Bone Conduction: A revolution for compensating hearing loss?
Hearing is a complex and fascinating sense that allows us to perceive the sounds in our environment and connect with others. While physiological mechanisms of hearing were long poorly understood, research and science advancements have greatly improved our understanding of these mechanisms, leading to therapeutic and technical applications that enhance service and patient satisfaction on a daily basis. This article will provide an overview of a phenomenon that, while well-known and studied in audiology for a long time, remains relatively unknown to the general public: bone conduction hearing.
What is bone conduction?
Traditionally, the public associates hearing with what is known as air conduction transmission, which is the natural transmission of sound vibrations through the ear canal, the middle ear, and then to the inner ear. However, hearing is more complex than it appears and involves another, less well-known auditory mechanism, where sounds take a parallel route to the inner ear via the bones of the skull, bypassing the external and middle parts of the ear.
This is called bone conduction hearing.
These two modes of sound transmission to the ear are complementary and work in parallel.
Although the principle of bone conduction is not new, it has recently become more widely used with innovative technological applications. Beethoven, the famous composer, suffered from hearing loss due to a dysfunction in the middle ear that prevented sounds from reaching his inner ear properly. He used to place a stick, which he held between his teeth, on his piano to perceive the sound vibrations through bone conduction.
Applications and benefits of bone conduction
- Military applications. Bone conduction is commonly used in the military because it offers well-suited advantages. A vibrator is placed near the ear canal, allowing radio instructions to be heard via bone conduction while keeping the ear and ear canal open and free to perceive the environment.
- Virtual and augmented reality technologies. Similar to its use in the military, some VR and AR headsets also use bone conduction to provide users with an immersive audio experience while maintaining awareness of the real environment.
- Medical field. One major application of bone conduction is in cases of ear malformations or certain pathologies that make it impossible to use external hearing aids or where natural sound transmission to the inner ear is compromised.
Spokeo Innovation - Air and bone dual Sound Transmission
Most hearing aids or assistive listening devices amplify sound and transmit it to the ear via either air conduction or bone conduction. Hearing aids, for example, amplify sound into the ear canal using air conduction. Some Bluetooth headsets use only bone conduction to deliver music to the ear. Spokeo goes further by patenting an exclusive technology for dual air and bone conduction, aiming to stimulate the ear with a richer signal that can bypass any obstructions in the ear, such as earwax, which often makes air conduction solutions alone ineffective.
Raphaël Zakine
Co-founder
