...

 

[BobK]

Coca Cola,

Are you sure that is the right link? All I see is something that allows you to charge 6 devices at once, not combine multiple audio signals.

Bob

 

[CocaCola]

Interesting they might have discontinued it from their product lineup...

http://www.callpod.com/products/phoenix

 

[BobK]

That looks like exactly what OP is looking for! If it is discontinued that would be a shame.

Bob

 

[dssteven]

The difficult thing with that phoenix system is that it may not be noise cancelling. I'm not sure what it costs but it looks pretty expensive and if you want noise cancellation you may have to take one of the headsets apart and put the speaker and such into some noise cancellation headphones. Just a warning before you get too excited. But it does look like it would work with a little tweaking!

 

[CocaCola]

The difficult thing with that phoenix system is that it may not be noise cancelling. I'm not sure what it costs but it looks pretty expensive and if you want noise cancellation you may have to take one of the headsets apart and put the speaker and such into some noise cancellation headphones. Just a warning before you get too excited. But it does look like it would work with a little tweaking!

I doubt it's much of an issue since the product appears to have gone extinct, but to get noise cancelling you would simply pair it up with the headset of your choice and not use the included ones... Page 5 of the demo indicates it will pair up with any standard Bluetooth headset...

I'm sure if one was to dig deep enough there are similar products out there...